Regardless of whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris wins the US election – the new presidency will be different than many before. Because – probably – no famous animal will move into the White House. It is known that Trump does not have any animals. And Harris says she likes animals. But she doesn’t have one.
It’s a shame – because, as history shows, pets have always provided entertainment in the White House. They brought life into the place and relaxed the atmosphere.
Hardly a US election without a pet
The longer you look back, the more animals the US presidents had, from George Washington, who owned a donkey and parrots in addition to several dogs, to Thomas Jefferson with his mockingbird and two bear cubs, to Andrew Jackson, whose parrot could curse.
And many still remember Barack Obama when he publicly told his two daughters, then still children, that they were now getting the puppy. Now that dad has been elected president.
When it comes to pets, the most well-known fact about Donald Trump is that he thinks immigrants from Haiti eat dogs and cats, which recently provoked a whole series of funny satirical videos on TikTok. But that’s a completely different story.
Sources: “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, Britannica, stern.de archive, BBC, list of pets in the White House on Wikipedia
