(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump is set to be at his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, before going to the Daytona 500 this Sunday.
Local television station WPEC writes that the president has returned to Florida every weekend since his inauguration when he initially stayed in Washington.
Last week, he was there before heading to New Orleans to watch the Super Bowl.
Some of the president’s key staff can usually be seen on board the helicopter to Joint Base Andrews as he makes his way to Florida. His last departure included White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, press secretary Karoline Leavitt, communications director Steven Cheung and adviser James Blair, among others.
Trump made many visits to Mar-a-Lago during his first term as well. As the Palm Beach Post notes, “Mar-a-Lago became known as the ‘Southern White House’ or the ‘Winter White House’ because of his frequent trips there.”
After he won election to his second term in November, The Associated Press reported that Trump spent most of his first week as president-elect at Mar-a-Lago, where he worked the phones, reconnected with foreign leaders and built his new administration.
Often, he was surrounded by advisers, friends and paying members of the club, the AP wrote, including Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO who now leads the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
NewsNation reached out to the White House for comment.
Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, often traveled over the weekends as well. The Wall Street Journal last February reported that the former president made many trips to his home state of Delaware. During Biden’s first three years in office, he spent all or part of 254 days there, former CBS News reporter Mark Knoller told the WSJ. Between weekend travel, vacations and trips to Camp David combined, Biden spent all or part of 408 days away from the White House in three years, Knoller said.
Then-White House spokeswoman Olivia Dalton told the WSJ at the time that spending time on weekends with his family and community remained an “important part” of Biden’s life.
On these trips with Biden would be White House staff and national security aides to give him updates on developing issues.
“As those around him know, this president is also constantly working no matter where he is—whether he’s at the White House, in Delaware, or traveling around the country,” Dalton said to the WSJ.
Trump, meanwhile, spent all or part of 259 days at his Florida and New Jersey properties during the first three years of his first term, Koller, who compiles data on presidential travel, said.
When he was president, George W. Bush would often go to his Crawford, Texas ranch. Knoller, in 2005, said in an interview with NPR that although Bush was on a trip, “It’s really unfair to call it time off.”
“The president is really never able to take a vacation from his job,” Knoller said.
