How Donald Trump Made Presidential History With New York And Florida

Besides being a surprise to many Americans, Donald Trump's recent 2024 presidential victory comes equipped with a series of rarities and/or firsts. Trump is the oldest person to ascend to the office of president at 78 years old. He's gotten reelected to the presidency after a gap in time, which hasn't happened in over 130 years. Grover Cleveland held office from 1885 to 1889 and then from 1893 to 1897. Trump is also the first Republican to win the popular vote — note just the electoral vote — since George W. Bush's second 2004 win during the U.S.' "War on Terror." Plus, loads of people were sure Trump wouldn't get elected, just like the first time. Hence his "historic White House comeback," as the BBC puts it.

Trump's win marks another first that folks might not realize. This isn't really a huge, historically impactful thing, but more of an interesting fact. Namely: Trump is the first president to come from two different states. As the United States Census Bureau shows, each president before Trump has come from one state and one state only. Even Grover Cleveland stayed put between his non-consecutive presidencies and came from New Jersey both terms. Trump, however? In 2016 he was a resident of New York state. In 2024 he's a resident of Florida. In 2020, Trump made his well-known Mar-a-Lago estate along the coast of Palm Beach his official residence.

A very handy map on the United States Census Bureau shows us exactly which president came from which state. Leading up to Donald Trump's recent victory as the 47th president of the U.S., the preceding 46 presidents had come from only 21 states. Plus, Florida this time makes 22. And out of those 22 states, a mere two of them produced 13 presidents out of 47, or almost 28% of all presidents: Ohio and Virginia. 

Overall, the vast majority of presidents have come from New England and the greater Northeastern section of the U.S. bordered by Virginia at the south and Ohio at the west. Other scattered states have produced one president, maybe two, like Nebraska, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, etc. This means that when Donald Trump won his first presidency in 2016 and came from New York, he fell squarely in the historical trend of presidents coming from the oldest part of the United States. And no, no president has come from Florida before.

In a way, it shouldn't be surprising that so many presidents have come from New England and its surrounding states. That area was the birthplace of the country and its revolution and is the seat of government in Washington, D.C. Certain cities like Quincy, Massachusetts even produced two presidents: John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Also, the further west you go, the newer the state and the less time they've had to produce a president.

So Donald Trump owns a lot of properties, right? Buildings — and building buildings — are kind of his thing. As Town and Country says, there's the 60-room, 15-bedroom, $24-million Seven Springs in Bedford, New York, the Trump Winery in Virginia, the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey (yes, there are cottages on the premises), the ultra-French-sounding and sprawling Le Château des Palmiers estate on St. Martin in the Caribbean, his golden Trump Tower Penthouse in New York City, and of course, Mar-a-Lago. So with all these properties and more, how can we determine which one is Trump's official residence? As Wipfli explains, in the U.S. you can own as many residences as you want, but you have to designate one of them as your domicile, or legal "place you return to." 

In 2020, Donald Trump changed his domicile from Trump Tower to Mar-a-Lago, meaning that when he ran for president in 2024 this was the state where he ran from. This is true even though there's some legal gobbledygook related to Mar-a-Lago being taxed as a "private club," not a residence, per The Washington Post. And of course, we all know about the August 2022 FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago to search for documents that Trump apparently took home from the White House. But still, the Mar-a-Lago website maintains that Trump has "private quarters" at the club. But if Mar-a-Lago doesn't work out, Trump's always got other residences from which to choose.