U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump walk on the southern lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One in Washington, DC, USA, on Wednesday, December 23, 2020.
Chris Kleponis | Bloomberg | Getty Images
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will return to the White House on Thursday, interrupting their long vacation in Palm Beach and avoiding a New Year’s Eve twist at their resort in Mar-a-Lago.
The scheduling notice came days before Congress was set to end President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, a virtually inevitable outcome, but one that several Republicans plan to postpone by raising objections.
The president and first lady are expected to leave Florida for Washington at 11 am, the White House said Wednesday night.
The departure was unexpected: the media reported that guests who attended the annual Mar-a-Lago New Year’s Eve gala were told that Trump would attend the event. CNN, citing a resort member, said on Tuesday that at least 500 reservations for the party had been confirmed.
A receptionist from Mar-a-Lago declined to comment on the party. The White House declined to comment.
Since arriving in Palm Beach on December 23, Trump has made comments largely focused on the election, which he refuses to grant to Biden, despite having repeatedly failed in court to have the Electoral College’s votes for the Democrat reversed or invalidated.
These voters voted on December 14; Biden won 306 votes against 232 from Trump.
Amid frequent trips to his golf club, Trump used Twitter to pressure Republican senators to “stand up and fight for the presidency” while spreading a series of unfounded and unmasked conspiracy theories about widespread electoral fraud.
On Wednesday, Missouri Republican Josh Hawley became the first senator to answer that call, saying he will object when Congress counts the vote next week.
Several House Republicans already promised to run for election at that time. If a member of the House and a senator jointly object to a state’s electoral ticket, the two houses must debate separately and then vote on the objection.
Experts say there is no real chance of overturning the election result.
It is unclear how Trump plans to continue his pressure campaign in the days leading up to Biden’s victory on Wednesday.
On Sunday, he announced that he would travel to Georgia next Monday to campaign for Sens Republicans. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, the day before their two runoff runs that will determine which party controls the Senate.
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will also visit Peach State to campaign for Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock ahead of Tuesday’s elections.