Before he comes back for good on Inauguration Day, Donald Trump will return to the White House briefly at the invitation of President Joe Biden.

Opponents of offshore wind energy projects expect President-elect Donald Trump to kill an industry he has vowed to end on the first day he returns to the White House.

Donald Trump announced on Saturday that his inaugural committee will be chaired by Florida real estate investor Steven Witkoff and former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler.

President-elect Donald Trump has won his sixth battleground state of the 2024 election, beating Vice President Kamala Harris in Nevada.

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case has canceled any remaining court deadlines after prosecutors said they need time to assess “the appropriate course going forward” after the Republican’s presidential victory this week.

“The Handmaid’s Tale” is selling again.

Donald Trump won the presidency after holding tight to his core base of voters and slightly expanding his coalition to include several groups that have traditionally been a part of the Democratic base.

Donald Trump’s impending return to the White House means he’ll want to stand up an entirely new administration from the one that served under President Joe Biden.

Donald Trump is refusing to say how he voted on Florida’s abortion measure and he's getting testy about it.

Robert F.

French newspaper Le Monde reported that highly confidential movements of some of the world’s most powerful leaders, including Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, could easily be tracked online through a fitness app used by their bodyguards.

Uncertainty reigns entering the final full week of the 2024 campaign with Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump locked in a razor-thin presidential contest.

Melania Trump has revealed her support for abortion rights ahead of the release of her upcoming memoir.

In the first interview with Melania Trump in more than two years, the former first lady says she saw her husband's survival in two attempts on his life as “miracles."

Former first lady Melania Trump is telling her story her way.

At 76, Hillary Clinton is taking stock of her life – its wins and its losses – in a new memoir.

Not even a presidential election is likely to slow the wave of fantasy novels that has been building the past few years.

Former first lady Melania Trump has a memoir coming out this fall, “Melania,” billed as “a powerful and inspiring story of a woman who has carved her own path, overcome adversity and defined personal excellence.”.

Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump were at the Republican National Convention on its last night.

The keen of bagpipes, a three-volley gun salute and a bugle sounding taps pierced the air of a small Pennsylvania town as hundreds gathered to honor an ex-fire chief who was shot and killed at a rally for former President Donald Trump.

Former first lady Melania Trump is not expected to speak at next week’s Republican National Convention, which will feature speeches by other Trump family members and a long list of GOP officials.

Former first lady Melania Trump will attend the Republican National Convention next week in Milwaukee.

After Melania Trump missed some key events in her husband's presidential campaign this year, she told reporters who asked about her thin schedule to “stay tuned.”.

Donald Trump says he's accepting an invitation from Fox News for his running mate to participate in a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Former President Donald Trump used a day off from his hush money trial Friday to headline a Republican fundraiser in Minnesota, a traditionally Democratic state that he boasts he can carry in November.

Former President Donald Trump’s youngest son, Barron Trump, won’t be serving as a Florida delegate to the Republican National Convention after all.

Former first lady Melania Trump is making a return to her husband’s presidential campaign with a rare political appearance after months of being absent from Donald Trump’s latest run for the White House.

Donald Trump’s campaign said it raised $50.5 million on Saturday when major donors gather for his biggest fundraiser yet.

Lawyers for Donald Trump have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to dismiss an indictment charging the former president with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

From allegations of plotting to overturn an election he lost to illegally stowing classified documents at his Florida estate, former President Donald Trump faces four criminal indictments in four different cities as he vies to reclaim the White House.

Former First Lady Melania Trump remembered her mother as “a ray of light in the darkest of days” during a funeral service at a church not far from the family’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

Former first lady Melania Trump's mother has died.

Melania Trump has welcomed new U.S. citizens at a naturalization ceremony at the National Archives.

Rosalynn Carter will be memorialized Tuesday with classical music and beloved hymns, some of her favorite Biblical passages, and a rare gathering of all living U.S. first ladies and multiple presidents, including her 99-year-old husband Jimmy Carter.

Rosalynn Carter was remembered Tuesday as a former U.S. first lady who leveraged her fierce intellect and political power to put her deep Christian faith into action by always helping others, especially those who needed it most.

Reactions are pouring in to the death of Rosalynn Carter.

Donald Trump has surrendered in Georgia in his fourth criminal case of the year.

