The yellow, mock-Tudor townhouse in the New York borough of Queens where the president spent his early years can now be yours from $725 a night

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The childhood homes of US presidents are normally hallowed places, sacred to the nation, preserved and turned into museums or libraries for posterity.

But there is perhaps something fitting that in the case of property developer-turned-president Donald Trump, the house where he spent the first four years of his life has been filled with bunk beds and rented out to the world on Airbnb.

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The yellow, mock-Tudor townhouse in an aspirational neighborhood of the New York city borough of Queens, where the current US president spent the first four years of his life, can now be yours from $725 a night via the popular online home-sharing website.

It’s listed simply as “President 45’s Childhood Home”, and boasts an almost lifesize cardboard cutout of the commander-in-chief in the living room, in one of his trademark dark, crumpled suits and red ties.

“He is a great companion for watching Fox News late into the night,” the Airbnb listing notes.

The website’s blurb goes on: “In 1946, Donald Trump was born to Fred and Mary Trump, and brought home to Jamaica Estates. Here they lived, in a home built by Fred himself. This is their home.”

The house features five bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms and two sofa beds, into which Ari, the person listed as the Airbnb “host”, has packed 14 beds and two sofa beds.

“This is a unique and special opportunity to stay in the home of a sitting president,” it boasts – unique unless you receive an invitation to stay at the White House or spring for the $200,000 initiation fee and $14,000 annual membership (plus tax) to Mar-a-Lago, that is.

The former Trump residence in Jamaica Estates was sold for $2.14m earlier this year by New York real estate developer Michael Davis, who had bought it for $1.3m last December, flipping it within three months.

It sold to a mystery Chinese woman, via a limited liability company. Now Davis is renting it back from her for $4,000 a month and has decided to rent it out on Airbnb.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A giant cutout of Donald Trump inside his former childhood home. Photograph: Airbnb

Neighbor Deborah Ayala-Braun is not happy.

“It’s already creating havoc and chaos ... I thought maybe it was going to be a museum,” she told the Guardian.

“I’m a bit upset. This is a residential neighborhood and it should have been bought or rented by a single family, it shouldn’t be like a motel or a hotel,” she added.

In this bedroom, President Donald J Trump was likely conceived, by his parents, Fred and Mary Trump Plaque in the Trump childhood home

Neighbors were pleased when the house sold most recently for $2.14m, well above normal market price for the area, she said. She has lived in her house for eight years and got on well with the couple who had owned it long term before they divorced and Davis snapped it up.

But after Davis bought the house, it became unkempt, only being tidied up this summer shortly before it emerged on Airbnb, she said. But the Trump-related disruption had begun long before that.

“We’ve had a constant influx of tourists – and the media, Comedy Central has been here, the parade began the day the house sold, so the circus has already started before Airbnb. Tourists have been trespassing on the property; someone even opened the door and started taking pictures,” she said.

The website includes a picture of TV host Jimmy Fallon showing Trump a picture of the house.

Last September, when the presidential election campaign was in full swing and the house was for sale, Trump told Fallon on The Tonight Show that he wanted to buy it back. It was then slated to go to auction in October, for what was regarded as a low minimum bid of $849,000. But the couple selling it held it back at the last minute and gambled correctly that Trump would win the election and its value would soar.

The Airbnb listing goes on to describe the house, saying: “Not much has been changed since the Trumps lived here, the kitchen is original and the opulent furnishings represent the style and affluence in which the Trumps would have lived.”

Inside Trump’s former childhood home. Photograph: Airbnb

Up to a point. One picture of his early childhood home shows a gold-colored frame around a shower stall, next to a bull’s blood-colored bathtub, but little other detailing that could be described as opulent. Other rooms appear comfortable and often spacious, but modestly decorated and furnished with plain red sofas, unremarkable small bureaux and tables here and there, and one pink chaise longue.

The Airbnb host has, however, dotted photographs of the New York property mogul-turned-president around the house. One features Trump with his wife Melania and their son, Baron. One shows him on the cover of People magazine while, in another, a younger Trump is doing his best Gordon Gekko impression, talking on a giant, 80s-style car phone in the back of a limo.

The dining room wall sports a rough imitation of an Andy Warhol-style screen print, depicting many identical faces of Donald Trump in bright colors.

There are also various “certificates” on the walls, in faux-classical typeface.

“In this home, 85-15 Wareham Place, Jamaica Estates, New York, built by developer Fred Trump for his family, Donald J Trump, 45th president of the United States, was born on June 14, 1946,” says one.

One adorning a bedroom wall makes the firm but alarming assumption: “In this bedroom, President Donald J Trump was likely conceived, by his parents, Fred and Mary Trump. The world has never been the same.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A photo of a younger Trump doing his best Gordon Gekko impression. Photograph: Airbnb

Neighbor Ayala-Braun said she had watched recently as a large number of bunk beds were delivered to the house. Airbnb pictures show that, beyond the master bedroom and some other guest rooms, several bedrooms are furnished with the bunk beds.

The listing states that the property has space for “a meeting or conference ... and is the perfect accommodation for a New York vacation.”

It also warns that: “Guest have access to the entire house but should note that I live in one of the bedrooms, which will not be accessible to you during your stay.”

That resident is not Davis but a business partner of Davis, according to Ayala-Braun, though she was not aware of his full name. Davis and “Ari” were contacted for comment.

Ayala-Braun said she recently watched, in addition, two students moving into the basement of the property.

She said the prospect of a crowded house and constant coming-and-going “is not a pleasant feeling”. She also mused on whether the house having been sold to an overseas buyer was in keeping with Donald Trump’s “America first” mantra.

Had she voted for her former neighbor? She declined to say. “I’m a community activist, I need to work on both sides of the aisle,” she said.

“I have no ill will towards him,” she added.

She may not be quite so generous towards her new temporary neighbors.