Trump escapes penthouse to hit steakhouse, dodging press in first post-election appearance outside tower

US President-elect Donald Trump emerged from his New York skyscraper Tuesday night for the first time in days, moving about the nation’s largest city without a pool of journalists on hand to ensure the public has knowledge of his whereabouts.

The president-elect spent about two hours dining with family at the 21 Club, a steak restaurant a few blocks from his Trump Tower residence. Journalists were only aware that Trump was leaving home when they spotted a large motorcade pulling away from the building, including an ambulance with lights flashing.

Taylor Riggs, a Bloomberg reporter who happened to be dining in the restaurant, snapped a picture of Trump’s arrival and posted it on Twitter, saying Trump received a “standing ovation”. Since election night a week ago, Trump had only been seen by the public twice: in a 60 Minutes interview at Trump Tower, and in a photograph in his penthouse’s doorway posted online by Nigel Farage, the British pro-Brexit campaigner.

Tuesday night’s movement was a surprise given that Trump’s campaign had already called a “lid” — a signal to journalists that he would not be venturing out for the rest of the day. The practice is meant to ensure that journalists are on hand to witness, on behalf of the public, the activities of the president or president-elect, rather than relying on secondhand accounts.

Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks issued the lid at 6.14pm. But just over an hour later, Trump’s motorcade left his residence. His whereabouts became clear only after Riggs tweeted her picture. Riggs mistakenly gave the location as Keene's restaurant.

Hicks said she was unaware that Trump planned to leave his home and had not intended to leave the press in the dark. She said the Trump team was working toward setting up a protective pool in the near future.

Trump travelled from New York to Washington last week without a pool of journalists. He’s since spent most of his time inside his New York building, with his transition team offering few details about his schedule.

Every president and president-elect in recent memory has travelled with a pool of journalists when leaving the White House grounds. News organisations take turns serving in the small group, paying their way and sharing the material collected in the pool with the larger press corps.

The White House depends on having journalists nearby at all times to relay the president’s first comments on breaking news.

A pool of reporters and photographers was in the motorcade when President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas. The pool was just steps away from President Ronald Reagan when he was shot outside a hotel in the District of Columbia, and was stationed outside his hospital as he recovered. The pool also travels on vacation and foreign trips and at times captures personal, historic moments of the presidency.

Trump departed the 21 Club around 9.30pm His daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, were seen getting into a vehicle in the motorcade.