--- title: Donald Trump's Longtime Butler Reveals Mogul’s Quirks description: Donald Trump does his own hair and wears a white cap when he’s in a good mood, his longtime butler has revealed. canonical: https://time.com/4260411/donald-trump-butler/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-15T23:25:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:44:53.269Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump's Longtime Butler Reveals Mogul’s Quirks og:description: You can tell Trump's mood by the color of his hat og:url: https://time.com/4260411/donald-trump-butler/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a7da3b085861370/69888b20cf40a82d27c426a3/donald-trump-butler.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Trump to Turn Old Post Office into International Hotel og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump's Longtime Butler Reveals Mogul’s Quirks twitter:description: You can tell Trump's mood by the color of his hat twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a7da3b085861370/69888b20cf40a82d27c426a3/donald-trump-butler.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump's Longtime Butler Reveals Mogul’s Quirks > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Mar 15, 2016 11:25 PM UTC  Real estate developer Donald Trump listens during a news conference at the Old Post Office Pavilion in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 10, 2013. Real estate developer Donald Trump listens during a news conference at the Old Post Office Pavilion in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 10, 2013. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Mar 15, 2016 11:25 PM UTC [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4260025/super-tuesday-election-voting-ohio-donald-trump/?xid=homepage) does his own hair, likes his steak extremely well done and wears a white cap when he’s in a good mood, [his longtime butler revealed in an interview Tuesday](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/us/politics/donald-trump-butler-mar-a-lago.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&%5Fr=0). Anthony Senecal, who has served the real estate mogul at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. for nearly 30 years, dished on Trump’s quirks in an interview with the New York _Times_. “You can always tell when the king is here,” Senecal, 74, told the newspaper. The Republican presidential front-runner also needs his ego stroked often, according to Senecal, who one time rushed to hire a bugler to play “Hail to the Chief” as Trump stepped out of his limousine after receiving an urgent warning that the boss was in a bad mood. Trump’s staff also learned that if he emerges for the day wearing a red cap, it “was best to stay away,” the _Times_ reports. Senecal, who tried to retire in 2009 but was convinced by Trump to stay on staff as an unofficial historian, also said that the businessman doesn’t like to swim, rarely wears bathing trunks, and has been known to be generous with his groundskeepers—sometimes randomly handing them $100 bills. “You’re a Hispanic and you’re in here trimming the trees and everything, and a guy walks up and hands you a hundred dollars,” Senecal said. “And they love him, not for that, they just love him.” \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/us/politics/donald-trump-butler-mar-a-lago.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&%5Fr=0)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4260411/donald-trump-butler/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4260411/donald-trump-butler/"},"headline":"Donald Trump's Longtime Butler Reveals Mogul’s Quirks","datePublished":"2016-03-15T23:25:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:44:53.269Z","description":"You can tell Trump's mood by the color of his hat","url":"https://time.com/4260411/donald-trump-butler/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a7da3b085861370/69888b20cf40a82d27c426a3/donald-trump-butler.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a7da3b085861370/69888b20cf40a82d27c426a3/donald-trump-butler.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump to Turn Old Post Office into International Hotel","caption":"Trump to Turn Old Post Office into International Hotel","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4260411/donald-trump-butler/","name":"Donald Trump's Longtime Butler Reveals Mogul’s Quirks"}}]}] ```