President Donald Trump on Friday suggested he may make his post-presidential home near a North Carolina military base instead of the gilded Florida social club where he has lived since leaving his New York home to avoid multiple investigations into his conduct.
Trump was bragging through remarks to soldiers at Fort Bragg that differed little from his usual political stump speech when he began bragging about the “billions” his administration is allegedly investing in housing improvements and other facilities on the sprawling military base.
He also claimed that his administration would likewise spend “billions of dollars” on improvements “here and around the area” to “make it great” because “the people in this area have been so incredible.”
“Actually, I’m thinking of moving here one day. Maybe I, maybe I’ll move here with our big movie star … with our First Lady,” he said, referring to first lady Melania Trump, who also traveled to the base in a rare joint appearance with her husband.
Turning to his wife, he said: “We’re going to Fort. Bragg. Would you like that, dear?”
(AFP via Getty Images)
The first lady, who appeared to be there as much to promote her documentary as to ride to Mar-a-Lago afterward, laughed and seemed to gasp, at which point Trump resumed speaking, telling the assembled soldiers: “I love you.”
“It’s a possibility – actually, it’s not a bad idea, because we love it,” he said.
While the president’s remarks were made in jest, he does have some family ties to the Tar Heel State through his daughter, Lara Trump, a North Carolina native who has twice considered but rejected chances to run for open Senate seats there.
Trump and his wife previously changed their primary residence in 2019, when they filed documents to officially move their domicile from the eponymous New York skyscraper where he lived since 1983 to Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach, Florida mansion where he maintains quarters while using the gilded age-era residence as dues-paying members of the social club.
At the time, he said he “loves” the Empire State, where he lived from birth until the beginning of his first term in the White House in 2018 but complained that he was “very badly treated by the political leaders of both the city and the state” amid numerous civil and criminal investigations into his conduct there.
Melania Trump appeared to join her husband on the trip to Fort Bragg both to promote her Amazon-funded documentary and to hitch a ride to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend, the trip’s next stop. (Getty Images)
The first couple arrive at Fort Bragg ahead of Donald Trump’s speech to special forces troops (Getty Images)
The first lady’s appearance with her husband — just one of a select few speaking engagements she’s had with him since his return to the White House — comes weeks after the premiere of a hagiographic documentary about her preparations for his January 2025 inauguration that was bought by Amazon for $40 million in what critics derided as an outrageous fee for her and her husband.
Amazon also reportedly spent $35 million to market the film, which has so far brought in just over $13 million in box office revenue since it hit theaters last month.
Trump referred to the documentary’s box office performance in his remarks to the troops, telling them that the United States “is truly blessed to have such a phenomenal First Lady.”
“And now she’s a movie star,” he said.