President Donald Trump is raising eyebrows after a Wall Street Journal report revealed he has given his male aides the same pair of black dress shoes that he wears, and they're "afraid not to wear them."
According to the publication, Trump has been handing out leather oxford shoes to staff members, agency heads, lawmakers and other political allies. Trump has even asked Cabinet officials during meetings, “Did you get the shoes?” He reportedly favors pairs from Florsheim, which are relatively inexpensive, with many selling for around $150.
One female White House official said:
"All of the boys have them. It’s hysterical because everybody’s afraid not to wear them.”
The Journal continued:
"The president has taken to guessing people’s shoe size in front of them. He asks an aide to put in an order and, a week later, a brown Florsheim box arrives at the White House. Trump sometimes signs the box or attaches a note of gratitude, according to people familiar with the ritual."
"The 79-year-old billionaire, known for expensive Brioni suits, long red ties and a penchant for aesthetics, late last year began searching for something that would feel better after a day on the job and settled on Florsheim. Trump liked them so much he started dispensing them. He pays for the shoes, the White House said."
An image of Trump's aides indeed wearing the same shoes circulated by way of Miles Taylor, who was the Chief of Staff at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during the first Trump administration.
Taylor, who left the Republican Party in 2020, is a vocal Trump critic who admitted to writing an anonymous op-ed in The New York Times in 2018, claiming to be part of a group working against Trump within his own administration. He said the news about the shoes aides are required to wear is evidence that "We’re officially in the dumbest timeline."
You can see his post and the photo below.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Taylor noted:
"This is such a classic dictator trope — forcing subordinates to copy your style — that I thought it couldn’t possibly be real. Think Mao Zedong and the 'Mao Suit,' or Saddam Hussein and 'The Mustache,' or Joseph Stalin and the 'Generalissimo' outfit."
"But apparently… it is real. Donald Trump reportedly has a footwear fetish. He’s testing the loyalty of his lieutenants by whether they’ll lace up in the same black shoes he wears. And yes, it’s creepy."
You can see his remarks below.
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Trump's White House is definitely a strange place.
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