While Trump spent Presidents Day morning at his Florida golf club, his press pool had a little adventure

(Image credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

published 19 February 2018

The presidential motorcade left Mar-a-Lago at a little before 9 a.m. on Presidents Day, on the last day of President Trump's long weekend in southern Florida, and pulled into Trump's nearby golf club 15 minutes later. The presidential press pool, represented Monday by The Hill's Jordan Fabian, did not see Trump enter the motorcade, he wrote in the raw pool report, and in fact pool reporters have "not laid eyes on POTUS since Friday night, when he met with injured victims and first responders from the Parkland shooting," Fabian said.

The press pool was diverted to the Palm Beach International Airport lounge as Trump's motorcade veered into Trump's club, and there's "no word on the president's activities at the golf club," Fabian said, but the "press had an eventful morning before entering Mar-a-Lago":

Driver of one of the press pool vans was detained during security screening for what he said was a personal firearm found in his baggage. Driver said he forgot to leave the firearm inside his personal vehicle before entering van. Screening took place off club grounds in parking lot across the street and roughly an hour before press vans joined up with presidential motorcade. Driver was not allowed onto club property so a White House staffer drove the van instead. White House staff said all drivers were replaced after the incident. When press loaded back into vans, driver was being questioned by an officer. When on club grounds, another van grazed a Secret Service vehicle in the parking lot. Damage to vehicles appeared to be very minor and no one was hurt. [Press pool report]

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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