Trump has spent almost 2 weeks outdoors D.C. throughout shutdown : NPR

President Donald Trump departs Air Force One on October 30, 2025 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Trump was returning to Washington following a multi-nation journey to Asia in the course of the ongoing authorities shutdown.

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With the federal government shutdown dragging into its second month and rising extra painful by the day, President Trump is spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. This is not an remoted journey for the president. He has spent almost two full weeks outdoors of Washington for the reason that shutdown started.

There are missed paychecks for federal employees, journey disruptions and SNAP meals help is in danger for hundreds of thousands of Americans. The White House and Republicans in Congress blame Democrats within the Senate for refusing to assist a short-term funding invoice that may re-open the federal government.

“They’ve lost their minds,” Trump stated of Democrats from Air Force One on his technique to Florida. “All they have to do is say the government is open, and that’s the end of it.”

Trump spent lower than 24 hours in Washington, D.C. this week. Most of the week, he was in Asia, on a 3 nation journey that began in Malaysia. He was greeted there by a brass band and brightly clothed dancers. Trump obtained in on it too, doing his signature Trump dance, swaying with clenched fists.

This prolonged overseas journey, Trump’s second time abroad throughout this shutdown, marked a major break with how previous presidents, together with Trump himself, have approached authorities shutdowns. They have usually averted the unhealthy optics of skipping city throughout a disaster.

In 1995, President Clinton canceled a deliberate journey to Japan throughout the federal government shutdown so he might keep on the White House for talks with Republicans who managed each the House and Senate.

“We spent a number of days in the Oval Office basically negotiating … trying to see if we could find a way to resolve it,” stated Leon Panetta, who was Clinton’s chief of employees on the time. “Because the last thing we wanted to do was to have the government shut down. That, unfortunately, is no longer the case.”

During a prolonged shutdown in 2013, then-President Obama canceled a four-nation Asia journey. And in 2019, President Trump had a visit deliberate to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“If the shutdown continues, I won’t go,” Trump stated.

The shutdown continued. And he did not go. Back then, although, Trump was speaking about negotiating. He was making an attempt to get border wall funding added to a authorities funding invoice.

“Look, this is really something that should be bipartisan,” Trump stated as that shutdown dragged on. “And we’ll see if it is. I hope it is.”

2019 versus 2025

That shutdown lasted 35 days, the longest on document. An NPR evaluation finds that in that interval, Trump solely left Washington for six days. He traveled to:

• Iraq to greet the troops round Christmas
• Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for the dignified switch of Americans killed in an assault in Syria
• Camp David in Maryland for a day
• The U.S.-Mexico border to make the case for border wall funding
• New Orleans to talk to the American Farm Bureau

There have been no visits to Mar-a-Lago resort.

This time is kind of totally different. Since the beginning of the shutdown on October 1, Trump has seemingly made no changes to his journey plans and regular routines. His travels have included:

• Two journeys to Florida
• Golfed twice at his course close to Washington, D.C.
• Israel and Egypt to mark the signing of the Gaza ceasefire settlement
• Stops in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea throughout a six day journey

Not counting his golf outings in Virginia, Trump spent all or a part of 14 days outdoors of Washington in the course of the first 31 days of the shutdown.

President Trump speaks to journalists aboard Air Force One en path to South Korea on October 29, 2025.

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Republicans say there may be nothing to barter till the federal government reopens

Just earlier than Trump returned to the White House from Asia, Vice President JD Vance held a press convention to reassert the administration’s place.

“We are not going to give in on policy demands under the threat of hostage taking,” he stated. There could be no negotiations till Democrats vote to reopen the federal government.

“We need five more reasonable Democrats to put the American people first and reopen the government. That’s all that we’re asking,” Vance stated.

And it is not simply Trump. The GOP-controlled House of Representatives was away all the month of October. The Senate has voted 13 instances on the identical funding invoice, failing every time due to a scarcity of assist from Democrats. Senators went house for the weekend on Thursday, with lots of them encountering flight delays associated to the shutdown.

Democrats, who previously have supported payments just like the non permanent funding measure Trump and Republicans are insisting on, say they need to negotiate. But, thus far Republicans are sticking with their place that there’s nothing to barter till the federal government is open.

“Trump can behave however he wants in this situation,” stated Doug Heye, who was deputy chief of employees to a prime home Republican in the course of the 2013 authorities shutdown. “Whether he’s going to events in foreign countries or just sort of living life, none of that interferes with what the core argument is, which is Republicans saying, ‘we’ve done our job, Democrats step up and do yours.’ To do anything different would actually cut against their own messaging.”

President Trump greets Chinese President Xi Jinping forward of a bilateral assembly at Gimhae Air Base on October 30, 2025 in Busan, South Korea.

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Also, he stated, Trump clearly is not all that involved with political threat from wanting like he is not engaged in ending the shutdown. Even if Trump retains teasing a 2028 run for an unconstitutional third time period, the president is governing like he has nothing to lose, stated Heye.

“He is YOLO [you only live once] and he is going to do what he wants, wherever he wants and he is going to push the boundaries as far as he can, because whatever he talks about, he’s not going to be on the ballot again,” stated Heye.

But Panetta, who served in congress and a number of Democratic administrations, sees it in a different way. He says what’s taking place now could be an abdication of a primary duty to manipulate.

“We’ve elected these people and they’re not there. They’ve left Washington. They’re going on trips,” stated Panetta. “They’re basically walking away from the very responsibility that they should be exercising as elected officials. I mean, that’s what’s depressing about all of this.”

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly defended the president’s journey nearly as good for the nation.

“While Democrats flail, President Trump won’t stop delivering historic wins for our country while simultaneously finding creative ways to pay our troops and reduce the suffering as a result of Democrats’ far-left priorities,” Kelly stated of Trump’s Asia travels.