Trump Family Breaks With Presidential Pet Tradition

He campaigned and won vowing to shake up Washington. Now, President Donald Trump is again breaking with tradition on a more personal matter: keeping a pet at the White House.

The illustrious tradition of keeping pets in the White House dates back to Thomas Jefferson, who kept a mockingbird and a couple of bear cubs during his presidency. Throughout the years, presidential pets became celebrities of sorts.

“It softens their image, it broadens their appeal,” Ed Lengel, chief historian at the White House Historical Association, told CNN. “They help create an atmosphere of the White House as a family, a lived-in place and not just a stiff museum, but a place where a family lives and plays and enjoys each other’s company.”

For an image-conscious President, Trump seems to be in little rush to add a furry friend to the White House brood, making his the only first family in modern presidential history without a pet.

“There are no plans at this time” to add a pet to the first family, East Wing communications director Stephanie Grisham told CNN.