Donald Trump’s legal problems appear to have escalated significantly with federal charges over the retention of top secret documents, but investigators aren’t done yet.

A nearly 30-year-old rape claim against Donald Trump has gone to trial.

Jurors deliberating the fate of three men accused of murdering rising rap star XXXTentacion reviewed videos, photos and text messages seized from two of their cellphones.

Dancers, drummers and Namibia’s president and first lady welcomed Jill Biden to their country on Wednesday.

The European Court of Justice says online retail giant Amazon may be in breach of luxury shoemaker Christian Louboutin’s trademark rights over the sale of counterfeit red-soled high-heeled shoes on its platform.

There was talk of impeachment at the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial.

Natasa Pirc Musar has been a human rights lawyer, a TV presenter and ran Slovenia’s top data protection agency and its Red Cross.

Liberal rights advocate Natasa Pirc Musar has won a runoff vote to become Slovenia’s next president and the small European Union country’s first female head of state.

The Democratic Party’s most powerful voices are warning that abortion, Social Security and democracy itself are at risk as they labor to overcome fierce political headwinds over the final weekend of the 2022 campaign.

Presidents come and go, but White House grounds superintendent Dale Haney has been a constant through the past 10 presidencies.

More than eight hours of conversations between Donald Trump and Bob Woodward will be released next week as an audiobook.

It’s been more than a decade since President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, welcomed back George W.

Members of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection are holding their first prime-time hearing to share what they have uncovered about then-President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

In Nebraska, the winner of a crowded Republican primary race for governor will be the overwhelming favorite to win in November.

Republicans hoping to emerge from crowded primaries this year have spent tens of thousands of dollars hiring operatives with ties to former President Donald Trump.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol wants to know what Ivanka Trump heard and saw that day.

The Kennedy Center Honors has returned to tradition this year with a real-life gala and the presence of the president for the first time since 2016.

President Joe Biden will be in the house for the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday.

A book by Donald Trump's ex-chief of staff says Trump tested positive for COVID-19 three days before his first debate in September 2020 with Joe Biden.

Ghosts and goblins can scratch the White House from their trick or treating routes this year.

First lady Jill Biden has campaigned for Democrats in Virginia's and New Jersey’s governors' races.

Facebook has expanded its online harassment policies to do more to stop degrading attacks on public figures as well as abuse directed at journalists and human rights activists around the world.

As former President Donald Trump has waded into contested primaries across the country, trying to exact revenge and remake the Republican Party in his image, he has endorsed a series of candidates facing serious allegations, especially concerning their treatment of women.

A former Trump aide and congressional candidate in Ohio has filed a defamation lawsuit over allegations of physical abuse that his former girlfriend and White House colleague is leveling while promoting her new book.

The latest round of subpoenas from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection may help uncover the degree to which former President Donald Trump, his campaign and White House were involved in planning the rally that preceded the riot.

A White House press secretary and chief of staff to then-first lady Melania Trump paints a deeply unflattering picture of Donald Trump in a book out next week.

Senators have fired a barrage of criticism at a Facebook executive over the social-networking giant’s handling of internal research on how its Instagram photo-sharing platform can harm teens.

The Supreme Court says it will hold a ceremonial swearing-in for Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Oct. 1, delayed by nearly a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

An anti-abortion rights billboard along a New Mexico interstate is tapping the image of a famous Albuquerque police officer to promote its political message.

Within the span of 36 hours this past week, Jill Biden went from clinking cups of beer with Doug Emhoff, the vice president's spouse, at a baseball game in Houston to joining the president in Florida to comfort families affected by the collapsed condominium building in Surfside.

Claims by one Republican congressional candidate that another GOP hopeful plotted to kill her have landed in a Florida courtroom.

If President Joe Biden has any private words with Russia’s Vladimir Putin at their meeting next week, U.S. interpreters and diplomats will be standing by to document their high-stakes encounter.

Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle spent nearly $10 million on an 11,000-square-foot, six-bedroom, 11-bath mansion in Jupiter.

