FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP) – While the Senate’s impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump begins Tuesday in Washington, an even more important issue for his immediate future is being discussed about 990 miles south by the City Council of Washington. Palm Beach: he can continue to live in Mar-a-Lago.
Council members will hear their lawyer’s opinion on whether the city can prevent Trump from living in his club. That was the deal that Trump’s lawyer offered almost 30 years ago: He told the city in 1993 that Trump would be banned from living there if it allowed him to convert it from a club residence. But this promise was not specifically included in the written agreement, which may take precedence.
That’s because, technically, Trump is an employee of the corporation that officially owns Mar-a-Lago – and the written agreement only prohibits members from living there. In accordance with city regulations, a club can provide local housing for its employees. Trump moved to Mar-a-Lago on January 20, the day he left office.
The South Florida city received in December a letter from a lawyer representing a neighbor from Mar-a-Lago demanding that Trump not live there. The unidentified neighbor believes that Trump’s residence would lower property values.
Trump and former First Lady Melania Trump moved their residence from New York to Mar-a-Lago in 2019. The Trump Organization, the family business entity, issued a statement saying: “There is no document or agreement in force that prohibits President Trump for using Mar-A-Lago as his residence. ”Trump owns two other houses near Mar-a-Lago.
Trump bought Mar-a-Lago for $ 10 million in 1985 from Marjorie Merriweather Post, owner of General Foods. The 126-room mansion had deteriorated after her death in 1973, when she left it to the United States government as a possible presidential vacation home. The government returned it in 1981.
After Trump bought it, he spent millions updating the property while living there part time.
In the early 1990s, however, Trump was in financial trouble. Property prices have plummeted and several of its businesses have failed, including a casino in New Jersey. He told the city that he could no longer afford the $ 3 million annual maintenance and that it was unfair to bear the costs alone. He proposed to subdivide the property and build mansions. The city rejected the proposal.
In 1993, Trump and the city agreed that he could turn the property into a private club. It would be limited to 500 members – the initiation fee is now $ 200,000 and the annual fee is $ 14,000.
Under this agreement, members can stay in a suite for a maximum of seven consecutive days and 21 days a year – but there is no ban on employees living there.
Still, according to the 1993 articles in the Palm Beach Post, Trump’s attorney Paul Rampell told the city council that if the deal was approved, Trump would be treated like any other member.
“Another question I am always asked is whether Mr. Trump will continue to live in Mar-a-Lago,” Rampell told the council, according to the Post. “No, except that he will be a member of the club and therefore will be entitled to use the guest rooms.”
The length of Trump’s stay at Mar-a-Lago before his presidency is unknown, but it often exceeded seven consecutive days while he was in office, including visits of around two weeks during the Christmas break. Their stays amounted to well over 21 days a year.
Trump clashed frequently with the city and its mostly sober residents over the club’s operation, even before he became president. Neighbors complained about the noise, traffic and an American flag the size of a car lot and its 24-meter mast, which Trump raised in 2006 without proper authorization. The two sides finally settled down: Trump got a shorter pole and agreed that his foundation would donate $ 100,000 to veteran charities.
Trump then placed the mast on a mound so that it still climbed up to 80 feet (24 meters).
Despite public disputes, Trump performed well in the November election among his neighbors – at the Mar-a-Lago police station, he got 62% of the vote.