CNN host flags unusual Trump bathroom preference: 'Nothing grosses the guys out more'

President Donald Trump has adorned the Oval Office with gold trophies, vases, trimming and other ornaments, and the authors of a new book revealed what his aides said was behind his bedazzling spree.

The 80-year-old president has leaned hard into his former career as a real estate developer and hotelier to apply what he describes himself as "Trump touches" to the room's decor, and CNN's John Berman asked New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan what they learned about the White House redecoration while researching their new book, "Regime Change."

"Quick lightning round of things that I found fascinating just in passing," Berman said. "Number one, and the guys all moaned when I mentioned it before. He likes carpeting in his bathrooms?"

Haberman confirmed that was true, and she said restoring bathroom carpeting to the White House was a top priority when he returned to office last year.

"Yes, this was a continuous thing in Term One, and everybody had to restore everything to how it was in Term One –remember Term One," she said. "By the way, I just move away from bathrooms and carpets for two seconds. He hung like nothing in the Oval Office in Term One, he made almost no changes to design or what was in there, and now it's like every square inch is covered, which aides had seen as something of almost like a like a therapy session for him because he liked doing it. It was his happiest hour of the day."

Haberman then returned to Berman's question about the bathroom carpeting, which many designers and homeowners regard as unattractive and a potential health hazard despite the trend's popularity decades ago.

"One of the restorations was this this wall-to-wall carpet that he likes in the bathroom, and instead of a bath mat, there was always a little piece of carpet near the shower," Haberman said, "and there were concerns about mold and health. So in Term One it would often, there were a few of them – anyway, whatever, you get the point."

Berman said he'd heard enough, and he said that detail stood out to his colleagues as particularly revolting.

"Yeah, it's incredible," Berman said. "I think nothing grosses the guys out more than that here in the set."

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