Santa Barbara, California – Even presidents need to take vacations. But what is a vacation for the commander in chief is a lot of work for the people who live in places where the president chooses to relax.
Hotels fill up quickly with the president’s entourage: secret service, advisers, and the press. Restaurant reservations become impossible. Traffic created by the presidential motorcade closes local streets.
Almost every president has been associated with a favorite vacation destination in the popular imagination: President Biden and Rehoboth Beach; former President Donald Trump and Mar-a-Lago; former President Barack Obama and Martha’s Vineyard; former President George W. Bush and Crawford, Texas; and former President Bill Clinton and the Hamptons.
This week, Mr. Biden is vacationing in Santa Ynez, Calif., a small Southern California town in the heart of Santa Barbara wine country. But as the world watches tensions in the Middle East and the Democratic National Convention Continues in ChicagoThe president can never be truly unplugged.
Swimming pool / Getty Images
“There is no such thing as a presidential vacation,” says Russell Riley, co-chair of the Miller Center’s Presidential Oral History Program and author of “Inside the Clinton White House: An Oral History.” “It’s true that they’re leaving and there’s a different dynamic, and the change of pace can be relaxing. But they’re still in service.”
And if the president is on duty, so is his team. Wherever the president goes, a temporary situation room should be set up and ready to be used if needed.
A town more accustomed to the president’s presence is Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where the Bidens own a vacation home and often visit during the summer.
Mr. Biden was seen frequenting a brunch restaurant called Egg. Hope Snider, an Egg manager, said she was nervous at first waiting for the first family, but that they and the Secret Service were nothing but friendly and easygoing.
“We like the fact that out of all the restaurants, they’re the ones coming to our place,” Snider said. “It creates a buzz in the city. They hear the president was here last weekend. It certainly brings a few people in.”
Before such a seemingly casual breakfast, Secret Service agents scan the area several days in advance, checking every entrance, exit and potential security threat.
“Right now, when the threat of an assassination attempt is already at the forefront of every Secret Service agent’s mind, I’m convinced that even though the president is at the end of his term, they’re still very concerned about that security perimeter,” said Johanna Maska, former White House communications director for President Obama. “Because the president is still the one making all the decisions on the world’s biggest issues, and he carries the nuclear codes with him everywhere he goes.”
Maska said Obama, like other vacationing presidents, would limit his travel, especially during the holidays, if it might disrupt the city. But regardless, every potential stop, whether it was a beach or a coffee shop, had to be vetted in advance by the Secret Service.
One of the worst effects of a presidential visit on a city is the presence of traffic jams that last for hours.
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When the Clintons visited the Hamptons on Long Island in 1998, locals feared it would take them 10 to 12 hours to get there and back, prompting them to shop the Thursday before the president’s arrival, according to archives from the local newspaper, the Sag Harbor Express. But fears of traffic were so great that many people simply didn’t go out that weekend, resulting in quieter roads than on a typical summer day in the Hamptons.
The visual appeal of a vacation spot can also be a consideration for White House staff.
In 1997, Clinton reportedly asked for “married people with children” to approve vacation activities in order to improve her image. According to her political adviser Dick Morris, the results suggested fishing and mountain hiking. So the Clinton family headed to Wyoming for a typical American Western vacation instead of a trendy East Coast spot.
“There was a sense that going to Martha’s Vineyard or the Hamptons was a lesson to the American people that this wasn’t really a democratic vacation. So they went, but Clinton had allergies, and I don’t think that trip went very well,” Riley says.
While Mr Biden is on vacation in wine country, another city will be working hard to accommodate the traveling White House that follows the US leader.
