Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?: And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House

by Alyssa Mastromonaco

From the beginning of my career in politics, I had a personally imposed policy about swimming in my lane and not overcommenting on things I wasn’t an expert on. But in this case, I could not take the pontifications of this Ivy-educated gang; they were talking about the limits on what food stamps cover and don’t, and I could just tell none of them knew one person who had ever needed food stamps. I raised my hand (something I think only I did when I wanted to talk) and told them what it was like to see people humiliated in line trying to buy generic cereal, canned soup, milk. To watch them realize what they couldn’t get. To watch them realize how ridiculous it was that sports drinks were covered but something like Sunny Delight—which is actually much cheaper than orange juice but still has a decent amount of vitamins—was not, but that there was nothing they could do. I could feel my face get red and hot. I usually think you start losing your argument when you physically reveal how worked up you are, especially in a place like the White House, where, theoretically, what you say should be based on facts and figures and evidence; if your face is red, aren’t you showing too much emotion? I don’t know, but I got my point across. It wasn’t a conversation intended to resolve or change anything at that moment, but POTUS made it clear he was on my side.