President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump on Thursday will return to the White House, cutting short their lengthy holiday break in Palm Beach and skipping a reported New Year’s Eve blowout at his Mar-a-Lago resort, CNBC informed.
The scheduling notice came days before Congress was set to finalize President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, a virtually inevitable outcome but one that multiple Republicans are nonetheless planning to delay by launching objections.
The President and the first lady are set to leave Florida for Washington at 11 a.m. ET, the White House said Wednesday night.
The departure was unexpected: Multiple outlets reported that guests attending Mar-a-Lago’s annual New Year’s Eve gala had been told Trump would appear at the event. CNN, citing a member of the resort, reported Tuesday that at least 500 reservations to the party had already been confirmed.
A receptionist at Mar-a-Lago declined to comment on the party. The White House declined to comment.
Since arriving in Palm Beach on Dec. 23, Trump’s public comments have largely focused on the election, which he refuses to concede to Biden despite repeatedly failing in court to have Electoral College votes for the Democrat flipped or invalidated.
Those electors cast their ballots on Dec. 14; Biden won 306 votes, while Trump won 232.
Amid frequent trips to his nearby golf club, Trump has taken to Twitter to pressure Republican senators to “step up and fight for the Presidency,” while spreading an array of unfounded and debunked conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud.
On Wednesday, Missouri Republican Josh Hawley became the first senator to heed that call, saying he will object when Congress counts the votes next week.
Multiple House Republicans have already vowed to contest the election at that time. If one House member and one senator jointly object to a state’s slate of electors, the two chambers must separately debate and then vote on the objection.
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