Trump to skip lavish Mar-a-Lago New Year’s Eve party

Donald Trump will cut short his lavish New Year's Eve bash to return to the White House on Thursday as Republicans are expected to disrupt the Electoral College certification process on 6 January, in a last-ditch attempt to reverse Joe Biden’s win.

The White House said in the president's daily public schedule for Thursday that Mr Trump and first lady Melania Trump will return to the White House at 11 am ET from Florida.

The president will leave the private club hours before his black-tie New Year’s Eve gala, announced by Mar-a-Lago resort this week, where guests have already begun arriving.

Some 500 people have reportedly made reservations to attend the bash with Mr Trump after buying tickets priced at $1,000 each.

The president, who normally enjoys such red carpet events, skipped it altogether this year as Republicans announced their plans to disrupt the 6 January certification process, seen by them as the best opportunity to overturn the election results.

Mr Trump is also reportedly concerned over the upcoming one-year anniversary of the US drone strike on Iran when the country's top general, Qasem Soleimani, was killed. Iran is anticipated to retaliate in the coming days.

On Wednesday, Republican Senator from Missouri, Josh Hawley, became the first to announce he would raise objections as Congress counts the Electoral College votes, to stop Joe Biden from taking the oath office by delaying the process.

He said “some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state election laws” and it should be investigated.

While on his vacation ritual, Mr Trump has been lobbying to call members of Congress and other associates to refuse to ratify the Electoral College count on 6 January. Mike Pence will preside over a meeting of Congress where Joe Biden's victory would be certified after the vote tally.

In what is usually a rubber-stamping exercise, the senators can mount an objection over the Electoral College votes. The objections to the state's electoral vote would be approved by both houses to decide if any contested votes could be excluded.

Vice President Pence has refused to sign the plan by Republicans to upend the election results.

Last week, Louie Gohmert, member of US Congress from Texas, and several other Republicans filed a suit against Mr Pence that asks the federal judge to allow the vice president to have “exclusive authority and sole discretion” to decide which electoral votes will be included when the US Congress meets on 6 January.

To get the challenges by Republicans to be debated, House member and a senator have to approve to an objection.

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