Last week, President Donald Trump’s annual financial disclosure showed he made more than $1 billion from cryptocurrency ventures in 2025. On Monday, after a reporter asked him a question related to crypto, he eventually pivoted to a colorful anecdote about the nation’s first president.
Trump said George Washington “had two desks in his pre-White House.” He continued: “And they were right next to each other. One was for business and one was for the presidency. He had two desks, in the same room. And so you’re allowed to. But I choose not to. I don’t talk to my kids about, you know, this stuff.”
An interesting story about Washington. Unfortunately, it’s a fictional story about Washington.
Washington did conduct some personal business while he was president, but he didn’t have separate desks for business matters and official matters. Historians debunked the two-desks tale when Trump delivered it more than six years ago; one historian told CNN it was “utter nonsense,” one said it was “an absurd allegation,” and one said, “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
This might be considered a matter of trivia rather than current importance. But Trump told the story to try to fend off pressing concerns about his wealth-building while in office – if the revered first president could have a whole separate desk devoted to business affairs while serving, why can’t this president do big business while serving? And it wasn’t a one-time slip.
