From left: Donald and Melania Trump at Mar-a-Lago on New Year’s Eve 2016.Photo: DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images
For the first time in nearly three months — after a bruising loss in a government shutdown standoff with Democrats and with his staff continuing to leak information to the press — President Donald Trump was finally able to retreat last weekend to his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, where he was insulated through sheer branding from most criticism of his polarizing tenure in the White House.
“No matter what else is happening in the world, he is treated like royalty at Mar-a-Lago,” a club source tells PEOPLE. “He loves to be here.”
And for much of his first two years in office, Trump has loved to be there frequently: He’s been to his Florida properties around Mar-a-Lago or to other Trump clubs, in New Jersey and Virginia, more than 200 times since his inauguration in January 2017,according to analysis of his travel.
But when the federal government partially shut down on Dec. 22 over Trump’s insistence for funding for a border wall with Mexico, he remained in Washington, D.C. — through Christmas, New Year’s and most of January, except for a brief trip to visit troops in Iraq.
His trip last weekend was the first time he had been in Mar-a-Lago since Thanksgiving,according to theNew York Times. And his fans there were thrilled to see him back.
The same day the shutdown began,theTimespublished an expansive lookat what the paper called the president’s increasing isolation and lack of temperament. According to one anecdote in the article, he calls his advisers “f—ing idiots.”
The schedules, in total, showed Trump spent huge chunks of the last three months in loosely defined “executive time” rather than in meetings, briefings and other official functions.
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“He was talking to club members and shaking hands and seeming to have a nice quiet time Friday night,” a source tells PEOPLE. He and Melania, who keeps her own suite at the club, reportedly ate together that night — unusual, as they often dine separately.
There were changes made to accommodate the Super Bowl weekend as well: The president and first lady watched the Florida Atlantic University marching band outside of Trump International Golf Club before Trump then presided over his usual Super Bowl dinner party in the club house.
At halftime, the family boarded Air Force One and headed back to D.C. where Trump was slated on Tuesday to give a State of the Union address the White House had said would be focused on unity and bipartisanship. Last month, the president conceded to Democrats over the shutdown and agreed to temporarily reopen the government as lawmakers hashed out funding for various border security measures.
On Tuesday morning, hours before the speech and with shutdown negotiations ongoing, Trumptweeted a message far away from compromise:
source: people.com
