Tag: Mar-a-Lago

Trump Tells Rich Mar-a-Lago Friends “You All Just Got a Lot Richer” After Tax Bill

The following article by Grace Guarnieri was posted on the Newsweek website December 24, 2017:

Credit: Don Emmert, AFP/Getty Images

President Donald Trump joined his family at their “Winter White House” for the holidays Friday night after signing the GOP tax bill into law, and reportedly told wealthy friends dining at Mar-a-Lago, “You all just got a lot richer.”

Days before heading away for the holidays, Trump told White House reporters that the tax bill would be “one of the great Christmas gifts to middle-income people.” However, Mar-a-Lago’s exclusive dinner guests would have paid a $200,000 initiation fee and $14,000 in annual dues to Trump’s golf club and resort. Continue reading “Trump Tells Rich Mar-a-Lago Friends “You All Just Got a Lot Richer” After Tax Bill”

Trump’s Mar-a-Lago tax deal veiled from IRS review

The following exclusive article was posted on the Palm Beach Post website December 21, 2017:

Nov 1, 1992 – Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. – EXCLUSIVE – DONALD TRUMP seated in the living room of his home Mar-a-lago in Palm Beach. (Credit Image: © Katie Deits via ZUMA Wire) (THIS IS A ONE TIME ONLY USE PHOTO BOUGHT DEC 19, 2017 FOR PUBLICATION 2017)

PALM BEACH — Donald Trump’s deal with the town of Palm Beach to turn Mar-a-Lago into a private club hinged on an act of charity crafted to skirt IRS scrutiny and deliver for Trump a seven-figure tax break, a Palm Beach Post investigation has found.

To make sure Trump could get the $5.7 million deduction, America’s future president and his lawyers intentionally left out those details from the written agreement with town officials.

The deal, which took shape in public meetings over several months in 1993, provides the best look at Trump’s largest form of charity: an obscure and controversial land-use deduction known as a preservation easement.

What did Trump do?

He donated control of certain “critical features” at Mar-a-Lago such as art objects and even vegetation to a nonprofit to assure the town that neither he nor a future owner could change them. But he got something in return.

Continue reading “Trump’s Mar-a-Lago tax deal veiled from IRS review”

Trump Heads To Mar-A-Lago For Eighth Time

The following article by Greg Price is from Newsweek and was posted on the National Memo website November 23, 2017:

Image: National Memo (Getty Images)

President Donald Trump embarked on a five-day visit to his posh Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida on Tuesday afternoon, just ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. It is the latest example of a trip that will prove costly to American taxpayers taken by a commander-in-chief who promised to cut back on frivolous spending across the federal government.

Some estimates have pegged the cost of a single round-trip to the estate at $3.6 million, but a more conservative estimate is roughly $2 million per trip, a total mostly made up of the costs to fly on Air Force One, according to The Washington Post. Continue reading “Trump Heads To Mar-A-Lago For Eighth Time”

Mar-a-Lago’s new winter season: The Red Cross Ball is out, the Trumpettes are in

The following article by David A. Fahrenthold, Lori Rozsa and Drew Harwell was posted on the Washington Post website November 18, 2017:

After a flood of charity events left Mar-a-Lago, pro-Trump groups are trying to make up the lost business. (Video: Jenny Starrs/Photo: Scott McIntyre/The Washington Post)

In years past, the Mar-a-Lago Club’s White and Gold Ballroom hosted some of the finest events of Palm Beach’s gilded winter season. Charity luncheons at $750 a plate. Quartets playing Mozart. Ambassadors in white tie and tails at the Red Cross Ball.

In years past. Continue reading “Mar-a-Lago’s new winter season: The Red Cross Ball is out, the Trumpettes are in”

The White House Says It Doesn’t Keep A List Of Mar-a-Lago Visitors. Experts And Visitors Are Skeptical.

The following article by Leora Smith Derek Kravitz was posted on the ProPublica website October 16, 2017:

Credit: Don Emmert, AFP/Getty Images

Seven members and guests of Mar-a-Lago say the U.S. Secret Service checks names of visitors.

Last month, the Trump administration said it could not comply with a court order to disclose the names of people who met with the president at Mar-a-Lago in part because they do “not maintain any system for keeping track” of them.

Continue reading “The White House Says It Doesn’t Keep A List Of Mar-a-Lago Visitors. Experts And Visitors Are Skeptical.”

