Donald Trump is not the only salesman plying his trade in downtown Washington.
On a suitably hot and sunny Friday, Jim Warlick cut the ribbon on a new ice-cream shop, Presidential Scoops, which carries the slogan: “Making America sweet again.”
Displaying a commercial flair to rival The Art of the Deal, Warlick drew a decent crowd by offering free ice-cream for the first hour and flying in mini-celebrity Zachary Tzegaegbe, a six-year-old from Atlanta, Georgia, who can reputedly recite nine inaugural addresses by heart, to deliver a speech from a presidential lectern.
“This kid is amazing,” Warlick said at the quintessentially DC event a couple of minutes’ walk from the White House. “He has been endorsed by the new non-partisan ice-cream party … He’s on the ticket, 2048.”
The owner has named each ice-cream after an American president as chosen by an online poll, including Nixon’s cookies and cream crumble, Lincoln’s decadent pretzel, JFK’s America’s birthday cake, Jefferson’s Monticello ripple, Carter’s patriotic peanut, Reagan’s raspberry truffle, Obama’s strawberry jubilee and Trump’s extra rich chip. His own favorite is Washington’s vanilla beans.
Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were noted ice-cream aficionados, while Trump reportedly takes two scoops at White House dinners while everyone else around the table gets just one. Customers placing orders will therefore be asked: “Do you want it Trumped?”, meaning a second scoop.
Warlick, who owns a nearby souvenir store and presidential gallery popular with tourists, also has a salesman’s patter. “There’s a lot of tension in the atmosphere in America and we thought this is a way to lighten it,” he said. “Democrats, Republicans, independents all eat ice-cream.”
The amiable 65-year-old, who worked on election campaigns and on Capitol Hill, has been collecting political memorabilia since he was 12 and runs a travelling John F Kennedy exhibition.
