President Donald Trump traveled to Mar-a-Lago, his lavish Palm Beach, Florida, social club, for a weekend of golf, fundraisers, and conducting the duties of the presidency from the so-called “winter White House.”
However, the president’s weekend trip — his first to the club since Easter — comes as the White House and congressional Republicans are locked in a stalemate with Democrats on reopening the shuttered federal government.
Asked about the timing of Trump’s travel, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Washington Examiner that former President Joe Biden frequently spent weekends at homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and, unlike Biden, Trump likes “to engage with people on the weekends.”
“Biden was asleep in the residence during the weeks, and then he would go to his beach house and literally pass out on the beach in front of the whole world when our country was falling apart, and it was extremely embarrassing,” she said in a statement. “The president works all week and then works all weekend. His weekends are filled with meetings. When he does golf, which is not that frequently by the way, it’s usually with members of Congress or business executives. He’s golfed with foreign leaders, his Cabinet, and he’s talking work on the course.”
A Biden spokeswoman declined to comment on Leavitt’s comments.
Leavitt did say that Trump has “been very clear,” when asked if this trip was meant to send any type of message to Democrats regarding the shutdown fight: “Just vote to reopen the government, and then we can talk health care.”
“The Democrats are holding the country hostage to fix a health care system — that they created by the way through Obamacare — and the president is more than willing to engage on fixing it,” she stated. “He’s very much committed to fixing the health care system, but first we need to reopen the government and get our people paid.”
This weekend, Trump will attend multiple fundraisers in Palm Beach for his MAGA Inc. super PAC and potentially play golf with a group of South Korean businessmen, according to persons familiar with his schedule. The president has been actively courting foreign investments into domestic manufacturing, and his administration was forced into damage control mode last month following an ICE raid on an under-construction Hyundai plant in Georgia.
Those sources added that Trump attended the 90th birthday party for a “famous golfer” Friday night after his arrival, the first official event held at the club this season.
Still, Trump is the first president to own a private club, which also serves as his primary out-of-office residence, and supporters flock to the grounds en masse whenever the president is in town — and they’re lucky enough to scoop an invite.
Politicians, conservative activists, journalists, and a growing list of celebrities frequently make the Mar-a-Lago pilgrimage, plastering social media with photos or videos they’ve taken of and alongside the president.
Laura Loomer, a conservative activist and journalist who has gained Trump’s favor over the years, cautioned the Washington Examiner that a sizable section of that crowd are “grifters.”
Loomer suggested that, in the past, politicians and candidates not explicitly endorsed by the president have used photos taken at the club for campaigns, causing a “shit storm” for Trump’s political team.
“It’s one of those places where people who are desperate to try to exploit their access to the president — or people who are desperate to pretend like they have access to the president when they don’t — they’re desperate to get a photo there,” she said in an interview. “I’m not saying that it’s like grifter central, because everybody there is a grifter, but it really has become grifter central for all of the people that have nefarious intentions to want to take advantage of the president’s hospitality. Because we’ve never had a president before who has literally opened up his home to his base.”
Longtime Trumpworld players downplayed the idea that Mar-a-Lago guests are only cozying up to the president for the wrong reasons, noting that the private nature of the club only allows visitors personally invited to events or as the direct guests of club members.
“It’s pretty strict. Not just anyone can get in, and I think the club members do a good job of keeping out people trying to get in for the wrong reasons,” one former aide explained. “Plus, it’s a legit blast down there. You don’t want to cause drama and not get invited back.”
“Everybody wants to be able to feel like they got in. They were able to step foot on this very exclusive property,” Loomer agreed. “So, in a sense, it’s even more prestigious than being able to go to the White House and have a meeting with the president in the Oval Office.”
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A former Trump campaign staffer told the Washington Examiner that Mar-a-Lago was “like heaven” compared to Washington, D.C.
“You can go have an awesome dinner, wear a MAGA hat, and not have to think about everyone around you wanting to rip it off your head,” that person said, noting that the president’s trip aligned with the massive, anti-Trump “No Kings” protest scheduled to take place in The District on Saturday. “I am not saying it’s a ‘safe space’ — because, lol — but you know what I’m saying. It’s just good peoples.”