Trump travels to Mar-a-Lago for Thanksgiving holiday after giving Saudi Arabian pass to Khashoggi – Live updates

President Trump and the First Lady leave for Mar-a-Lago this afternoon after participating in the forgiving turkey ceremony at the White House. The president will be at his golf club, known as the "White House of the Winter," during the Thanksgiving holiday.

The departure of the president comes shortly after he announced that there would be no punishment against the Saudis for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The president pointed out that US relations with the Saudis, both financial and counter-Iranian, are too valuable to be broken.

"Our intelligence agencies continue to evaluate all the information, but it could very well be that the crown prince was aware of this tragic event – maybe he did it and maybe to be that he did not do it! " the president said in a statement. "That being said, we can never know all the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi. In any case, we have relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. "

Also Tuesday, Mr. Trump pardoned the two turkeys "Peas" and "Carrots". The president made political jokes by publicly forgiving Peas. He alluded to the stories that took place last week at Florida's governor and senatorial posts, which the Republicans finally won. "Unfortunately, Carrots refused to concede and asked for a recount," said Trump.

He also joked that the Democrats in the House were issuing subpoenas and his pardons of turkeys would be put on notice by the 9th Circuit Court, which has often ruled against Mr. Trump's policy.

This will be Trump's first visit to Mar-a-Lago since April, when he hosted Japanese President Shinzo Abe. The President visited the White House of the Winter several times at the beginning of the year, traveling to Mar – a – Lago eight times between January and April. This will be Mr. Trump's 18th visit to Mar-a-Lago since he took office.

Although the week is relatively quiet in Washington and Congress is not sitting, the rest of the year will include some political battles. Democrats in the House will choose the leader of their caucus, and Mr. Trump said that he stump for the representative Nancy Pelosi to become speaker of the next term House as she faces the opposition of some Democrats.

A partial shutdown of the government is expected to take place unless the Congress decides and Trump signs spending by the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies by December 7. Mr. Trump said last week that unless Congress does more to fund a border wall, it would be a "very good time to make a stop." Increasing funding for a border wall remains a challenge for the lame Congress, especially since Democrats may not feel too uncooperative.

Mar-a-Lago, who has a initiation fees $ 200,000, often offers members the opportunity to interact with the president in a less restrictive setting. Mr. Trump also appealed to four club members for ambassador positions, according to the Palm Beach Post. More recently, Mr. Trump hired a club member, Lana Marks, a designer of high fashion handbags raised in South Africa for the post of ambassador to South Africa.

Trump travels to Mississippi on Monday to campaign for Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, who will be competing in the Senate race next week with Democrat Mike Espy.