President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will spend Thanksgiving at the White House for the first time since he began his tenure as president.
The Trumps will spend the holiday in Washington, D.C., instead of attending the annual dinner at the president’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
The first lady’s spokesperson, Stephanie Grisham, confirmed the plans in a “Holiday Scheduling Update” on Twitter last week.
The annual turkey pardon is still set to take place two days prior, according to CNN. The names of the White House Thanksgiving turkeys were announced Monday morning. The turkeys’ names are Corn and Cob, according to Daily Mail U.S. political correspondent Nikki Schwab.
And here they are at their @WillardHotel debut. pic.twitter.com/X5gqeSZ8bn
— Nikki Schwab (@NikkiSchwab) November 23, 2020
Trump and his family typically spend the holiday in Palm Beach, Florida, and have Thanksgiving dinner in a ballroom alongside dues-paying members who purchase tickets to attend.
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization did not respond to questions about whether the Mar-a-Lago event would be held given the spike in coronavirus cases and pleas from public health officials for Americans to limit the number of people they socialize with indoors this holiday season to limit the spread.
Since the election nearly three weeks ago, the president has continued to make speeches and announcements via his Twitter page, but he has made few public appearances. The 74-year-old is pursuing several legal challenges regarding the results of the election, but the president’s claims are unsubstantiated. President-elect Joe Biden has been named the victor, but Trump and his lawyers argue there are a number of recounts, including one in Georgia, that need to be considered before accepting defeat.
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday morning, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany explained why the president chose to stay home for the holiday.
“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.”
Biden has implored the president to help with coordination in the transition, considering the dire status of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dozens of states have been deemed in the red zone due to coronavirus cases spiking. More than 257,000 have died from the virus and millions have been diagnosed in the U.S.
As the president-elect awaits further cooperation with the president, he also has made plans for the holiday, according to People. The 78-year-old said he planned to get together with his family with fewer than 10 people for Thanksgiving. All those in attendance will wear masks, he said, and will be socially distanced and tested beforehand.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
