Thanksgiving at Mar-a-Lago has been a tradition of Donald Trump’s presidency. During his first three years in office, Trump spent the long weekend in Palm Beach playing golf, relaxing, and mingling with club guests. In 2018, Trump even brought in a singer to perform “Music of the Night” from Phantom of the Opera. But in the wake of losing the presidential election to Joe Biden, Trump won’t be hosting a feast at the resort this year. Melania Trump’s spokesperson Stephanie Grisham tweeted last week that the first family plans to remain in the White House for the holiday.
The cancellation has fueled speculation that Trump is staying in Washington to continue his failed attempt to reverse the results of the election. But according to a Republican close to the White House, Trump’s decision not to travel to Mar-a-Lago is actually an indication that, privately at least, he’s preparing to vacate the White House in January. Trump is in the midst of a major renovation to his private apartment at Mar-a-Lago, which has made it uninhabitable during the holiday, the source said. “He wants to make it more comfortable as a full-time residence. It’s actually not that big,” the source said. The Mar-a-Lago renovation adds more evidence to the widely assumed view that Trump will make Palm Beach his permanent home after he leaves office, given his toxic relationship with New York. The White House did not respond for comment.
It’s still an open question as to what his next professional or political act will be. The Washington Post recently reported that Trump could announce a 2024 run before the end of the year, in part to suck up oxygen from other Republican presidential hopefuls. A more likely scenario is that Trump would launch a right-wing media venture to compete with Fox News.
Trump’s frustration with Fox has been slowly ratcheting up, but it has taken on a new dimension during Trump’s refusal to accept the election outcome. According to a source, Trump has personally called Fox personalities to lobby them to say on air that Republican state legislators should ignore the will of the voters and send pro-Trump electors to the Electoral College next month. All three hosts have so far refused. “They’re just not going to say it,” the source said. “It’s an absolute joke. Trump is telling them the electors should give it to Trump.”
Last week, Tucker Carlson even took the rare step of publicly criticizing the Trump legal team’s efforts. In a widely cited segment, Carlson attacked pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell for promoting a conspiracy theory claiming that the late Hugo Chávez and liberal billionaire George Soros were behind a plot to steal millions of votes from Trump by hacking electronic voting machines produced by the company Dominion. Carlson reported that Powell refused to come on his show to provide evidence of the scheme. (Yesterday, the Trump campaign disavowed Powell).
Ascendent Fox rival Newsmax has attracted attention lately as being a possible takeover target for Trump allies, but Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy has denied he would convert his network to Trump TV. And it’s not out of the question that Trump and Fox could reach détente. According to two sources, Trump’s attacks on Fox News are causing alarm in the Murdoch family. Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch is considering a plan to offer Trump a $100 million package that would include HarperCollins publishing Trump’s post-presidential memoir and Fox News giving Trump a contributor deal or his own show, the sources say. On November 10, the Murdoch-owned New York Post reported Trump could land a $100 million book advance, but made no mention of the Murdochs. “Rupert is going to make a humongous offer,” one of the sources said. “The thinking is, Let’s buy Trump off so he shuts the fuck up.” Fox Corp. did not provide a comment. However, a source close to the publishing company denied it would make an offer for Trump’s memoir.
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