Taxpayers billed $1,092 for an official’s two-night stay at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club

The following article by Drew Harwell and Amy Brittain was posted on the Washington Post website September 15, 2017:

The Washington Post has obtained a March 2017 receipt for a two-night stay at Mar-a-Lago. Here’s why it matters. (Video: Bastien Inzaurralde/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Given the number of high-profile presidential events at Mar-a-Lago, questions about who pays for meals and rooms have generally gone unanswered. When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited in February, the White House made a point of saying that Abe would stay at the club free of charge as a personal guest of Trump.

The March invoice was provided to the advocacy group by the Coast Guard in response to a broader Freedom of Information Act request seeking records on the agency’s expenses related to Trump-affiliated properties. The Coast Guard FOIA office searched the agency’s credit card payment records, which led it to the invoice, according to an explanation provided by the agency. Continue reading “Taxpayers billed $1,092 for an official’s two-night stay at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club”

Trump’s beachfront Mar-a-Lago Club ordered to evacuate as Hurricane Irma approaches

The following article by David A. Fahrenthold was posted on the Washington Post website September 8, 2017:

Hurricane Irma, the most potent Atlantic Ocean hurricane ever recorded, is expected to make landfall in South Florida over the weekend. Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s waterfront golf club, evacuated ahead of the storm. (Reuters)

President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club — which Trump has christened the “Winter White House” — was ordered to evacuate on Friday, along with the rest of ritzy Palm Beach island, as Hurricane Irma’s powerful winds and storm surge approached the Florida coast.

The evacuation order went in place at 10 a.m. Friday, part of a series of orders that will require 155,000 people to leave their homes in Palm Beach County alone. Continue reading “Trump’s beachfront Mar-a-Lago Club ordered to evacuate as Hurricane Irma approaches”

Which charities have canceled galas at Mar-a-Lago Club? How much money is at stake? Catch up on the story with our Q&A

The following article by David A. Fahrenthold and Drew Harwell was posted on the Washington Post website August 21, 2017:

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump purchased this 128-room Palm Beach mansion in 1985 for a bargain price and turned it into a private club. But the mansion has brought Trump some controversy in the sunny Florida city. (Rosalind S. Helderman, Mary Jordan and Victoria M. Walker/The Washington Post)

In the past seven days — since President Trump said there were “fine people” among those marching in a violence-plagued “Unite the Right” demonstration in Charlottesville — the president’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida has been deserted by 16 charities that use its ballrooms for fundraisers. Continue reading “Which charities have canceled galas at Mar-a-Lago Club? How much money is at stake? Catch up on the story with our Q&A”

‘Apply by fax’: Before it can hire foreign workers, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club advertises at home — briefly

The following article by David A. Fahrenthold and Lori Rozsa was posted on the Washington Post website August 7, 2017:

The Washington Post David A. Fahrenthold explores whether President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club’s hiring practices align with his vow for U.S. companies to give priority to American workers. (Video: Peter Stevenson, Bastien Inzaurralde/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club needs to hire 35 waiters for this winter’s social season in Palm Beach, Fla.

Late last month, the club placed an ad on page C8 of the Palm Beach Post, crammed full of tiny print laying out the job experience requirements in classified ad shorthand. “3 mos recent & verifiable exp in fine dining/country club,” the ad said. “No tips.” Continue reading “‘Apply by fax’: Before it can hire foreign workers, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club advertises at home — briefly”

Trump’s Children Will Watch Mar-a-Lago Sink Into The Atlantic

The following article by Gene Lyons was posted on the National Memo website June 7, 2017:

Image: National Memo (Getty Images)

If cosmic justice prevails, Donald J. Trump could live to see the Atlantic Ocean roll through his beloved Mar-a-Lago resort from the sea to the Intracoastal Waterway. His children almost certainly will.

The plush country club is built upon what geologists call a barrier beach—essentially a sandbar between the ocean and the bay. Already, water pools on parts of the property during coastal storms and extreme high tides, as sea levels driven by global warming rise a bit faster every year.

Within 30 years, climatologists estimate, Mar-a-Lago could be vulnerable to flooding as many as 210 days a year. It’s a growing problem across South Florida. Even mighty Donald cannot command the sea. Continue reading “Trump’s Children Will Watch Mar-a-Lago Sink Into The Atlantic”