It appears President Donald Trump will not return to Palm Beach, Florida, this weekend.
Though the White House has not confirmed the president’s weekend plans, the Federal Aviation Administration had released notices of flight restrictions for a presidential trip by this time in the week ahead of each of Trump’s past visits.
The lack of such notification at midweek signals it’s unlikely the president will fly back into town for an eighth weekend here.
When the president has come to town in the past, the FAA typically posts an advisory the previous Monday notifying pilots that temporary flight restrictions are forthcoming for the airspace over Palm Beach. That advisory usually is followed the next day by the flight restrictions themselves.
Also absent: the massive Air Force cargo planes that land at Palm Beach International Airport and have heralded Trump’s arrival in the past.
Because no details have been released about how Trump will spend his weekend, the president still could make the nearly two-hour flight from Washington, D.C., to Palm Beach International Airport to spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago Club.
He also could opt to stay at the White House, as he has on six of the 13 weekends since he took office in January. On each of those weekends, the president has visited one of his properties in the area: either his Trump International Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, or Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Trump has come under fire for the frequency and costs of his trips to Mar-a-Lago, with U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, saying this week that it is "bothering" her. "I do wish he would spend more time in Washington," she told a town hall crowd.
Before Trump's seventh visit to Mar-a-Lago last weekend, a Palm Beach Post analysis found that Palm Beach County agencies had spent nearly $3.7 million protecting the president. Of that, about $3.5 million is from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office alone, the Post reported.
Trump wrapped up his most recent trip to Palm Beach on Sunday, after arriving last Thursday evening to spend a long Easter weekend with his family at Mar-a-Lago. The president traveled Friday and Saturday to his Trump International Golf Club in suburban West Palm Beach, and attended the 11 a.m. Easter Sunday service at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach.
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