WASHINGTON — Sometimes, politics gives way to the personal at the White House.
It has seen 18 weddings and at least 10 people are known to have died there, including two presidents and three first ladies.
It will serve Friday as a place of mourning for President Donald Trump and his family with a private memorial service for the president’s younger brother, Robert, who passed away at 71.
The president has described Robert as not just his brother but his "best friend.” In an interview Monday, Trump said that he believed his brother would have been "greatly honored" to receive a White House funeral.
Anita McBride, who served in three presidential administrations, including as first lady Laura Bush's chief of staff, says it is completely within the president’s ability to honor him with a service there and that the White House serves a complex mission as an office, a museum and a home.
