Has Hunter Moved Out Of The White House?

Exactly where Hunter has been living for the past year or more hasn't been clear in any case, but common speculation had been that he'd moved into the White House sometime in 2022, at least in part to avoid legal service in his child support case with Lunden Roberts. This was settled last month, which would take away one possible reason for his extended White House stay.

On the other hand, Hunter and Joe have a strange relationship that at least outwardly looks like codependency. It appears that Hunter continues to be a key adviser to Joe, and in addition, it seems likely that he enables Joe's inflence-peddling side gig at the same time that Joe enables Hunter's drug and alcohol abuse. All things being equal, it looks like Joe would prefer to keep Hunter close at hand in the White House, while the unexplained baggie near the Situation Room (if that's where it was) suggests Hunter had worked out a modus vivendi with White House security that would accommodate his habits.

I think, though, that after the baggie episode, it was made known to Joe that there was only so much the Secret Service could do to maintain appearances. I posted here on the best explanation I've heard for the baggie: in the view of former cocaine addict and Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort, someone like Hunter will leave small stashes all over the place in order to have a constant supply close at hand. I strongly suspect the Secret Service had already been finding these as a matter of routine, and it was only a uniformed officer who was out of the loop on the holiday weekend who called it in as a hazmat incident.

Thus it must have been transmitted to Joe that it was only a matter of time before something like this happened again, and while the Secret Service could claim ignorance this time, all future bets would be off. So at this point, Joe had two options: let Hunter stay on at the White House and risk more baggie discoveries that link Joe with enabling Hunter's drug use, or send Hunter back to LA again under Kevin Morris's aegis, where he seems to have been between 2019 and 2022.

I suspect this had already proven unsatisfactory by last year. Hunter had a team of Secret Service minders in the rental adjoining his own in the Malibu compound that was apparently paid for by Kevin Morris, but what we're beginning to see from last week's vignette on the balcony with the bong is that Kevin is anything but a stabilizing influence, and I've got to think that by the middle of last year, the Secret Service had made it known to Joe that Hunter was getting out of hand.

So Joe had two bad options: keep Hunter close by in the White House and risk more baggies being found, or send Hunter back to California with Kevin and risk even bigger scandals with wrecked cars and Russian hookers. I suspect the fallback plan with Kevin involves an even bigger Secret Service detail and closer escort with multiple black SUVs, but a tacit agreement to look the other way over drug deals -- in fact, I'll bet Kevin even handles those. Hookers? I imagine those can be factored in as well. Just don't let him drive, that's the big thing.

(As I've noted here frequently, Hunter's wife Melissa seems mostly out of the picture these days.)

Wednesday's court hearing in Delaware does add complications. Following Hunter's not guilty plea, the conditions of his realease require him not to use any alcohol or drugs, including marijuana, which although legal in California, is still prohibited under his conditions. In addition, he has to submit to drug tests. We don't know how strictly these will be enforced, but all of this is a risk. Even a repeat of last week's situation with Hunter visiting Kevin while Kevin went onto the balcony with a bong could now have repercussions that could put Hunter in jail.

It's hard to imagine someone like Hunter resisting the temptation to take a hit if Kevin lights up a bong while he's visiting, but even if he refrains, there's some possibility he could fail a drug test just by being in the room. But why would a "friend" like Kevin expose him to even that temptation?

It's slowly being acknowledged that the judge placing Hunter's plea deal on hold in the Delaware hearing is a major blow to Biden's reelection strategy. The whole intent was to resolve Hunter's legal issues once and for all and get them out of the way before the 2024 campaign. Now it's less likely that this will happen, while the likelihood that Hunter will do something new to get back in the news is increasing -- and the Secret Service will be right there enabling it with black SUVs.

The paparazzi have those black SUVs dialed in -- we learned that last week.