(Mandel Ngan/Pool via AP, File)WATERFORD, Pa. – Jill Biden sees a teachable moment in the depths of the coronavirus pandemic. She's still teaching, virtually from the White House, and pining for the day she can go back to the classroom. Jill Biden quickly set her agenda as first lady by highlighting all three of her longtime causes in her first weeks. ___There apparently are no incognito errand runs for Jill Biden. Ad___After Jill Biden released a photo of herself at the counter of The Sweet Lobby, the boutique bakery wasn't the only thing that became an instant hit.

I know what it’s like to not be there when it happens," said Biden, who has long addressed grief more powerfully than perhaps any other American public figure. "I know what it’s like when you are there, holding their hands, as they look in your eye and they slip away. In one of his many symbolic breaks with his predecessor, Biden has not shied away from offering remembrances for the lives lost to the virus. The COVID-19 death total in the United States had just crossed 400,000 when Biden took the oath of office. Outside of perfunctory tweets marking the milestones of 100,000 and 200,000 deaths, Trump oversaw no moment of national mourning, no memorial service.

Limbaugh, the talk radio host who became the voice of American conservatism, has died. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)NEW YORK – You didn't have to like or even listen to Rush Limbaugh to be affected by what he did. Bumper stickers proclaimed, “Rush is Right.”“There is no talk radio as we know it without Rush Limbaugh. As Limbaugh's political strength became evident, many Republican politicians felt they couldn't cross him, or run the risk of alienating his millions of listeners, Hemmer said. “Many of these listeners didn't care if Rush Limbaugh crossed the line (of propriety),” she said.

All rights reserved)Rush Limbaugh reacts as first Lady Melania Trump, and his wife Kathryn, applaud, as President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020. Trailblazing conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh has died, his family announced, after a battle with lung cancer. Limbaugh was diagnosed with cancer in January of 2020 and shortly thereafter was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by former President Donald Trump. Limbaugh launched his radio show in 1988, and it was at one time the most listened to radio program in the country. The Sun Sentinel reported that Limbaugh died Wednesday at his home in Palm Beach, which his wife Kathryn announced on his nationally syndicated radio show.

PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Palm Beach Town Council spent close to seven hours Tuesday considering issues important to the wealthy island community: the availability of the coronavirus vaccine. Each agenda item provoked a litany of questions, comments and observations, except one: whether former President Donald Trump may continue living at his Mar-a-Lago Club. AdTown attorney Skip Randolph said there is nothing in the club’s 1993 agreement with Palm Beach that prohibits Trump from residing there. He and Trump attorney John Marion said the town permits clubs and resorts to provide onsite housing for their employees and Trump, as Mar-a-Lago’s president, fits the bill. If by “the slightest” chance Trump gets booted from Mar-a-Lago, Marion said, he would likely move into one of the other nearby homes he owns.

Town Manager Kirk Blouin said in an email Thursday that Palm Beach is examining its options and the matter might be discussed at the town council's February meeting. Trump and former first lady Melania Trump changed their residency from New York City to Mar-a-Lago in 2019. Last month, it issued a statement saying, “There is no document or agreement in place that prohibits President Trump from using Mar-A-Lago as his residence.” Trump owns two other homes near Mar-a-Lago. According to 1993 Palm Beach Post articles, Trump attorney Paul Rampell told the town council that if the agreement were approved, Trump would be treated like any other member. Before he became president, Trump clashed frequently with the town and its mostly staid residents over the club’s operation.

Now that he's left office, it's hard to see him embracing the stately, exclusive club of living former presidents. “He kind of laughed at the very notion that he would be accepted in the presidents club,” said Kate Andersen Brower, who interviewed Trump in 2019 for her book “Team of Five: The Presidents’ Club in the Age of Trump." Obama, Bush and Clinton recorded their video after accompanying Biden to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider following the inauguration. When Hurricane Katrina blasted the Gulf Coast, Bush, father of the then-current president George W. Bush, called on Clinton to boost Katrina fundraising relief efforts. Obama tapped Clinton and the younger President Bush to boost fundraising efforts for Haiti after its devastating 2010 earthquake.

(David Tulis/Pool Photo via AP)NEW YORK – After Air Force One took Donald Trump out of Washington, an unusual Inauguration Day quickly felt more traditional — even comforting — for people watching at home. "What we're seeing today is an ejection of insurrection.”Trump skipped the inauguration of his successor, the first president to break that tradition since 1869. “If Democrats need thousands of troops to occupy the Capitol on Inauguration Day, then it seems possible that their candidate wasn't actually elected by the people,” Sharp said. “He said that there is truth and there are lies, lies that are told for power and lies that are told for profit,” Wallace said. The Washington Post updated its count of lies and misstatements by Trump: 30,534 heading into his last day as president.

