The last time the federal government ran out of money, President Donald Trump wanted the world to know he was making sacrifices.
“I am all alone (poor me) in the White House,” he tweeted on Christmas Eve 2018, left behind in dreary, shutdown Washington, DC, as his family made merry at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“I haven’t actually left the White House in months,” he said a few weeks later, bemoaning the long stretches of cooped-up time. So lonely was Trump that he took to waving forlornly out the window at machine gun-toting guards patrolling the White House grounds (“They don’t, like, wave,” he observed).
Back then, Trump seemed aware that weekly visits to his seaside mansion or lengthy trips overseas might appear insensitive as federal workers went without pay and government services ground to a halt. He called off a trip to Switzerland for the glittering World Economic Forum in Davos, but did make a surprise stop in Iraq to greet troops around Christmas.
It’s a different story this year. Trump has spent two weekends at Mar-a-Lago since the shutdown began on October 1, and played a round of golf at his club in Virginia.
Continue Reading on CNN
This preview shows approximately 15% of the article. Read the full story on the publisher's website to support quality journalism.