This Is Where Donald Trump Will Spend Christmas During The Government Shutdown
It looks like the partial government shutdown has put a kink in President Trump's holiday plans. After the president revealed that the Senate will adjourn until Thursday, Dec. 27, you were probably wondering: Will Donald Trump spend Christmas 2018 at Mar-a-Lago after all? According to a tweet, his plans have changed, and it looks like he'll be spending the holidays at the White House. Elite Daily reached out to the White House for further comment on the announcement, but did not hear back by the time of publication.
On Saturday, Dec. 22, the president took to Twitter to announce that he wouldn't be flying south to Florida to celebrate Christmas at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
"I will not be going to Florida because of the Shutdown - Staying in the White House!" he told his followers, adding the MAGA hashtag. Just hours earlier, Secretary of State Sarah Huckabee Sanders first shared the news in a White House statement that revealed that first lady Melania Trump and the couple's son, Baron, would be flying back from Florida to spend the holidays in Washington D.C. with Trump.
"Due to the shutdown, President Trump will remain in Washington and the first lady will return from Florida so they can spend Christmas together," she said in the statement, according to the Huffington Post.
Per the publication, the family was originally planning to spend just over two weeks vacationing at the property, where they frequently celebrate Christmas. Melania Trump and Baron had departed for West Palm Beach on Friday afternoon, but will now be flying back in the wake of the President's announcement. It's unclear whether other family members like Ivanka Trump or Donald Trump Jr. will also be spending the holidays at the White House. According to The Hill, Trump Jr. made a scheduled appearance at the Turning Point USA conference on Dec. 20, so it's not yet apparent if he will be staying at Mar-a-Lago with his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, throughout the holiday.
While it appears that President Trump isn't too happy about the fact that his annual Christmas plans have taken a turn, approximately 800,000 people in the United States will either be working without pay or have their pay furloughed as a result of the partial government shutdown, according to a report from Senator Patrick Leahy. Unfortunately, it looks like the situation won't be remedied anytime soon, according to White House budget director Mick Mulvaney.
On Sunday, Dec. 23, Mulvaney told Fox News that the standstill could last into January. "It’s very possible that this shutdown will go beyond the 28th and into the new Congress," he said, according to The Washington Post. Elite Daily reached out to the White House for comment on the state of the partial government shutdown as well as any additional updates surrounding the standstill over the federal budget and funding for the wall, but did not hear back by the time of publication.
Because negotiations over a proposed $5 billion in funding for Trump's wall are what caused the government shutdown in the first place, people don't have a lot of sympathy for the president's predicament and are dragging him on Twitter over the announcement.
It is unclear if Trump and his family would fly out to Mar-a-Lago a few days late if a deal is reached by the end of the week and the shutdown is lifted, but from the sounds of things, it looks like the Trump family will be spending the rest of the year in Washington D.C.