___7:40 p.m.White House press secretary Jen Psaki says President Joe Biden will allow Congress to decide the way forward on the impeachment trial of his predecessor, Donald Trump. ___7:30 p.m.White House press secretary Jen Psaki says President Joe Biden will call Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday, the first call with a foreign leader after Biden took the oath of office. The Senate has voted to confirm Avril Haines as the new director of national intelligence, giving President Joe Biden the first member of his Cabinet. Workers removed the giant sign from the department’s C Street lobby on Wednesday shortly after President Joe Biden was inaugurated. ___4:55 p.m.President Joe Biden has directed that federal agencies halt all rulemaking until his administration has time to review proposed regulations.

WASHINGTON – His presidency over, Donald Trump bid farewell to Washington on Wednesday but also hinted at a comeback despite a legacy of chaos, tumult and bitter division in the country he led for four years. Trump orchestrated an elaborate farewell that included a red carpet and color guard, as well as his usual campaign soundtrack. Speaking without notes, Trump told several hundred supporters that it had been his “great honor and privilege” to serve as president. They waved Trump and American flags, held signs that read, “THANK YOU” and “TRUMP WON!” and appeared visibly emotional as his SUV crawled past them. Some expect him to eventually turn completely on the Republican Party, perhaps by flirting with a run as a third-party candidate as an act of revenge.

“To heal we must remember," the incoming president told the nation at a sunset ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial. “Between sundown and dusk, let us shine the lights into the darkness ... and remember all who we lost,” Biden said. During his brief remarks, Biden faced the larger-than life statue of Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War president who served as more than 600,000 Americans died. Biden at his Delaware farewell, held at the National Guard/Reserve Center named after his late son Beau Biden, paid tribute to his home state. ___This story has been corrected to show that flags on the National Mall represent people who couldn't come, not COVID deaths.

Flags are placed on the National Mall, looking towards the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial, ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021, in Washington. As Biden and Harris took breaks from their inaugural preparations to honor the civil rights hero Monday, outgoing President Donald Trump remained out of public view at the White House for the sixth straight day. Biden transition officials, including incoming Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall and the deputy attorney general nominee, Lisa Monaco, held a videoconference with acting heads and career staff from national security agencies to discuss the security situation surrounding Inauguration Day. Even before the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, inauguration festivities were expected to be muted due to the virus. Mayor Muriel Bowser urged residents to stay away from the city on Inauguration Day.

Ron.”Thus was born the tradition of departing presidents leaving a handwritten note in the Oval Office for their successors. President Donald Trump has refused to accept the results of November’s election and vowed not to attend Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday. I know you will feel that, too,” Bush wrote in the note, adding, "I wish you great happiness here. Updegrove said even if the note tradition stops with Trump, it could easily start again when Biden leaves office. He has already been vice president and spent 36 years in the Senate, where tradition and bipartisan congeniality are strong.

It said that if any former employees or independent contractors for the campaign took part, “they did not do so at the direction of the Trump campaign.”At least one was working for the Trump campaign this month. The AP’s review found at least three of the Trump campaign aides named on the permit rushed to obscure their connections to the demonstration. Between mid-March and mid-November, Donald J. Trump for President Inc. paid Wren $20,000 a month, according to Federal Election Commission records. Maggie Mulvaney, a niece of former top Trump aide Mick Mulvaney, is listed on the permit attachment as the “VIP Lead.” She worked as director of finance operations for the Trump campaign, according to her LinkedIn profile. Trump’s presidential campaign paid Event Strategies $1.3 million in 2020 for “audio visual services,” according to the campaign finance records.

A van arrives to pick up boxes that were moved out of the Eisenhower Executive Office building, inside the White House complex, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021, in Washington. Inauguration Day is also moving day at the White House. The process would continue during the ceremony and the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. “They basically have the moving trucks waiting outside the White House gates,” said Matt Costello, a historian at the White House Historical Association. The chief usher reports to Melania Trump, who toured the White House living quarters in November 2016 when she accompanied Donald Trump to the White House for a post-election meeting with then-President Barack Obama.

