Though a source tells PEOPLE the Trumps are “a pretty close-knit family,” they add that “Ivanka has distanced herself from her father for months”
Campaigning for his choice of candidates between rounds of playing golf, Donald Trump turns 76 on Tuesday.
But sources say he is more preoccupied with politics than celebrating, despite acting confident of his importance to the Republican Party.
“Whatever Donald thinks about his birthday and advancing years he keeps to himself,” a social source tells PEOPLE. “As long as he is healthy, he will remain active in Republican politics, and his age will be insignificant. He is surrounded by people of all ages who encourage him to take the lead in the party.”
Right before Memorial Day weekend, Trump left Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach for the summer and moved into his 5,000 square-foot “cottage” in New Jersey. It overlooks his Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, where he plans to live until fall when the Mar-a-Lago Club reopens for the winter season.
According to sources, Melania and their son Barron, 16, will also spend much of the summer at Bedminster until his south Florida school starts in August.
Those close to Trump, including his ex-wife Ivana Trump, who told PEOPLE last year that “Donald hates his birthdays,” agree that he likes to downplay the festivities.
“He will likely play golf at Bedminster—as he has been doing for weeks—and have a small, low-key dinner at the club with a few members of his family,” a source tells PEOPLE. “He doesn’t go all out for his birthday. He is pretty routine so don’t look for fireworks.”
“Despite all of the controversy around them, the Trumps are a pretty close-knit family,” the source says, except that “Ivanka has distanced herself from her father for months.”
His other daughter Tiffany, who lives in Miami and is engaged to Michael Boulos, had lunch with her mother Marla Maples at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach shortly before Memorial Day weekend, according to an eyewitness source. (She is planning her wedding.)
In recent weeks, Trump has played regular rounds at the 36-hole Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, and occasionally at his other northeastern clubs. He also keeps a heady travel schedule where he attends rallies to endorse his favorite candidates, and makes occasional trips to New York.
“He envisions the midterm elections as the Republican Renaissance,” a political source close to Trump tells PEOPLE. “He thinks of himself as the savior of America.”
Last week, the first publicly-televised Jan. 6 hearing put the former president at the center of a “coordinated, multistep effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election” by rioters bursting into the Capitol.
Even those who have been close to him, including his Attorney General William Barr, and his daughter Ivanka, who was an adviser to her father during his term as president, testified that there was no widespread fraud that had altered the outcome of the elections. But Trump continues to repudiate the results and the people who don’t agree with him.
“Everyone close to Donald encourages him to move on from the 2020 election,” a longtime business friend of Trump’s from New York tells PEOPLE.
“He needs to talk about his great accomplishments as president like Middle East peace, and focus on his plans for 2024. But he just won’t let go.”
Although some of his recent endorsements have helped primary candidates, he has suffered losses in several states, like those running for governor in Nebraska, Georgia (and other candidates up and down the ballot) and Idaho.
“Trump has produced mixed results,” the political source says. “But he thinks whatever he says or does is gold. He is buoyed by hearing his own words.”
Trump does his best to ignore anything negative reported about himself or his choice of candidates. He is excited by his own endorsements and election participation in coming months.
“Even when moderate pols mock him as the ‘Grand Poobah’ of the GOP, he moves ahead as if he didn’t get the joke,” the political source says. “This is a real talent that goes a long way in politics, and has often worked in his favor.”
The source believes Trump will continue to campaign and raise money as if he were running for President in 2024, especially since sources say he is worried about other potential Republican candidates, like Florida governor Ron DeSantis, getting more media attention.
But in the end “he will sit it out.” He has a “good life, wants to continue doing what he likes, and doesn’t want to risk another defeat,” the source believes.
A Palm Beach source agrees that Trump loves the attention of placing himself in the center of politics, and hanging around people who think of him as “royalty.”
“He has to keep busy with his finger on the pulse,” a friend of the family tells PEOPLE. “He is happiest when he is in the center of the news surrounded by high profile people.”
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