Melania And Barron Trump Joins Donald Trump On His Seventh Weekend At Mar-A-Lago
President Donald Trump made his touchdown at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Thursday, marking his seventh trip to the Winter White House since he assumed the presidency. Trump took an Air Force One at the Joint Base Andrews in Maryland just outside Washington D.C. then proceeded to travel to the Palm Beach resort for Good Friday and Easter.
Alongside President Donald Trump was his wife Melania Trump and family, Donald Trump Jr., Eric, Tiffany, and Barron Trump as per Daily Mail. The first family was greeted by about 50 trump supporters in front of the Publix shopping plaza, some even brought props to further express their support, waving banners that read “TRUMP,” and “We heart Trump.”
The warm welcome by Trump supporters was reportedly requested to stay further back from the road as compared to their previous position on prior visits. The request was made by the West Palm Beach police and they informed the Pro-Trump group that that Secret Service requested for their minor relocation. As a result, some supporters uttered complaints under their breath, worried that Donald Trump would not be able to see them and their supportive efforts from too far off of a distance.
Looking back, President Donald Trump has frequently visited his Mar-a-Lago resort, not only for leisure but for business as well. According to My Palm Beach Post, Trump’s visits to the Winter White House also transformed the resort into a summit venue for Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. It is also worth noting that other business related trips and nearly a dozen golf activities took place in the said Palm Beach resort.
Furthermore, President Donald Trump is notably accompanied by family members only, rather than his top aides for this specific holiday Mar-a-Lago visit. According to Daily Mail, the president was not noticeably accompanied by senior staff, possibly connected to the recent White House confirmation regarding that president’s schedule on Friday, which has no public events planned out.
This particular Mar-a-Lago trip is starting to look like a first family get away and sources claim that the family is expected to take part in an Easter Service at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea. Coincidentally, the sacred venue is the very same church where Melania Trump and Donald Trump tied the knot in 2005.
These Mar-a-Lago Visits have been under scrutiny for a while now with ethics experts raising a brow at the frequency of these trips. Apparently, President Donald Trump will have spent more than a quarter of his presidency at the moment, at Mar-a-Lago once Easter weekend is over.
Moreover, the trips to the beautiful Florida resort cost Palm Beach County taxpayers around $3.7 million. While majority of the local expense are allocated to the overtime pay of the Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies, who lend a helping hand to the Secret Service whenever President Trump comes for a visit.
Apparently, the local officials and congress members are requesting the federal government to reimburse the local costs brought about by Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago visits. Leading the issue is U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton who raised the concern during a Broward County town hall meeting on Thursday.
“It should not be left on the taxpayers of Palm Beach County and South Florida to bear the costs of these regular visits by the president down to South Florida to go out onto his golf course,” Deutch claims. “So we’re going to continue to press to ensure that those costs are reimbursed so that South Florida taxpayers, Palm Beach County taxpayers, aren’t on the hook.”
Despite the hopefully pleasant Easter weekend just around the corner, there are other pressing matters at hand. Apparently, before Trump and his family arrived at the Winter White House, the Pentagon announced that the largest non-nuclear bomb in the United States arsenal has been dropped ion an Islamic State target in Afghanistan.
[Featured By Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images]
