The winter White House is moving north.
President Trump’s ritzy Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, in his adopted home state of Florida, is likely to be his full-time abode as an ex-president. And President-elect Joe Biden will have a shorter commute to his favored vacation spot, in decidedly less-flashy Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Biden’s $2.7 million vacation home near Rehoboth Beach will likely become his presidential getaway, with his presence drawing attention to the coastal community and its more understated wealthy residents.
Mar-a-Lago cost Trump $10 million in 1985. But Biden’s six bedroom, five-and-a-half bathroom residence is still prime real estate. The two-term vice president and 36-year Delaware senator sought brief respites there during the campaign before holing up within its walls for a couple of days after multiple networks called the Nov. 3 election for him over Trump. And he’s expected to do the same after he’s inaugurated on Jan. 20.
Joe Biden and his wife Jill added the distinct blue property to their portfolio in 2017 after the incoming first couple inked an $8 million multibook deal.
Nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and a state park, the original listing touted its chef-friendly kitchen, three indoor fireplaces, floor-to-ceiling bookcases, elevator, golf cart, outdoor showers, and even its dog wash.
Biden has already raised the profile of Wilmington, Delaware, where he’s been most of the COVID-19 pandemic. His main residence, which he bought in 1996 for $350,000, is now estimated to be worth almost $1.9 million.
But it’s not just his property value that has skyrocketed. The first president-elect from Delaware (though he moved to the state from Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1953) has boosted the local economy thanks to traveling staff, Secret Service agents, press, and supporters, who’ve visited the city for events such as his Democratic convention nomination acceptance this summer and his victory speech this month. He also rents spaces at the Chase Center, the Westin Wilmington, Hotel du Pont, and the Queen for addresses and interviews.
The Bidens enjoyed a pared-down Thanksgiving at Rehoboth Beach last week, and the community got to experience the same benefits and detriments, including security road closures.
Author and historian David Pietrusza reminded the Washington Examiner it wasn’t unusual for presidents to return to their previous homes, especially for holidays.
Pietrusza remembered, though, Woodrow Wilson lived on Princeton University’s campus and the New Jersey governor’s mansion in Trenton before moving to the White House, “so, he no longer had any access to those.” And “frugal” Calvin Coolidge sublet his duplex in Northampton, Massachusetts, although he had his family’s Plymouth, Vermont, homestead.
“Franklin Roosevelt spent a fair amount of time outside the White House, either at Hyde Park, New York, or Warm Springs, Georgia, yachting, or at his Manhattan townhouse,” Pietrusza said. “But he spent his first 10 presidential Christmases in D.C. and only the last two at Hyde Park.”
Dwight Eisenhower, an avid golfer, also had two Christmases in Georgia, but at Augusta National Golf Club, according to Pietrusza.
“Jack Kennedy spent Christmas Day 1961 in West Palm Beach, where his father was hospitalized with a stroke. He attended Mass at the hospital chapel. Teddy served as an altar boy,” Pietrusza recalled. “The family had usually gathered for Christmas at Joe Kennedy’s Florida home. In 1962, he spent it in Palm Beach at the home of a friend, Col. Capton Michael Paul.”
Other first families have taken trips to different federal properties for holidays, including George W. Bush’s brood, who spent every Christmas he was in office at Camp David, the presidential country retreat.
Prior to leaving former President Barack Obama’s administration, Biden had long made self-effacing jokes about being one of Washington’s poorest public figures, reporting assets worth between $303,000 and $1 million in 2017 filings. The Bidens also had liabilities of between $545,000 and $1.15 million. And it’s a title he’s proud of, referring to himself as “Middle Class Joe” on the campaign trail.
But despite the moniker, the Bidens have lived very comfortably. On top of Rehoboth Beach, the family’s other favorite vacation destination is Nantucket, another stomping ground of the well heeled, for Thanksgiving.
The Bidens’ Thanksgiving tradition started in 1975 when the president-elect was in his first term as Delaware’s senator. He and then-Jill Jacobs decided not to chose between spending the break with either of their families, opting instead for Nantucket by themselves. Their Nantucket convoy has grown larger as their three children have married and had offspring of their own, though plans this year were scrapped because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Only three people will take part in Joe Biden’s Thanksgiving festivities on Thursday, a far cry from Roosevelt’s aboard the USS Indianapolis in 1936.
“FDR was the first president to celebrate Thanksgiving outside America. He was on board the USS Indianapolis to Brazil to attend a peace conference,” Ronald Reagan biographer Craig Shirley said. “Yes, this was the same USS Indianapolis to be torpedoed and sunk at the end of World War II.”
He added of the Reagans’ Rancho del Cielo in California, “In 1985, the Reagans celebrated Thanksgiving at the Ranch in Santa Barbara as a small plane flew overhead dragging the sign, ‘Happy Thanksgiving Ron and Nancy.'”
