Donald Trump Becomes Resident of Florida, Says He Did It Because New York Leaders Treated Him ‘Very Badly’

“I have been treated very badly by the political leaders of both the city and state,” Trump tweets

President Donald Trump Departs White House For Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Donald Trump is now a Florida man.

The president, who was born and raised in Queens, has lived most of his life in New York City, and ran in 2016 as a candidate from New York, filed for a change in primary residency from Manhattan to Palm Beach, Florida, the New York Times first reported on Thursday.

In documents filed with the Palm Beach County Circuit Court, Trump — along with his wife, Melania — listed his Mar-a-Lago resort as his primary residence.

“If I maintain another place or places of abode in some other state or states, I hereby declare that my above-described residence and abode in the State of Florida constitutes my predominant and principal home, and I intend to continue it permanently as such,” the document states.

Listed among his “other places of abode” are the White House and his private New Jersey golf club.

The White House declined to comment on the reasons why he changed his primary residence to Florida, but an anonymous source told the Times that he did so “for tax purposes.” By officially moving from New York, Trump will be able to avoid the state’s 9 percent tax rate and the city’s 4 percent tax rate. The change in residency to Florida also gives Trump access to Florida’s lack of state income and inheritance taxes.

However, Trump himself later contradicted that explanation. “Unfortunately, despite the fact that I pay millions of dollars in city, state and local taxes each year, I have been treated very badly by the political leaders of both the city and state. Few have been treated worse,” he tweeted Thursday evening.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted a blunt response of his own: “Good riddance. It’s not like @realDonaldTrump paid taxes here anyway… He’s all yours, Florida.”

In September, the Manhattan district attorney’s office subpoenaed eight years of Trump’s tax returns. The president’s legal team has since fought back and has attempted to block the subpoena, claiming that a sitting president couldn’t be investigated in a criminal process. Last week, one of Trump’s lawyers took that argument further by stating that even if Trump shot somebody, he couldn’t be prosecuted while in office.

The president’s change of residency isn’t expected to impact the Manhattan D.A.’s case, according to the Times.

Since his inauguration, Trump has spent a total of 99 days at Mar-a-Lago, according to NBC News. He has been in office for over a thousand days.

For the record: This article has been updated to include Cuomo’s response and more details about the Manhattan D.A. office’s subpoena.

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