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Melania & Barron Trump Reportedly Moving To White House This Summer After School Year Ends
By Korey Lane
While your family has likely been passionately debating the merits and perils of President Donald Trump's new proposed budget, the subject of Melania Trump continuing to reside in New York City may have been mentioned. The first lady has been living in Trump Tower with son Barron since Trump's inauguration in January, becoming a hot topic in many budget debates (it's not cheap to rent a floor in the tower, after all). However, all that may be about to change as news broke this week that Melania and Barron Trump are moving to the White House this summer, after the school year is complete.
Before Trump's inauguration, it was revealed that Trump's family wouldn't be initially joining him in Washington, D.C. once he took office. Obviously, since then, reports have come flooding in that claim the cost of security for Melania and Barron would be astronomical. One article in The New York Times even stated that "it costs $127,000 to $146,000 a day to protect the first lady and her son while they reside in Trump Tower." Since those funds were being provided by the government (initially New York City's local government, and then a reimbursement by the federal government), many taxpayers have been (understandably) distressed at the unique choice made by Trump and his family.
However, in a statement this week, White House adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff and the administration finally made it clear that Melania and Barron will be joining the president at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, thereby saving taxpayers a bit of change in the grand scheme of things (unless, the family decides to go back and forth on the weekends, as Trump once suggested); That's also much sooner than many originally thought:
Mrs. Trump will be moving to DC and settling in to the White House at the end of the school year, splitting her time between New York and DC in the meantime. Mrs. Trump is honored to serve this country and is taking the role and responsibilities of first lady very seriously. It has only been a short time since the inauguration and the first lady is going to go about her role in a pragmatic and thoughtful way that is unique and authentic to her.
This news breaks just days after Trump's budget plan was released. The budget proposal immediately received large amounts of criticism from Americans on both sides of the aisle as it would effectively call for large cuts in several popular government programs, ones on which many Americans rely daily. And even though many across the country agree that cuts need to be made, the programs that Trump suggested should receive decreased funding are programs crucial to many of his own voters, like Meals on Wheels, which provides food to those unable to prepare their own, a large portion of whom are elderly.
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Since then, many have pointed out that, in order to save money for such crucial programs as Meals on Wheels and so many others, Melania and Barron could move into the White House, decreasing the need for government (and taxpayer) security funding. Now it seems those people may be getting their wish: Melania and Barron will be heading to D.C. in June and have reportedly chosen a school for the youngest Trump to attend.
This isn't the end of the budget debate of course, and any good the New York to D.C. move might do in terms of cost-cutting could still be off-set, as Trump continues to spend more and more of his weekends at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The costs of Trump and his family's expenses may be decreasing with Melania and Barron moving to D.C., but the president won't be completely out of hot water just because his family is doing what every other presidential family has done in years past.