New Jersey set to pass Palm Beach for Trump stays
President has spent 171/2 days in Florida, but this break may go that long.
Move over, Mar-a-Lago.
The amount of time President Donald Trump has spent at his “winter White House” in Palm Beach since his inauguration is likely to be eclipsed this month by the time he’s spent at his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.
Trump embarked Friday on a “working vacation” at his Garden State retreat that could stretch for 17 days while the White House undergoes renovations to its George H.W. Bush-era heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system.
The Federal Aviation Administration has imposed flight restrictions on the area around Bedminster through Aug. 21.
By the end of the extended New Jersey stay, Trump will likely have logged more presidential time in Bedminster than Palm Beach.
Trump as president has spent 419¼ hours — about 17½ days — in Palm Beach County, primarily at Mar-a-Lago and his nearby Trump International Golf Club in unincorporated West Palm Beach, according to an analysis by The Palm Beach Post.
Trump’s seven treks to Mara-Lago all took place within the first 100 days of his presidency, which coincided with the winter social season in Palm Beach.
Mark Knoller of CBS News, who is universally acknowledged as the foremost expert on presidential scheduling over the last four decades, calculates that Trump’s Mar-a-Lago visits covered at least some portion of 25 days.
(Using the Knoller method, which he has applied to presidents since Jimmy Carter, a Trump arrival at Palm Beach International Airport on a Friday afternoon and departure on Sunday afternoon counts as three days even though the visit itself lasts about 48 hours.)
By Knoller’s count, Trump had spent all or a portion of 14 days at Bedminster before Friday’s trip.
Trump’s combined 41 days of
domestic travel — 25 days at Mar-a-Lago, 14 at Bedminster and 2 at Camp David — compare to 21 days for Barack Obama and 67 for George W. Bush at the same stage of their presidencies, according to Knoller’s figures.
White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said Trump is heading to Bedminster while the White House undergoes renovations that were approved under Obama.
“The HVAC systems are 27 years old, but due to the 24/7, 365-day use a year, the estimated age of the system based off of usage is 81 years old,” Walters told reporters on Thursday.
She said the South Portico steps on the South Lawn will be repaired for the first time since Dwight D. Eisenhower’s first term. There will also be renovations to the White House information technology system, the Navy Mess kitchen, the West Wing lower lobby and “generic cosmetic upgrades,” Walters said.