Earlier on Tuesday, about 24 hours after the 2024 election results were certified, President Donald Trump held a press conference in which he talked about everything from a Dubai company investing $20 billion in data centers in the United States to, well, renaming the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America." Notably, the press conference took place in Florida at Trump's favorite spot: Mar-a-Lago.
The president has been spending a lot of time there in recent months. He watched the results come in on Election Night and held an exclusive watch party for his closest friends and family. He's also been making decisions about his upcoming administration and hosting world leaders there since his November victory. At the end of his first term, he took advantage of the Former Presidents Act and set up an official office at the resort, so using it as a home base makes sense, but now, some are wondering if he'll even govern from there once he officially takes office on January 20.
Based on a "series of exclusive interviews with sources close to Trump and his family," People magazine published an article today speculating that this may be the case. They even had a quote from a "political source" that said, "I think Trump will try to run the nation from Mar-a-Lago. He has always wanted to do that. He is blissfully happy in Palm Beach."
Earlier, I wrote about the current winter storm impacting the D.C. area, and when you compare that to what I imagine Palm Beach is like today, well, let's just say I can understand why Trump wants to be there. While it's going to take more than an "exclusive source" from People magazine to convince me that he'll govern from Mar-a-Lago, my question is: Does it matter?
I guess to the left it does.
A few weeks ago, Tim Smart, executive editor of U.S. News & World Report, published an article entitled "Trump Is Making America Florida," in which he points out that the president "holds court much like Louis XIV did at the Palace of Versailles." He goes on to point out the number of Floridians who will likely be a part of the upcoming administration and reminds us that "The history books say that America’s seat of government is in Washington, D.C."
He ends the article with this: "Trump is not a creature of Congress or state politics, and his brand is built around the idea of challenging the established rules and mores of Washington. To the extent that those Floridians he has chosen are seen as outsiders, it may bode well for their future political fortunes – and those of their state." I suppose that's meant to be negative, but I'd argue that's why Trump won the election, and those people running things in Florida are why record numbers of Americans want to move to the Sunshine State.
Also, "making America Florida" seems a lot more fun than making America North Korea, which is what the last four years have felt like, but I digress.
Anyway, I did a little research to find out if there are any legal reasons that the president has to live in the White House and work in the Oval Office, and it doesn't appear that it's required. The Oval Office wasn't really even a thing until 1909, according to the White House Historical Association (WHHA). Thomas Jefferson did his work in the State Dining Room.
But even so, most presidents before that still worked in various parts of the White House. And aside from George Washington, who chose the site for the White House, every other president has lived there thus far. Several governors, however, have turned down living in their state's mansions. And according to WHHA historian Joel Treese, some presidents may not move into the White House right away.
If any president is going to buck tradition, I suppose it would be Trump. That's what he does best. The People article also suggests that living in the White House would make it difficult for Trump's advisor and good buddy Elon Musk to have the access he does now — Musk is reportedly living in a rented home near Mar-a-Lago — but it's hard to say how any of this will play out.
Personally, I'm sure Trump will be back and forth, and I really don't care where Trump spends most of his time as long as he does the things he says he's gonna do. If it takes a little extra Florida warmth and sunshine to make that happen, so be it. And I mean, it's not like we don't hear about Joe Biden being trotted off to a "Delaware beach" every other week. I guess the difference is that Biden isn't really governing at this point.
