Trump supporters expect emotional Florida arrival
Donald Trump’s presidency is ending, but a new chapter in his Florida story starts Wednesday.
A moving truck is parked at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach. His White House residency expires at noon when Joe Biden will be sworn in as the nation’s 46th president.
Trump won’t be around to see it. Instead, he’s headed to Mar-a-Lago, which is expected to become his home base.
Joe Budd, president of the Trump Club 45 USA fan club, expects that a big crowd of flag-waving supporters will greet Trump when Air Force One lands at Palm Beach International. Some are planning to travel to Palm Beach from other parts of the state, he said, including a woman from the Gulf Coast who called him in tears.
“I expect a lot of emotion,” he said. “They want to be there. They want to welcome him home.”
Others are counting
down the hours of Trump’s presidency and dreading the prospect that South Florida could become a MAGA haven for Trump and his allies. “Noon tomorrow can’t come soon enough,” South Florida’s U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz tweeted.
Trump will be the fourth president and the first in more than 150 years to boycott his successor’s regularly scheduled inauguration. Andrew Johnson didn’t attend Ulysses S. Grant’s inauguration in 1869.
Trump released a taped farewell address Tuesday, describing himself as a Washington outsider who “built the greatest political movement in the history of our country.”
“Now, as I prepare to hand power over to a new administration at noon on Wednesday, I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning,” Trump said.
A send-off ceremony for Trump is planned early Wednesday morning at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, several hours before Biden takes the oath of office. Then Trump will make the roughly two-hour trip on Air Force One to Palm Beach International.
In the meantime, a mad dash will be conducted to prepare the White House for the Biden family. Items following Trump to Mar-a-Lago include a room-size golfing simulator, a collection of Brioni suits and the first lady’s matching Louis Vuitton luggage, The New York Times reported.
Traffic will be restricted on Ocean Boulevard near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club beginning Tuesday, and the Federal Aviation Administration is putting flight restrictions in place around Palm Beach International Airport on Wednesday morning. Travelers should prepare for delays on other roadways between the airport and Mar-a-Lago.
Palm Beach is also gearing up for the move. Town manager Kirk Blouin said he hasn’t been told how much time Trump plans to spend on the island as a former president. In a letter to residents, Blouin wrote that State Road A1A near Mar-a-Lago will be blocked for several days, but the town doesn’t foresee additional road closings in the future.
The Secret Service did not respond to a request for comment on how flight and boat restrictions could be affected when Trump is no longer president. Former presidents are given lifetime Secret Service protection under federal law.
“He is always going to receive some level of protection,” Blouin said. “l would expect it would be scaled back when he is no longer president. That’s standard for all presidents.”
Some of Trump’s new neighbors are upset about reports that he will use Mar-a-Lago as a residence. In the early 1990s, Trump converted the 126-room mansion from a private residence into a social club, signing a detailed “use agreement” for the property and conveying ownership to a corporate entity he controlled named Mar-aLago Club Inc.
The 1993 agreement stipulates that club members could use guest suites for no longer than seven days at a time for three nonconsecutive weeks per year.
Town officials aren’t investigating but will handle that issue in a nonpartisan way if a violation is determined to have occurred, Blouin said.
“There is nothing for the town to do,” he said. “We have no idea where he is even going to live. We can speculate. Until that happens, there is no violation, and no action required.”