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)WASHINGTON – Days before Joe Biden becomes president, incoming first lady Jill Biden is taking a step toward fulfilling a campaign promise to revive a support program for military families that she once led with former first lady Michelle Obama. Jill Biden on Thursday was naming an executive director of that program, known as Joining Forces. Rory Brosius, 37, is on the president-elect's transition team and was a senior adviser to Jill Biden during the campaign. “Military families still needed support,” Brosius told The Associated Press in a telephone interview before she was to join Jill Biden for a virtual listening session with organizations that support military families. Jill Biden continued her work with military families through the Biden Foundation after leaving the White House in 2017.

(Photo by Brent N. Clarke/Invision/AP)WASHINGTON – Five months after they were postponed because of the coronavirus, the annual Kennedy Center Honors are coming back in May, possibly in a series of small events, organizers announced Wednesday. The centerpiece event for Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts normally happens in December, but it was postponed last year amid the pandemic. But even with COVID-19 vaccines gradually rolling out across the country, Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter knew the usual concert would not be possible in May. “It's normally such a festive event, and I'm sure that will come across.”Brooks is no stranger to the Kennedy Center Honors process. Trump and first lady Melania Trump generally stayed away from Kennedy Center events, but Rutter hopes to get President-elect Joe Biden involved this year.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump step off Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020. – Melania Trump said Monday that she is “disappointed and disheartened” by the deadly riot at the Capitol last week by supporters of her husband. “I am disappointed and disheartened with what happened last week,” she wrote in a White House blog post released before sunrise. Trump encouraged his supporters to flock to Washington last Wednesday, the day set for Congress to certify the presidential vote. After addressing a rally near the White House in which he encouraged his supporters to keep fighting, they stormed the Capitol.

This Friday, Jan. 8, 2021 image shows the suspended Twitter account of President Donald Trump. It began with a May 4, 2009, tweet promoting Donald Trump's upcoming appearance on David Letterman's show. “I said, ‘Let’s call you @realDonaldTrump — you’re the real Donald Trump,’” recalled Costanzo. In its most popular tweet, on Oct. 2, 2020, @realDonaldTrump announced that Trump and first lady Melania Trump had contracted the coronavirus. Trump deleted 1,166 tweets and, in his final months on the platform, had 471 tweets flagged by Twitter for misinformation, according to Factba.se.

This Friday, Jan. 8, 2021 image shows the suspended Twitter account of President Donald Trump. It began with a May 4, 2009, tweet promoting Donald Trump's upcoming appearance on David Letterman's show. “I said, ‘Let’s call you @realDonaldTrump — you’re the real Donald Trump,’” recalled Costanzo. In its most popular tweet, on Oct. 2, 2020, @realDonaldTrump announced that Trump and first lady Melania Trump had contracted the coronavirus. Trump deleted 1,166 tweets and, in his final months on the platform, had 471 tweets flagged by Twitter for misinformation, according to Factba.se.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Friday he will skip President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, refusing to fulfill the outgoing president's traditional role in the peaceful transition of power and undercutting his own message just one day earlier on the need for “national healing and unity." Historian Douglas Brinkley said that while attending the inauguration “would be a wonderful olive branch to the country,” he wasn't surprised by the decision. “Donald Trump doesn’t want to be in Washington as the second-fiddle loser standing on stage with Joe Biden,” he said. “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th,” Trump said in a tweet. White House counsel Pat Cipollone has repeatedly warned Trump that he could be deemed responsible for inciting Wednesday’s violence.

WASHINGTON – With 13 days left in his term, President Donald Trump finally bent to reality Thursday amid growing talk of trying to force him out early, acknowledging he’ll peacefully leave after Congress affirmed his defeat. Trump led off a video from the White House by condemning the violence carried out in his name a day earlier at the Capitol. Deprived of that social media lifeblood, Trump remained silent and ensconced in the executive mansion until Thursday evening. Staff-level discussions on the matter took place across multiple departments and even in parts of the White House, according to two people briefed on the talks. Few aides had any sense of the president’s plans, with some wondering if Trump would largely remain out of sight until he left the White House.

