A History Of Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's American Castle
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Update: Earlier this week, former President Donald Trump confirmed that the FBI has raided his Palm Beach home, Mar-a-Lago. “These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump wrote in a lengthy statement. “After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate.” The FBI has yet to comment on the matter. Get all the details of the investigation right here.
Below, a history of the property last updated during the Trump presidency.
Original, December 2019: Donald Trump likes to call Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach club and catering facility, the "Winter White House," and while that's just his nickname for the sprawling Florida estate, there is some precedent for the moniker.
In 1973, cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post donated her 128-room Palm Beach mansion to the U.S. government to be used as the "winter White House." And now that Donald Trump is president, that's what it has become. Here, T&C takes a look at the history of the property.
Post was one of the world's richest women when she finished building Mar-a-Lago in 1927 at a cost of $7 million.
American architect Marion Sims Wyeth designed it (he also built the Florida governor's mansion in Tallahassee). The house is on 20 acres that border the Atlantic Ocean on one side and Florida's Intracoastal Waterway on the other.
Post willed it to the American government upon her death for use as the winter White House. But in 1980, the government returned the house to Post's daughters because of the $1 million in annual maintenance costs.
1980 was also the year it was also declared a National Historic Landmark.
Enter Donald Trump. The mogul's reported first offer for the property — $28 million — was turned down. He ended up getting it for $5 million in 1985, plus $3 million for Post's antiques and furniture.
He turned it into a private club in 1995 and built a 20,000-square-foot ballroom with $7 million in gold leaf. He also spent $100,00 on four gold-plated sinks. Basically, there's gold everywhere you look.
Trump's former butler and Mar-a-Lago's unofficial historian, Anthony Senecal, told the New York Times about the house's "library, paneled with centuries-old British oak and filled with rare first-edition books that no one in the family ever read."
Senecal was reportedly investigated by the Secret Service earlier this year for threatening comments he made on Facebook about Barack Obama.
Trump fought the town of Palm Beach over the size of this American flag. The original, installed in 2006, was on an 80-foot pole and Palm Beach ordinances forbade flag poles higher than 42 feet with a daily fine of $250.
He sued for $25 million claiming his right to free speech was being violated. Ultimately he and the town came to an agreement: Trump switched to a smaller flag posted on a 70-foot pole. And instead of paying fines, he donated $100,000 to veterans' charities.
When Trump is in residence, he and his family stay in a private wing of the house.
Club members reportedly used to pay a $100,000 initiation fee and annual dues of $14,000 (along with taxes and an annual food minimum of $2,000) for the privilege of using the facilities like this pool. Trump made $15.6 million from the club in 2014. On January 1, following Trump's November victory, the inauguration fee was reportedly increased to $200,000.
Trump welcomed Jewish members, African-Americans and gay couples, who had been prohibited from joining other Palm Beach clubs.
He's obviously pleased with his purchase: "I have 24 acres in Palm Beach and nobody has anything like that," Trump told me at a show jumping event there in 2014. "A big house is on one acre. I have 24. It's the great estate of Palm Beach." (The estate is actually 20 acres, but who's counting?)
Post's Washington, D.C estate, by the way, is now a museum. It's called Hillwood. No word on whether the Donald has toured it yet.
Last year Trump sued Palm Beach County for what he called "deliberate and malicious" moves to direct departing flights from the Palm Beach International Airport over Mar-a-Lago.
The suit is ongoing.
Trump has spent the last 20 Thanksgivings at Mar-a-Lago and continued the tradition this year.
Coast Guard boats patrolled areas of the Lake Worth Lagoon, Intracoastal Waterway and Atlantic Ocean while he was there and the FAA enacted a no-fly zone with a three-mile radius.
As president-elect, Trump also celebrated this past Christmas and New Year's Eve there, as he has in past years. Guests reportedly paid slightly more than $500 each to attend a New Year's Eve gala whose menu included "Mr. Trump's wedge salad," mushroom ravioli, beef tenderloin, sea bass and a breakfast buffet.
On January 31, Trump press secretary Sean Spicer officially referred to Mar-a-Lago as the "winter White House" for the first time.
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