US president-elect not keen on Washington life

NEW YORK: The transition period between one president and another is never a simple thing. Reports suggest that US president-elect Donald Trump, 70, who many believe did not really want to actually win the presidency, is having his own struggles as he gets ready to become commander-in-chief.

The New York Times said Trump was already having discussions with advisers about how many days of the week he was required to spend in the White House.

It is traditional for presidents to take breaks from the nation’s capital to locations such as the presidential retreat at Camp David. George HW Bush spent vacations in New England, while his son liked nothing more than to spend summer breaks in the sweltering surrounds of his Texas ranch. President Barack Obama likes to hit the golf course. But Trump appears to be asking if he can spend weekdays at the White House, and then fly back to New York and his penthouse suite atop Trump Tower on 5th Avenue.

Trump has said he would like to do what he is used to, which is spending time in New York when he can. The future first lady, Melania Trump, expects to move to Washington. But the couple’s 10-yearold son, Barron, is midway through a school year in New York, and it is unclear when the move would happen.

As the president-elect comes to grips with the fact that he has won a result he reportedly did not anticipate, Trump might spend most of the week in Washington, much like members of Congress, and return to Trump Tower or his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, or his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on weekends.

Trump has spent the past three decades within Trump Tower. His apartment is on the 58th floor.

When Obama was elected in 2008, there was speculation as to whether his wife, Michelle, would leave Chicago with their daughters. Yet the whole family moved on inauguration day, and the two girls attended a school where children of VIPs and celebrities go. – The Independent