Winter White House

At Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump blends pleasure, profit and politics

- Zeke J. Miller

HE SALADS HAD BEEN SERVED and the steaks were on their way when Donald Trump’s aides surrounded the table. It was around 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 11, and the President was eating dinner with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the outdoor terrace of Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Fla. They had just received confirmation that North Korea had launched a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, a violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and one of the first foreign policy tests of the Trump Administration.

The provocation was a surprise, but the bigger shock was the setting. While the President was briefed on the situation before dinner, according to a White House spokesperson, part of the drama played out in the middle of the Mar-a-Lago patio, more than 800 miles from the White House Situation Room and in full view of hundreds of club members and their guests. As a keyboard player sang classic hits in the background, White House aides relied on cell phones and candlelight to draft remarks and read briefing papers before a hastily prepared press conference starring the two world leaders. Stunned dinner guests posted snapshots on social media. “HOLY MOLY !!!” club member Richard DeAgazio wrote on Facebook, adding a photo of a military aide carrying the nuclear football. “It was fascinating to watch.”

The surreal scene foreshadowed the unusually large role that the historic Palm Beach estate will play in its owner’s presidency. Every Commander in Chief finds respite from the pressures of the White House. Barack Obama favored the golf course and Hawaiian vacations. George W. Bush had his ranch in Crawford, Texas, while his father used the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. Richard Nixon liked to decamp to his vacation home in Key Biscayne, Fla. And Trump plans to spend a significant portion of his downtime at his private Florida resort.