Will Donald Trump will be thrown out of Mar-a-Lago?

Since leaving office in January, former US President Donald Trump has been residing at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

Mr Trump’s stay at the club, however, may be in breach of a 1993 agreement he made with the city of Palm Beach.

The council will meet shortly, and the topic will be discussed.

What exactly is the 1993 pact?

Mar-a-Lago was once just one house.

However, when Mr Trump transformed it into a 500-member private club in 1993, he negotiated with the city of Palm Beach that his visits would be limited to seven days.

That was in accordance with club rules, which included a $263,000 initiation fee and a $23,692 annual fee, as well as an extra fee that allowed members to remain in a suite for up to seven days in a row and no more than 21 days per year.

History of Mar-a-Lago

Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, as seen from a window of the plane.((Reuters/Carlos Barria))

Mr Trump bought Mar-a-Lago from the estate of Marjorie Merriweather Post, the owner of General Foods, for $US10 million in 1985.

After her death in 1973, when she left the 126-room mansion to the US government as a potential presidential holiday home, it deteriorated. It was returned by the government in 1981.

Mr Trump purchased the property and spent millions of dollars renovating it while residing there part-time.

Laurence Leamer, a Palm Beach resident and author of Mar-a-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump’s Presidential Palace, said, “He must be given credit for not messing up Mar-a-Lago,”

“Marjorie Merriweather Post built it in the ’20s and it is just one of the greatest mansions in the country,” he said.

Trump was in financial trouble by the early 1990s. Real estate prices plunged, and many of his businesses, including a casino in New Jersey, collapsed.

He told the town that he could no longer afford the $US3 million annual upkeep and that it was unfair that he was responsible for all of the costs.

He suggested dividing the land and creating mansions. After the proposal was turned down by the town, the concept of a private estate was born.

Let’s return to the forthcoming council meeting…

The next meeting of the town council will be held on Tuesday.

Although we don’t know what’s on the agenda, Palm Beach town manager Kirk Blouin has previously stated that the issue may be addressed.

Mr. Blouin also said that the council was considering all of its options.

Attorney Reginald Stambaugh, who represents a Mar-a-Lago neighbor, sent the town a letter last month asking that the town implement the agreement’s residency clause.

It’s something the town seldom, if ever, did before or after Mr Trump’s presidency.

According to the letter, the unidentified neighbor claims Mr Trump’s residency would lower property values.

When asked whether he had received a response, the attorney did not return a call or an email on Thursday.

Some of Trump’s neighbors want him to leave, but he has a strong ally.

In 2019, former President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump relocated from New York City to Mar-a-Lago.

Mr Trump fought repeatedly with the town and its often quiet inhabitants over the club’s activity long before he became president.
Neighbors protested about noise, traffic, and a 24-meter pole with a car-lot-sized US flag that Mr Trump raised without the appropriate permits in 2006.

The two parties finally came to an agreement: Mr. Trump earned a shorter pole, and his foundation contributed $100,000 to veteran charities. Mr Trump then placed the pole on a mound, ensuring that it would still reach a height of 24 meters.

However, according to The Washington Post, an attorney for the town of Palm Beach has recently suggested that Trump be allowed to live at Mar-a-Lago.

Attorney John Randolph allegedly argued in a memo that the former president should be allowed to use the estate as his home, despite his attorney promising the council at the time of the 1993 agreement that Mr Trump would not live there.

Is it likely that Donald Trump will be thrown out of Mar-a-Lago?

The Trump Organization, the family’s business agency, did not respond to emailed questions about the matter from his newly formed Office of the Former President.

“There is no document or agreement in place that prohibits President Trump from using Mar-A-Lago as his residence” it said last month.

Trump also owns two other properties in the vicinity of Mar-a-Lago.

Mr. Leamer believes the town would not challenge Mr. Trump if he chooses to live there.

Mr Trump enjoys mingling with the club’s members and visitors and having them “stroke his ego,” which he says he wouldn’t get if he lived anywhere else.

Mr Leamer said, “He goes through his days and people tell him he’s fantastic, he’s great, he’s unbelievable — that’s what he wants,”

Mr Trump’s stays at Mar-a-Lago prior to his presidency are uncertain, but Mr Leamer said they sometimes lasted more than seven days in a row and 21 days per year.

Mr Trump spent more than 21 days a year there during his presidency, including two-week trips during the Christmas holidays.

“People say he doesn’t have the legal right to have legal residence [at Mar-a-Lago] — has the legal right ever been an issue for him?” Mr. Leamer stated.