Former Trump Official Says Mar-a-Lago Has 'Replaced' Oval Office as World Leaders Turn Focus Away From Biden

The seat of American power has moved from Washington to Florida as President-elect Donald Trump plans his return to the White House at his private club in Palm Beach, political observers told Fox News.

Republican strategist Matthew Bartlett, a former State Department official, said that "the Oval Office has been replaced by Mar-a-Lago," according to a report Saturday.

Bartlett, who quit the first Trump administration over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters, also said that "the world is demanding leadership" as President Joe Biden winds down his term in office.

New England College President Wayne Lesperance, a former political science professor, told Fox News that the "attention of world leaders" has shifted "with breathtaking speed."

Lesperance also said Biden's recent trip to Africa was typical of lame-duck presidents whose final weeks are "usually filled with celebratory moments and efforts to cement one's legacy."

"Often the focus is on their role on the world stage on behalf of America and its allies," he said.

Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau traveled to Mar-a-Lago following Trump's threat to impose a 25% tariff on all goods imported into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico.

During a dinner meeting, Trump told Trudeau that his country could become America's 51st state if the tariffs wrecked its economy, a remark that a Canadian official later described as a joke.

"The president was telling jokes, the president was teasing us, it was, of course, in no way a serious comment," Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

The sit-down took place two days after Facebook cofounder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also had dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Trump, who was banned from Facebook following the Jan. 6 effort to reverse his electoral loss to Biden.

Facebook restored Trump's account in early 2023.