Part Time President: Donald Trump Will Rarely Live In The White House

Donald Trump is already planning to spend as little time in the White House as possible. The president-elect has lived the last 30 years in his grandiose, eponymous Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York, and Trump doesn’t want his living situation to change just because he’s president.

According to the New York Times, Trump is already in talks with his advisers to see how many nights a week he has to stay in the White House. On the campaign trail, Trump would fly for hours to make it back to Trump Tower even when the president-elect was faced with a grueling schedule. Now, Trump is resistant to staying where 44 presidents have lived and worked before him.

The move to Washington D.C. requires a number of different considerations for Trump, his family, and his business. The Washington Post reports that Trump’s various businesses will be run by his adult children via a blind trust, but Trump also has a 10-year-old son, Barron, who stood next to him during his acceptance speech on election night. Barron is currently in the middle of a school year in New York, so an immediate move may be unsavory for the Trump family.

However, President Barack Obama’s daughters, Sasha and Malia, moved into the White House in 2009 after inauguration day. Trump has a number of properties around the country including Trump Tower in New York, his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, and his golf course in New Jersey, all of which are some of the president-elect’s favorite destinations.

Trump Tower and the various other Trump buildings in Chicago, Las Vegas, and Washington D.C. had become more iconic than the man himself before Trump’s presidential run. Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan, Trump’s prize possession, began construction in 1979 and was completed in 1983. Trump has lived and worked in the mammoth skyscraper since its completion in the early 80s, but the president-elect is reluctant to give the same dedication to the White House.

When Trump Tower began construction, it started out as the old Bonwit Teller department store. The structure was considered an architectural masterpiece featuring bronze work, hammered aluminum, and twinkling glass. The Bonwit Teller building also featured two bas-relief sculpture panels that the New York community begged now president-elect Trump to save in the early years of construction.

According to Newsweek, Trump ordered that the historic bas-reliefs be smashed to pieces because trying to preserve them would slow down labor and cost him too much money. Trump, who at the time was pretending to be his own spokesperson, John Barron, said that saving the reliefs would have cost him $32,000 and that the sculptures actually had “no artistic merit” despite the public outcry from professional art curators.

President-elect Trump loves any reason to brag about Trump Tower. The building’s design features 24-karat gold and marble in an opulent style and Trump has his own private elevator that takes him from his 58th floor apartment to his office on the 26th floor. “I really wanted to see if it could be done,” Trump told biographer Michael D’Antonio during a 2014 visit.

“This is a very complex unit. Building this unit, if you look at the columns and the carvings, this building, this unit was harder than building the building itself.”

Trump’s love for his tower hasn’t waned since he became president-elect. After meeting with President Barack Obama on Thursday, the New Yorker inevitably flew back to Trump Tower instead of staying in Washington D.C. However, since Trump’s election, special precautions have had to be enacted to protect Trump and his New York home.

Although Trump Tower is considered a public building, there are now security checkpoints, metal detectors, and the secret service agents inside. Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore discovered this when he went to visit president-elect Trump as an act of protest. The “Bowling For Columbine” creator was blocked off by the secret service and told to talk to Trump’s team about a meeting.

Because extra security and personnel are required, most presidents choose to live at the White House for their own convenience and the convenience of their staff. However, Trump’s love for Trump Tower may supersede his responsibilities to anything else during his time as president.

[Featured Image by Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Images]