insiderblmThough they’ve spent the past three Thanksgivings at their Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will be spending the upcoming holiday at the White House instead, according to an aide.
“Holiday Scheduling Update,” Mrs. Trump’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “The @POTUS & @flotus will be celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday at the @WhiteHouse this year.”
The annual turkey pardon is still set to take place two days prior, according to CNN.
Since the election more than two weeks ago, the president, 74, has largely remained out of sight inside the White House while his campaign and allies press a number of long-shot legal challenges to the results showing Joe Biden won.
After giving two defiant speeches in the wake of election night on Nov. 3, Trump has made only a few public appearances — most recently on Friday, to discuss vaccine development for the novel coronavirus. However, he did not take questions or discuss the transition of power.
On Veterans Day, he paid a brief visit to Arlington National Cemetery and he has been seen golfing at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.
Nonetheless, he has been incredibly active on Twitter, where he continually posts unverified claims that voting for Biden was rigged and votes for him were stolen.
Appearing on Fox News on Wednesday morning, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany insisted that Trump had still been “hard at work” behind closed doors.
“The president’s hard at work on COVID, among other issues, drawing down our number of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, bringing our men and women home,” she said. “He’s hard at work, and so he’s staying here at the White House, and it will be a lovely Thanksgiving for him and the first lady here in the White House.”
She made no promises about his next appearance.
“That’s up to President Trump,” she said. “You know, sometimes he’ll make the decision to come out on any given moment, but I’m sure you’ll hear from him at the right moment.”
While Trump’s refusal to concede the election has impeded the official transition between the two administrations, President-elect Biden, 77, has said his focus is on uniting the country and preparing to take office in two months. (The Electoral College will officially select Biden as the next president in December, ahead of the January inauguration.)
Last week, Biden’s transition team unveiled the members of his COVID-19 task force and he has been repeatedly briefed about the pandemic, including holding a virtual meeting with frontline healthcare workers.
Earlier this week, Biden urged the president to coordinate with him in the interest of public health.
As for his own Thanksgiving plans, Biden said Monday that he and his family were planning a small get-together of no more than 10 people, per health guidelines. All will be wearing masks, he said, and will be socially distanced and tested beforehand.
