WASHINGTON — For nearly the entire week since he became president-elect, Donald Trump has been holed up in his gilded New York skyscraper. A steady stream of visitors has come to him, flooding through metal detectors and getting whisked up to Trump’s offices and penthouse residence.
It’s good preparation for the insular, security-shrouded bubble that awaits Trump at the White House.
Unlike President Obama, who flew commercial and lived in a dingy Washington apartment within about a year of taking office, Trump has already spent decades living an unusually cloistered life. While Obama often bemoans his inability to take a walk or enjoy a meal at a sidewalk cafe, Trump doesn’t appear to have much of an affinity for either.
“The reason my hair looks so neat all the time is because I don’t have to deal with the elements very often,” Trump wrote in his 2004 book, “How To Get Rich.”
“I live in the building where I work. I take an elevator from my bedroom to my office. The rest of the time, I’m either in my stretch limousine, my private jet, my helicopter, or my private club in Palm Beach, Florida.”
Indeed, Trump hadn’t been seen outdoors since Thursday, when he traveled to Washington to meet with Obama and Republican congressional leaders until a surprise dinner outing Tuesday night at the 21 Club. But most of the time recently, Trump has been in Trump Tower working. The high-rise has balcony space, but it’s unclear whether the president-elect has felt a bit a fresh air as he takes calls from foreign leaders and weighs nominations for top Cabinet posts.
“President-elect Trump is there receiving calls from different people. He has different meetings, interviews,” Trump’s adviser Kellyanne Conway said earlier this week. “We’ve really just been ensconced in Trump Tower trying to form a government.”
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