For US President Joe Biden, the White House is more of a “Monday-through-Friday” place rather than a home where he could find peace and comfort during weekends.

Since taking office in January, the 78-year-old has spent more weekends off-campus than he stayed there, reports CNN. To be precise, he has not been there for 14 of the 19 weekends. This number far exceeds any modern president’s weekends away from the White House at this point in his tenure.

Speaking to CNN, an anonymous person close to Biden said, “He thinks of (the White House) more like a Monday-through-Friday kind of place.” 

“Joe Biden has always been the guy who goes home to Delaware… The White House isn’t going to change that,” another said, who has worked with him. 

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Biden seems to be the person who likes spending time where his roots are. When he was a US Senator from Delaware in 1973, he preferred going back to Wilmington, 100 miles from Washington, after a long day of work. He used to spend several nights and weekends at the place, which he considered his home, reports CNN.

His ritual became so popular that he was dubbed “Amtrak Joe”. In 2011, the Wilmington depot was renamed the Joseph R Biden Jr Railroad Station. Though less often, he continued to visit Wilmington when he was the vice president under former president Barack Obama. 

The 54,900 square feet presidential residence boasts everything from movie theatre to tennis pavilion to dozens of staff. But what it doesn’t have is a way to escape the office. 

According to people familiar with Biden’s thinking, the president sometimes makes last-minute plans to get a weekly breather. “The worst is when the decision happens on a Wednesday to leave on Friday, or even a Thursday to leave on Saturday,” a person told CNN.

Biden’s short trips to Wilmington are a great way for him to relax. But turns out the absence of him and First Lady Jill Biden in the White House over multiple weekends leaves their staff “lonely.”

The people who work at the residence say that majority of the workers have been there for over a decade because they want to serve the president’s family. Although one of them told CNN that Biden doesn’t always feel comfortable with people around to wait on him.

The Bidens have not even personalised the White House yet. Some speculate that it’s possible Biden might still think of the White House as the spot where his former boss, Obama, lived and worked.

As we earlier mentioned, Biden is not the first president to take some weekends off and visit the family home. More recently, Donald Trump used to go to his private Palm Beach in Florida. He was away from the White House for eight weekends by the same point of the presidency as Biden’s.

Obama, too, liked to spend weekends with his family at Camp David, going approximately six times in his first four months in office.