How Did Trump Celebrate Easter? President And First Lady Maintain JFK Tradition, Visit Palm Beach Church

President Donald Trump and his wife first lady Melania Trump visited the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea Sunday morning in Palm Beach, Florida, to celebrate Easter along with daughter Tiffany Trump and son Barron Trump.

Trump is the first president to visit Palm Beach for Easter since former President John F. Kennedy spent his last Easter in 1963 at his family’s estate there and attended the mass at St. Edward Catholic Church.

Trump visited the Easter service at the church during his seventh visit to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.

Security Service officers accompanied the president and his family to the church and Trump sat adjacent to the aisle in a pew near the altar.

Worshippers eagerly waited for the 11 a.m. EDT Easter service, clad in floral dresses and wide-brimmed hats. Heavy security was employed for the president’s arrival. Traffic also slowed down in front of the church while the presidential vehicles arrived.

The first lady posted a picture with her husband at the church during the celebrations on her Instagram account.

The last time a president visited Palm Beach during Easter was in April 1963, when Kennedy and his family, including his wife Jackie Kennedy and his children, spent the Christian holiday on the island near his father’s winter home on the north end.

One of Palm Beach’s residents recalled how the former first family spent their vacation. “The Secret Service was in all these little boats, going crazy, yelling 'stay away,'” said Toni Briant Hollis, a 24-year-old Palm Beach real estate agent then, who was also a passenger aboard the sailboat that passed the presidential yacht called “Honey Fitz.”

“We were showing off, going back and forth trying to get the president’s attention. We wanted him to wave at us,” Hollis told the Palm Beach Post.

Trump is the first sitting president to visit Palm Beach on Easter in the last 54 years. His predecessor Barack Obama and his family attended Easter service at Alfred Street Baptist Church, a historic Virginia church.