WASHINGTON — A go-to move for presidents who’ve just delivered a prime-time speech before a joint session of Congress is to quickly leave town.
Whether they fly to the heartland or a swing state, the idea is to head outside the Beltway and start selling the glut of proposals they’ve laid out before the biggest televised audience they might attract all year.
Donald Trump did just that as a new president eight years ago, but this time he appears to be staying put.
Coming off his address Tuesday night, Trump had no post-speech travel in the offing, a senior administration official said. Instead, he is scheduled to remain at the White House on Wednesday, where he’ll meet with members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus to discuss government funding.
His vice president, JD Vance, will be the one boarding a plane: Vance is scheduled to visit the U.S.-Mexico border at Eagle Pass, Texas, to talk about security, a spokesperson told NBC News.
Trump has long been a bit of a homebody, relishing the gilded comforts of his Palm Beach and northern New Jersey resorts along with his namesake Manhattan tower.
As president, he has seldom shown the wanderlust that some of his predecessors indulged with a fleet of planes and helicopters at their disposal.
Commenting on why he liked holding rallies in airplane hangars, Trump told a crowd in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, in 2020: “I get off the plane, I make a speech, I get the hell out of here.”
“He likes sleeping in his own bed,” a White House official in Trump’s first term said in an interview. “He doesn’t like hotels. He was more than happy to give a speech somewhere as long as he could fly out the same day and sleep in his own bed.”
And, why not?
“He’s the only president in history who has better real estate than the government,” said John McLaughlin, a Trump pollster.
So far, Trump has kept presidential travel to a minimum.
Apart from a whirlwind two-day trip that included stops in North Carolina, California and Nevada in the first week of his new term, Trump’s only travel outside Washington has been to South Florida, where he has a home and ready access to his golf clubs.
He went to New Orleans last month to watch the Super Bowl, but left the game early.
By contrast, after his first joint session address in 2017, Trump followed the more traditional post-event blueprint.
He quickly embarked on a road show to build momentum for his agenda. Two days after the speech he traveled to Newport News, Virginia, and, standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier, pledged to strengthen the U.S. military.
The following day he visited a Catholic school near Orlando, Florida, to showcase his commitment to school choice.
But these are different times, and Trump is at a different stage in life: older and fresh off a comeback that defied all the rules of modern American politics.
His advisers don’t see any drawback to hunkering down at home. In terms of raw politics, Trump’s name won’t be on the ballot again, meaning there’s no compelling need to blanket the swing states ahead of a re-election campaign that isn’t happening unless he can somehow amend the Constitution.
One person involved in Trump’s political operation said, “The next time he has to leave the White House [or Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach residence] for political reasons will be for the midterms to sell candidates.”
Another person close to the administration’s planning said they’ve not heard of any travel in the works.
“Why would he leave D.C.?” this person said. “What he’s doing is working.”
The senior administration official echoed that point, saying that “a lot of work” is being done at the White House, and Trump is comfortable explaining his actions from the Oval Office.
“The priority is making sure business here at the White House is settled,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.
In a prepared statement, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt cited Trump’s early trip, when he toured hurricane damage in North Carolina and then flew to the Los Angeles area for a firsthand look at the wildfire wreckage. He also gave a speech in Las Vegas centered on the economy.
“He will continue to work hard on behalf of the American people and deliver on his promises — whether it’s from behind the Resolute Desk or while traveling across the country,” Leavitt said.
A willing and eager stand-in is prepared to pick up any travel Trump forgoes. That would be Vance.
“The vice president has dutifully traveled wherever the president needs him to, and he will continue to do so,” Vance spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk said. “President Trump and Vice President Vance have demonstrated that a promise made by this administration will be a promise kept, and that no community across America will be forgotten.”
Unlike the 78-year-old Trump, the 40-year-old Vance may well have political ambitions in 2028 and beyond. Traveling the world offers a vice president a rich opportunity to build name recognition while advancing White House priorities.
Vance so far has represented the White House in two domestic crises.
In late January, he toured Hurricane Helene recovery efforts in Damascus, Virginia, with Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
The following week, Vance visited East Palestine, Ohio, the site of a toxic train derailment in 2023.
Trump and his advisers have long considered Trump’s trip there shortly after the spill to be a turning point in his improbable bid to return to power.
But it was Vance they dispatched on the second anniversary to pledge the administration’s commitment to finishing the ongoing cleanup.
Perhaps most notably, Vance carried the Trumpian message overseas last month at the Munich Security Conference.
In a speech that caused a stir internationally, Vance took aim at European leaders and served up what proved to be a preview of his and Trump’s Oval Office confrontation last week with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“The threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia. It’s not China,” Vance said in Munich. “It’s not any external actor. What I worry about is the threat from within — the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.”
On the day Vance gave that speech, Trump left the White House for the long President’s Day weekend at Mar-a-Lago.
