The men wore tuxedos, the women dressed in extravagant evening dresses. They packed Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, unmasked and without any pretense of social detachment. After a cocktail and a luxurious dinner, revelers danced to the new year to the live music of rapper Vanilla Ice and veterans of the Beach Boy.
“We shouldn’t be caged in our homes,” said Amber Gitter, a local real estate agent who attended. No government should “say that you have to stay and you cannot work”.
As soon as Trump leaves the White House this week, the twice-impeached president is expected to reside in Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. It is an unfortunate prospect for many Palm Beachers who fear Trump’s presence and the unmasked nights at Mar-a-Lago will undermine the small town’s tranquility and its fight against the pandemic. The display of unbridled wealth and parties at Mar-a-Lago highlights the unpleasant and unpleasant reality of a wealthy elite that continues to celebrate while its working-class poor neighbors struggle to survive.
Trump in Florida
Situated on an island off the coast of Florida, Palm Beach is a symbol of 1% of America. The tree-lined South Ocean Boulevard, which runs through Mar-a-Lago, is dubbed the billionaire’s line, home to some of the most luxurious beach mansions in the world. Residents include cosmetic heiress Aerin Lauder, billionaire financier Stephen Schwarzman, and, notoriously, the now convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump is not even the rich community’s first experience with presidents – John F. Kennedy used his family’s property as a winter White House.
Trump divides the residents of his future hometown, as he does all Americans. While he won the city’s vote in the 2020 presidential election and more than 500 followers paid $ 1,000 per ticket to attend the Mar-a-Lago New Year’s party, the president fought with neighbors and local officials. In 2006, Trump erected a giant mast in Mar-a-Lago, which violated local zoning rules. The city started fining him $ 1,250 a day. Trump sued and maintained his mast. Mar-a-Lago declined to comment on the dispute or its unmasked parts.
During Trump’s presidential visits to Mar-a-Lago, dozens of police and secret service officers protected the property. Barricades blocked the main road, creating congestion. A group of angry neighbors sought legal advice to prevent him from living full time in Mar-a-Lago, the Washington Post first reported.
Trump bought the Baroque Moorish-style mansion overlooking the ocean in 1985. When he turned the property into a social club in 1993, Trump agreed to ban members from staying in the complex for more than 21 days a year. Residents are demanding that the municipal government enforce this agreement. Palm Beach city manager Kirk Blouin told the Observer that the board will look into the matter during next month’s meeting.
Covid generated another schism between Trump and the locals. Unlike the president, city officials took the pandemic seriously from the start. They started controlling the virus as early as January last year, says Blouin. When it proliferated in mid-March, the city imposed a curfew, closed restaurants, shops, beaches and apartment pools. Even Mar-a-Lago was closed. We wanted to “beat pots and pans to alert people and neighboring cities that the virus is coming – and it will be very bad,” added Blouin. “Many thought that we had exaggerated.”
The hard line action saved lives. Despite an elderly population – two-thirds of city residents are over 65, according to the US Census – Palm Beach accounted for only 26 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and two deaths during the first two months of the pandemic. In contrast, despite its young population, working-class Palm Beach County accounted for a similar proportion of victims per population: 5,429 confirmed cases and 315 deaths, according to data from the Palm Beach Civic Association. “From the beginning, there was a pandemic for the rich and another for everyone else,” complains Omari Hardy, a Democratic state legislator who represents much of Palm Beach County.
While Palm Beach residents make their homes in luxurious homes, Florida’s poorest need to work outside the home. “My constituents have to choose between two evils,” says Hardy. “If they can work, they are exposing themselves to the risk of contracting the virus. If they can’t work, they won’t have an income ”.
At Lupita’s, a taco restaurant across the water in Lake Worth, co-owner Roberto Alvarez says he is “struggling”. He plunged into his personal savings to pay his team last week. In contrast, Palm Beach’s luxury real estate market has grown. During the first quarter of 2020, while millions of Americans were asking for unemployment, sales of single-family homes in Palm Beach reached a record $ 416 million, an increase of 168% over the same period last year, according to a study . Just before the New Year, Sylvester Stallone paid $ 35 million for a seven-bedroom, 12-bathroom property.
Big buyers fled Covid-infested areas like New York City in search of sun and beach, says local real estate agent Scott Gordon. Trump’s tax reforms in 2017, which raise taxes on wealthy individuals in states like New York, make Florida and its low tax rate an attractive home.
During the pandemic, Palm Beach residents were quarantined in luxury. When the seaside Four Seasons hotel closed in March, Citadel Securities rented the entire property to its stock brokers. Only company or hotel employees could enter, with private security guarding the property. Ten months later, the resort remains under surveillance. The hotel won’t start taking reservations until early April, a hotel spokesman said.
Now, however, this pandemic paradise is eroding. Since Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who supported Trump, lifted most restrictions in September, Palm Beach shops, restaurants and bars have opened to indoor and outdoor tables, drawing large crowds. Since November, the city has seen a faster increase in cases than in Palm Beach County, according to local government data. The local population of 8,800 inhabitants increases in winter, as northerners escape the cold, increasing the chances of contact and infections, according to Blouin. He also blames “corona fatigue”, explaining that some residents are fed up with rules and restrictions. “We are social animals”, he admits.
Mar-a-Lago is the ground zero for breaking the rules. It hosted an electoral party without a mask, a fashion show and a turbulent party of young conservatives. After the New Year’s party, county officials sent a warning letter last week to Mar-a-Lago for a “failure to enforce” the mask’s mandate. But few believe Trump will hear. “A letter with strong words will do nothing to make the president and his business obey,” said Hardy. “He showed nothing but disdain for our rules.”