“The party has a real choice to make on where we go from here,” said Michael McNeely, a former Georgia Republican vice chairman. Trump fueled Republican turnout, especially in rural areas and small towns, that overwhelmed Democrats in states less diverse than Georgia. Plenty of Georgia Republicans embrace Trump’s imprint, at least publicly. “Absolutely four Republican votes in this house,” she said, including her young adult children casting absentee ballots. But all three are Democratic districts, and they include the two most concentrated Democratic districts, the 4th and 5th in the metro Atlanta core.

As the end of his presidency neared, Trump cut short his stay at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and got back to the White House a day ahead of schedule. The White House didn't give a reason for Trump's early return, and the schedule change means Trump will miss the glitzy New Year’s Eve party held annually at his Palm Beach club. During his vacation, Trump also took near daily swipes on Twitter at Georgia Republican Gov. He went as far as barring them from his Christmas Day remarks to the troops, the type of event the White House typically opens for news coverage. McConnell blocked attempts by Democrats to force a vote in that chamber on the higher payments sought by Trump.

WEST PALM BEACH – President Donald Trump spent his Christmas golfing in Florida as a government shutdown looms and COVID relief hangs in the balance. Trump, at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach for the holidays, had no events on his public schedule after throwing the future of a massive COVID relief and government funding bill into question. It said only: “During the Holiday season, President Trump will continue to work tirelessly for the American People. “At a meeting in Florida today, everyone was asking why aren’t the Republicans up in arms & fighting over the fact that the Democrats stole the rigged presidential election?” Trump tweeted Thursday. He has been egged on by allies like his lawyer, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who accompanied the president to Florida aboard Air Force One.

WEST PALM BEACH – After tossing a grenade that threatens to blow up a massive COVID relief and government funding bill and force a government shutdown in the midst of a pandemic, President Donald Trump spent his Christmas Eve golfing in Florida. Failure to agree on the bill could deny checks to millions of Americans on the brink. Reporters were given no details of his schedule for the day, but told that, “As the Holiday season approaches, President Trump will continue to work tirelessly for the American People. The idea was swiftly rejected by House Republicans during a rare Christmas Eve session, leaving the proposal in limbo. In Florida, Trump continued to rail against the results, complaining to members that he had been robbed of the election and voicing frustrations about the year-end spending bill.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)WASHINGTON – The video message that plunged Washington into chaos was filmed in secret. On Wednesday, few Republicans or even White House staffers knew what Trump plans next, in a return to the around-the-clock chaos of his first months in office. “There are mixed signals from the White House leaving more confusion than calm,” Biden noted on Wednesday. Trump personally played little role in the negotiations, though the White House had initially sent signals that he would sign the bill.

The pardons Wednesday of Manafort and Roger Stone, who months earlier had his sentence commuted by Trump, were particularly notable, underscoring the president's desire to chip away at the results and legacy of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Though the charges against Manafort did not concern the central thrust of Mueller's mandate — whether the Trump campaign and Russia colluded to tip the election — he was nonetheless a pivotal figure in the investigation. Manafort, in a series of tweets, thanked Trump and lavished praise on the outgoing president, declaring that history would show he had accomplished more than any of his predecessors. Trump and the elder Kushner knew each other from real estate circles and their children were married in 2009. Trump’s legally troubled allies were not the only recipients of clemency.

Vice President Mike Pence receives a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine shot at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex, Friday, Dec. 18, 2020, in Washington. Conspicuously absent: President Donald Trump, who has remained largely out of sight five days into the largest vaccination campaign in the nation’s history. Trump did appear at a White House “summit” ahead of the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the Pfizer vaccine last week. “Don’t let Joe Biden take credit for the vaccines,” Trump has told reporters. “It simply isn’t good enough to have Vice President Pence as a proxy."

The president and first lady Melania Trump changed their legal residence from New York City to Palm Beach last year. Trump purchased Mar-a-Lago for $10 million in 1985 from the estate of Marjorie Merriweather Post, the owner of General Foods. Before he became president, Trump and the town often clashed over the club's operation. He unsuccessfully sued Palm Beach County because jetliners taking off from the nearby international airport flew over the mansion. Palm Beach is one of Florida's most exclusive towns, with a median home price of over a million dollars.