The world celebrated the coming of the new year differently due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The same may be said for outgoing president Donald Trump, who reportedly did not attend his lavish New Year’s Eve celebration at Mar-a-Lago due to his wife’s decorations.
It is known that the first couple has contrasting preferences when it comes to interiors. With renovations ongoing at the Florida resort and with Trump reportedly unhappy with the new decorations picked out by his wife, it may have been one of the reasons why he returned to Washington early. Trump and the first lady were seen returning to Washington on New Year’s Eve to spend the holiday at the White House instead. His children usually attend the extravagant celebrations at the resort.
According to one of the people who attended the event that charged $1,000 per head, only members of the resort or a guest of a member are allowed entry to the celebrations. Photos from the New Year’s Eve celebration showed its attendees not wearing face masks or face coverings despite being indoors. While the exact number of attendees was not confirmed, around 500 tickets were reportedly reserved. Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani was also said to be seen at the event.
Trump’s abrupt return to the White House was also not specified but he had already been in an unhappy mood over the holiday supposedly because of the decorations Melania picked out. The outgoing president was reportedly furious with the work Melania designed alongside decorator Tham Kannalikham. People familiar with the matter revealed that there have been raised voices between Trump and the management at the club upon seeing the changes done to the area the Trumps use as their residential space. Some of the new renovations were reportedly taken out.
With his chances to overturn the election results near to nonexistent, a recording of a phone conversation between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger over the weekend surfaced. In the recording, Trump is heard as pressuring Raffensperger to “find” votes that could overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state. Georgia has recounted the votes multiple times, confirming Biden’s win.
“All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes which is one more than we have,” Trump is heard as saying. “Because we won the state.”