President Trump to Skip New Year’s Gala at Mar-a-Lago

Melania Trump, right, looks on as her husband President-elect Donald Trump talks to reporters during a New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago, Saturday, Dec. 31, 2016, in Palm Beach, Fla. (Photo: Evan Vucci, AP)

When the gang at Mar-a-Lago rings in the New Year Monday night, the posh Florida club’s most prominent member will be missing: President Donald Trump.

Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget and the incoming chief of staff, says the president will stay in Washington to work on ending the week-long government shutdown.

“The President’s been here, by the way, all weekend, all Christmas,” Mulvaney said in an interview on “Fox & Friends.” “He’s staying in Washington, D.C., over New Year’s. He’s canceled his plans for Christmas. Now, he’s canceled his plans for New Year’s.”

Mulvaney says the president is “very heavily engaged on (the shutdown negotiations) on a minute-by-minute basis.”

If so, he’s not getting a lot of face time with members of Congress, who have all, by and large, gone home for the holidays.

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SOURCE: Doug Stanglin
USA TODAY