# The White House pastry chef

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The White House pastry chef," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-white-house-pastry-chef/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's former next-door neighbour, a White House pastry chef who was in the building when Donald Trump came to meet Barack Obama four days after the 2016 election, and who told Kiriakou that the president-elect looked sick and looked scared.*

- **Who:** John Kiriakou's next-door neighbour before his divorce
- **Position:** White House pastry chef
- **Occasion:** Trump's first post-election meeting with Obama
- **When:** Four days after the 2016 election
- **What he reported:** Trump looked sick and looked scared
- **Rall's reading:** He never thought he would win

**The White House pastry chef** is a source John Kiriakou cited in December 2025 for a first-hand impression of [Donald Trump](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/donald-trump) in the days immediately after his first election victory.

## The neighbour

Kiriakou introduced him as his old next-door neighbour from when he was still married, a man who worked as the White House pastry chef.[1]

## What he saw

The chef was in the building when Trump came to meet [Barack Obama](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/barack-obama) for the first time, four days after the election.[1]

His report to Kiriakou was two clauses: *"Trump looked sick and he looked scared."*[1]

## The reading

Rall's interpretation followed immediately, that Trump had never thought he was going to win, and had been running only to enhance his brand, and Kiriakou's answer was one word: *"Exactly."* Rall's summary was that he was *"a dog who caught a car."*[1][2]

Both men had already reached for the same evidence from the other side of the screen: the widely circulated photograph of the Trump family gathered in a hotel suite on election night as the result was called, in which, as Rall put it, every one of them wore the same expression.[3][1]

Kiriakou closed the exchange with a general remark rather than a partisan one, that anyone winning the presidency ought to be frightened, whoever they are, because it is a big job.[2]

## See also

- [Donald Trump](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/donald-trump)
- [Barack Obama](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/barack-obama)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. Trump to Europe: DROP DEAD (2025-12-10), at 49:47. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClPOKa97jQg&t=2987s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-10-deprogram-ted-rall-trump-to-europe-drop-dead/
2. Trump to Europe: DROP DEAD (2025-12-10), at 50:19. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClPOKa97jQg&t=3019s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-10-deprogram-ted-rall-trump-to-europe-drop-dead/
3. Trump to Europe: DROP DEAD (2025-12-10), at 49:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClPOKa97jQg&t=2955s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-10-deprogram-ted-rall-trump-to-europe-drop-dead/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-white-house-pastry-chef/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt