Trump aides are finding it hard to date in liberal Washington. So they're dating, marrying each other.

Stephen and Katie Miller
(Image credit: ALASTAIR PIKE/AFP via Getty Images)

Finding love and/or affection was hard enough before dating apps started allowing people to screen for political affiliation. And even with Republican-only services like DonaldDaters and Republican Singles, working for President Trump in liberal Washington "can be brutal on dating life," Katie Rogers reports at The New York Times. "For the young aides in this White House, one solution seems to be to meet and marry each other, or at least endeavor to find love inside the political bunker of the Trump administration."

Trump's hardline immigration czar Stephen Miller and Katie Waldman, special assistant to Trump and spokeswoman for Vice President Mike Pence, were married Sunday, with Trump and Pence among the guests. The couple "celebrated with monogrammed ice cubes, mutual statements of love, and a playlist selected by the groom," Rogers notes, plus there was a dash of enriching the president: The wedding was held at Trump's Washington, D.C., hotel, a hangout for Republicans, lobbyists, and Trump hangers-on and grifters. The newlyweds registered for gifts under fake names, vetted their invite lists for possible disrupters and haters, and hired security guards.

The Millers aren't the only Trump White House newlyweds: Last year, Giovanna Coia, a White House aide and cousin of Kellyanne Conway, married Pence nephew and Trump campaign official John Pence in Atlantic City, and Trump administration officials Zach Bauer and Meghan Patenaude spent at least $35,000 at Trump's D.C. hotel for their wedding in November, Rogers reports.

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Other White House couples include Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham and advance team director Max Miller, and Trump body man Nick Luna and Cassidy Dumbauld, an assistant to Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser. In some cases, the romantic entanglements have proved complicated, as with Hope Hicks and Rob Porter.

Dating inside the White House is nothing new, "but outside the complex gates, the youthful staff members also had wider access to the city's dating pool and social scene," Rogers writes. Trump's aides, on the other hand, "tend to retreat into their own homes for socializing or to the safety of the president's properties." Read more about love in Trump's Washington at The New York Times.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.