Mar a Lago

Etymology

The company identifies the name Mar-a-Lago as Spanish for "Sea-to-Lake."

History

Marjorie Merriweather Post built the house with her then-husband Edward F. Hutton. Post hired Marion Sims Wyeth to design it, and Joseph Urban to create interior design and exterior decorations. Upon her death in 1973, Post willed the 17-acre (69,000 m²) estate to the United States government as a Winter White House for presidents and visiting foreign dignitaries. Richard Nixon preferred the Florida White House in Key Biscayne, however, and Jimmy Carter was not interested. The federal government soon realized the immense cost of maintenance, annual taxes roughly between $1–3 million, and the difficulty of maintaining security for diplomats. The government returned it to the Post Foundation in 1981, which listed it for sale for $20 million. Dina Merrill and Post's two other daughters did not maintain the property, expecting to sell it, but there was so little interest that the city approved its demolition to build smaller homes. Mar-a-Lago was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1980.

Donald Trump learned about the estate after unsuccessfully trying to purchase and combine two apartments in Palm Beach for his family. He decided to offer the Post family $15 million for it, an offer that they rejected. Trump responded by falsely claiming that he had purchased the land between Mar-a-Lago and the ocean and threatening to build a building that would block Mar-a-Lago's beach view. (In reality, Trump did not purchase that land until after he had bought Mar-a-Lago.) The threat caused the Post family to accept his last offer of less than $8 million in December 1985. Trump renovated the estate, adding a 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m²) ballroom to the 58 bedrooms, 33 bathrooms, a 29-foot-long (8.8 m) pietra dura marble top dining table, 12 fireplaces, and three bomb shelters. The club also has five clay tennis courts and a waterfront pool.

In the early 1990s, Trump faced financial difficulties. While negotiating with his bankers, he promised to divide Mar-a-Lago into smaller properties, alarming Palm Beach residents; the city council rejected his plan to do so. Trump instead turned the estate into a private club that—unlike other Palm Beach old money resorts like the Bath and Tennis Club and Everglades Club—accepted Jews, blacks, and (as one Everglades member said) "people who try to call attention to themselves" like Trump himself—as members. The new club hosted concerts by Céline Dion and Billy Joel, had beauty-pageant contestants as guests, and violated local noise ordinances. Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley spent their honeymoon at Mar-a-Lago.

On April 18, 2012, the American Institute of Architects' Florida Chapter ranked Mar-a-Lago fifth on its list of Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places.

Mar-a-Lago has frequently hosted the International Red Cross Ball, an annual "white tie, tails, and tiara" ball. Founded by Post, it has a history of attracting wealthy socialites and ambassadors from across the world in support of the mission of the American Red Cross.

In 2016, Trump was elected President. During his presidency he has used Mar-a-Lago as a retreat for himself and foreign dignitaries, thereby realizing Post's vision of the house as a presidential retreat, nearly four decades after the government had rebuffed her bequest.

The "Winter/Southern White House"

President Trump has referred to Mar-a-Lago as his "Winter White House" and alternately the "Southern White House".

The first visit of President Trump at the Winter White House took place on the weekend of February 3–6, 2017. On Saturday, he hosted the Diamond Red Cross Ball at Mar-a-Lago Club, while on Sunday, he watched Super Bowl LI at Trump International Golf Club (West Palm Beach). The estimated cost (over US$3 million) of the weekend garnered some scrutiny as candidate Trump regularly criticized president Obama for expensive taxpayer-funded vacations.

On the weekend of February 10–12, 2017, President Trump and his wife hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife. This was the first use of his resort to entertain an international leader, and the occasion for one of his first international security crises, that of a North Korean missile launch. Trump and Abe conferred in full view of the other diners.

During the third consecutive weekend visit to Mar-a-Lago on February 17–20, Trump conducted a campaign rally at the Orlando Melbourne International Airport. He also conducted interviews for a replacement National Security Advisor and named General H. R. McMaster as Flynn's successor on February 20, 2017.

After President Trump's fourth weekend visit on March 3-5, questions were raised about the access his paying club members have to him and his entourage. A number of Democratic senators asked the President to release visitor logs of Mar-a-Lago and as well as a list of the members of the private club.

Security Zone

When the President is in residence the Palm Beach region becomes a zone of temporary flight restrictions affecting flights and air operations severely within a 30 nautical mile radius (nmr) (55.56 km). Coast Guard and Secret Service secure the two waterway approaches, ocean and lake, and Secret Service cordons off streets to Mar-a-Lago during the President's visits. By the third weekend in February 2017, near-by Palm Beach County Park Airport (Lantana Airport) had been shut down for three consecutive weekends accumulating significant financial losses for multiple businesses.

The Mar-a-Lago Club

The primary business occupying the estate is the Mar-a-Lago Club, which operates as resort and hotel for dues-paying members, and rents out estate venues for private events. Membership at the Mar-a-Lago Club required a $200,000 initiation fee up until 2012 when it was lowered to $100,000. Sources close to the resort indicated the cut was in response to reduced demand following the Bernie Madoff scandal which affected many affluent Palm Beach residents. The fee was returned to $200,000 in January 2017 following the election of Donald Trump as president with $14,000 annual dues. Overnight guests pay up to $2,000 a night. According to financial disclosure forms filed by Donald Trump, the Mar-a-Lago Club realized $29.7 million in gross revenues in the period June 2015 to May 2016.

The club has nearly 500 paying members and admits twenty to forty new members a year. Members include oil executive Bill Koch, financier Thomas Peterffy, New Jersey Democratic Party leader George Norcross, lobbyist Kenneth Duberstein, real estate developers Bruce E. Toll and Richard LeFrak, media executive Christopher Ruddy, talk show host Howie Carr, talk show host Michael Savage’s wife, and NFL coach Bill Belichick.

The club holds an annual New Year’s Eve party, described by journalist and author Ronald Kessler, who has known Donald Trump for two decades, in The Daily Mail: “The New Year's Eve party was held in that ballroom [described in Kessler's book The Season: Inside Palm Beach and America's Richest Society], with almost 700 guests who paid $1,000 per couple. First came hors d'oeuvres and champagne on the terrace overlooking the pool, always heated to 78 degrees, like the second pool right on the ocean. Cocktail shrimp, stone crab claws, cold lobster, oysters on the half shell, sushi, and caviar dished onto blini were among the offerings. After that, the guests swanned over to the ballroom for dinner and dancing. No one would be hungry for dinner, which included truffle and ricotta ravioli and filet mignon and scallops. The bubbly: from Trump's own Charlottesville, Virginia vineyard.” A second article by Kessler in The Daily Mail predicted that Trump would operate as president the way he runs Mar-a-Lago.

President Trump is considering at least three club members for ambassadorships.

Flag litigation

On October 3, 2006, Trump raised a 20-by-30-foot (6.1 by 9.1 m) American flag on an 80-foot (24 m) flagpole at Mar-a-Lago. Town zoning officials asked Trump to adhere to town zoning codes that limit flagpoles to a height of 42 feet (13 m). This dispute led the town council of Palm Beach to charge Trump $1,250 for every day that the flag stayed up. Trump filed a lawsuit against the Town of Palm Beach. Trump eventually dropped his lawsuit over the flag, and in exchange the town waived its fines. As part of a court-ordered mediation, Trump was allowed to file for a permit and keep a pole that was both 10 feet (3.0 m) shorter than the original pole and located on a different spot on his lawn. The agreement also required him to donate $100,000 to veterans’ charities, as well as resulted in a change to town ordinances allowing out-of-town enrollees in club membership.

Discrimination

In December 1997, Trump filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, alleging that the town was discriminating against Mar-a-Lago, in part because it was open to Jews and blacks.

Aviation litigation

Trump has repeatedly filed lawsuits against Palm Beach County over aircraft going to and from Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) allegedly affecting Mar-a-Lago.

Trump first filed such a lawsuit in 1995; that action was settled in 1996, with the county agreeing to collaborate with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and to change flight patterns so the noisiest jet aircraft flew over a wider area. As part of the settlement, Trump leased 215 acres from the county, on which he built the 18-hole Trump International Golf Club. In July 2010, Trump filed another lawsuit aiming to stop the airport from constructing a second commercial runway. That suit was dismissed.

Trump filed a third suit against the county in January 2015, seeking $100 million in damages for "creating an unreasonable amount of noise, emissions and pollutants at Mar-a-Lago". Trump claims that officials pressured the FAA to direct air traffic to PBI over Mar-a-Lago in a "deliberate and malicious" act.

In November 2015, a Florida Circuit Court judge ruled against most of Trump's arguments, dismissing four of the six claims and allowing the others to proceed. Trump dropped the lawsuit after winning the presidency as the estate will likely have a no fly zone imposed by the FAA. In January 2017, Palm Beach exempted Mar-a-Lago from a ban on landing helicopters on residential properties while Trump is president, including his own fleet and Marine One.