For Trump, there’s no place like home
President-elect deliberates with advisers over how many nights a week he’ll have to spend in Washington
Less than a week after Donald Trump’s victory in the US elections, the president-elect reportedly has been deliberating with his advisers the question of how many nights a week he will have to spend in the White House once he assumes office.
Trump told his advisers that he wishes to spend as much time as he can in New York City, The New York Times reported Friday.
Trump often slept at home during his campaign, but in an interview with The Hill last year, Trump said that, if elected, he would “rarely leave the White House” because it is “the appropriate thing to do,” and added that he would not be a president who took vacations.
But now, after his first visit with President Barack Obama in the official residence, Trump may have come down with a case of home-buyer’s remorse, the report said.
A year ago, Barbara Walters interviewed the real estate mogul and his wife, Melania, in their $100,000,000 three-level penthouse in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York. Walters said, “For many the White House is a step up. I’m looking around this room; the White House might be a step down.”
Trump retorted by saying that “the White House is the White House, it’s just a spectacular place and you know it’s something that represents something very special.”
While it is customary for the first family to live at the White House, the president is not bound by law to reside there. First lady Michelle Obama considered remaining in Chicago when her husband won the election so as not to disturb her daughters’ school year. Past presidents have also spent significant periods of time away from the official residence, including former president George W. Bush, who took a reported 879 vacation days in his two terms, more than any president in history, most of which he spent at his Texas ranch.
As opposed to the White House, which is equipped with stringent security measures for the first family, Trump Tower could pose a challenge to the Secret Service if he decides to remain there. In the wake of the election results, the Federal Aviation Administration implemented a no-fly-zone over Trump Tower until the day of the inauguration, and the Secret Service has amplified security in and around the 58-story building.
If Trump’s family moves to the White House, his 10-year-old son, Barron, would be the first boy to live in the White House since John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1963.
