Government Shutdown Trump to stay in Washington amid shutdown The president was supposed to leave for his resort on Friday, but had pushed back his departure several times.

President Donald Trump will stay in Washington amid the government shutdown, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Saturday.

“Due to the shutdown, President Trump will remain in Washington, D.C. and the First Lady will return from Florida so they can spend Christmas together," Sanders said, according to a pool report.


The Senate adjourned Saturday afternoon with no solution to the partial government shutdown and no plans to reconvene until Dec. 27.

The White House had twice canceled Trump's planned departure to his Mar-a-Lago resort, two White House aides confirmed, as Washington plunged into a partial government shutdown and officials continued negotiating to reach a compromise.

The White House had signaled in an email to staff obtained by POLITICO on Friday that the president might depart at noon on Saturday — a day later than originally intended — but officials scuttled that plan when it became clear a quick solution to reopen the government was not in sights.

Trump's wife, Melania Trump, and his son, Barron Trump, had taken off on their own for the Winter White House on Friday. They will now return to the White House.

On Saturday afternoon, Trump tweeted, "I am in the White House, working hard."

He added, "We are negotiating with the Democrats on desperately needed Border Security (Gangs, Drugs, Human Trafficking & more) but it could be a long stay."

The president later tweeted: "I will not be going to Florida because of the Shutdown - Staying in the White House! #MAGA"

Trump's decision to stay in D.C. for the time being is a recognition of the poor optics of having the president at his luxury resort while the government is closed — furloughing hundreds of thousands of workers and halting some federal services near the holidays.

The president was originally scheduled to leave the White House on Friday afternoon for a two-week-plus trip to Mar-a-Lago. But those plans were scuttled amid the shutdown threat.

"Please note that we will no longer travel to Palm Beach, FL today. Please monitor your e-mail for further updates,” said a second internal White House email sent to staff earlier Friday, which was confirmed by a West Wing aide.





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The spending dispute hinges on Trump’s demand for $5 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Democrats, whose ability to filibuster in the Senate amounts to veto power, call that a non-starter.

Congressional leaders had been discussing a solution that would fund border security at $1.6 billion, slightly higher than current levels but far short of what Trump is requesting. If Trump ultimately backs such a compromise, it would mark a stark reversal for the president, who had initially signaled his willingness to support a stopgap measure only to double down on his insistence that lawmakers green light $5 billion for the wall.

Earlier Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration canceled the temporary flight restrictions for airspace around Mar-a-Lago that had been put in place from Dec. 21-Jan. 6 in anticipation of Trump’s trip.

The president's every movement — from a trip to the nearby Capitol to a flight across the country — requires a huge amount of logistical and security planning. As a result, staffers often need to be given as much notice as possible about the president's schedule. Trump's exact departure time is likely to shift as it becomes clearer when — or whether — the House will have its final vote.

White House aides are sensitive to the perception that Trump shirks his presidential duties during his many trips to Mar-a-Lago and his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. They insist that the trips are “working vacations.”

But Democrats have mocked the president’s golfing habits. “Maybe he thinks if the government shuts down, he can golf more comfortably,” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Wednesday.

Trump is known to be even more unpredictable during this stints at Mar-a-Lago, where he freely socializes with friends away from White House aides.

“He’s more free and liberated there. He’s able to do more things according to his style, on his own timetable — more like he did in the private sector,” a former White House official told POLITICO earlier this year. “He doesn’t have the same guardrails.”