President Donald Trump loves wintering at his resort in Florida, where he's free to play golf and is surrounded by some of his staunchest supporters.
Trump recently skipped Christmas festivities at Mar-A-Lago because of the government shutdown, watching as his wife went to Florida without him as he sat "alone" in the White House, tweeting (literally) "poor me" as he skipped his customary vacation while the federal government was at a stand-still over a budget impasse related to his demand for a border wall.
On Thursday, the New York Times Trump-whisperer Maggie Haberman said that she expects Trump has maintained that he will not vacation while the government is shut-down, but that she expects he will break that pledge—possibly as soon as New Year's Eve.
Melania Trump has already returned to Mar-A-Lago, and Haberman thinks the president will likely follow—unless he wants to dodge uncomfortable questions there.
"My guess has always been that he will likely end up in Florida, but he has said to a number of people that he doesn't think he can do that given the shutdown," she said. "They've got that big New Year's Eve party every year at Mar-A-Lago that he really likes going to. I think there is some other event that's happening there a few days later that he really was looking forward to going to. He was looking forward to this trip."
But while Mar-A-Lago "has always been where he seems the happiest and the most contented," Haberman says the shutdown has spoiled that.
"I think he has been looking forward to it less in recent weeks because it's going to mean a ton of glad-handing, and interfacing, and answering questions he doesn't necessarily know the answer to," she said.
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