On any given weekend, you might catch President Trump's son-in-law and top Mideast dealmaker, Jared Kushner, by the beachside soft-serve ice cream machine, or his reclusive chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, on the dining patio. If you are lucky, the president himself could stop by your table for a quick chat. But you will have to pay $200,000 for the privilege — and the few available spots are going fast.
Virtually overnight, Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump's members-only Palm Beach, Fla., club, has been transformed into the part-time capital of American government, a so-called winter White House where Mr. Trump has entertained a foreign head of state, health care industry executives and other presidential guests.
But Mr. Trump's gatherings at Mar-a-Lago — he arrived there on Friday afternoon, his third weekend visit in a row — have also created an arena for potential political influence rarely seen in American history: a kind of Washington steakhouse on steroids, situated in a sunny playground of the rich and powerful, where members and their guests enjoy a level of access that could elude even the best-connected of lobbyists.
Membership lists reviewed by The New York Times show that the club's nearly 500 paying members include dozens of real estate developers, Wall Street financiers, energy executives and others whose businesses could be affected by Mr. Trump's policies. At least three club members are under consideration for an ambassadorship. Most of the 500 have had memberships predating Mr. Trump's presidential campaign, and there are a limited number of memberships still available.
William I. Koch, who oversees a major mining and fuels company, belongs to Mar-a-Lago, as does the billionaire trader Thomas Peterffy, who spent more than $8 million on political ads in 2012 warning of creeping socialism in America.
Another member is George Norcross, an insurance executive and the South Jersey Democratic Party boss, whose friendship with Mr. Trump dates to the president's Atlantic City years, when Mr. Norcross held insurance contracts with Mr. Trump's casinos, and Mr. Trump wrangled with the state's Democratic leaders over tax treatment of the properties. Yet another member is Janet Weiner, part owner and chief financial officer of the Rockstar energy drink company, which has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying federal officials to avoid tighter regulations on its products.
Bruce Toll, a real estate executive who co-founded Toll Brothers, one of the nation's largest home builders, and who is still active in the industry, owns a home nearby and frequently sees Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, he said. While they did not discuss any of Mr. Toll's specific projects, he said, the two would occasionally discuss national issues, such as Mr. Trump's plans to increase spending on highways and other infrastructure projects.
Mr. Trump's son Eric, in an interview on Friday, rejected suggestions that his family was offering access to his father and profiting from it. First, he said, only 20 to 40 new members are admitted per year, and second, the wealthy business executives who frequent the club, among others, have many ways to communicate with the federal government if they want to.
”It assumes the worst of us and everyone, and that is unfair," Eric Trump said.
Hope Hicks, a White House spokeswoman, said the president had no conflicts of interest, a reference to the fact that federal law exempts him from provisions prohibiting federal employees from taking actions that could benefit themselves financially.
”But regardless, he has not and will not be discussing policy with club members," she said in a written statement.
Mar-a-Lago, she added, is ”one of the most successful private clubs in the world," and it ”was intended to be the Southern White House, and the president looks forward to hosting many world leaders at this remarkable property."
Historically, of course, American presidents have often been rich men with mansions, who sometimes conducted the people's business in weekend haunts of the wealthy: the Bush compound in Kennebunkport, Me., for example, or the Kennedy family home in Hyannisport, Mass.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower joined the elite Augusta National Golf Club before he was elected, frequently hanging out there with a group of affluent businessmen who became known as ”the gang," which included top executives from Coca-Cola and an oil company, an investment banker and a lawyer-financier-lobbyist.
But Mr. Trump's weekend White House appears to be unprecedented in American history, as it is the first one with customers paying a company owned by the president, several historians said.
”Mar-a-Lago represents a commercialization of the presidency that has few if any precedents in American history," said Jon Meacham, a presidential historian and Andrew Jackson biographer. ”Presidents have always spent time with the affluent," he added. ”But a club where people pay you as president to spend time in his company is new. It is kind of amazing."
But Mar-a-Lago, where Mr. Trump's old New York circle blurs easily into his presidency, is now a place where the president of the United States might seek guidance on a major government project the way another New Yorker might ask around for a good orthopedist.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/18/...ackage-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Article is quite lengthy so give it a look.
Politico piles on:
Leaked Trump tape: 'You are the special people'
Exclusive audio shows how Trump lets loose at his clubs — inviting guests to join him on staff interviews
That showed last November at a cocktail and dinner reception celebrating longtime members of his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club. Deep into the process of meeting potential Cabinet nominees, the president-elect invited partygoers to stop by the next day to join the excitement.
”We're doing a lot of interviews tomorrow — generals, dictators, we have everything," Trump told the crowd, according to an audio tape of his closed-press remarks obtained by POLITICO from a source in the room. ”You may wanna come around. It'll be fun. We're really working tomorrow. We have meetings every 15, 20 minutes with different people that will form our government."
"We're going to be interviewing everybody — Treasury, we're going to be interviewing Secretary of State," he continued. ”We have everybody coming in — if you want to come around, it's going to be unbelievable....so you might want to come along."
As he prepares to spend the third straight weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, the tape provides a window into how Trump conducts himself away from the prying press and among the loyal faces of his club.
.....
For Trump, the ”Winter White House" of Mar-a-Lago offers him more than a warm and gilded setting outside of Washington, D.C. — it puts the isolated president back in the mix with his club family, where friends said he feels most like himself.
”So, this is my real group," Trump said at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, on November 18, according to the audio tape. ”These are the people that came here in the beginning, when nobody knew what this monster was gonna turn out to be, right?"
.....
Turning to a longtime club member that night, he said: ”We were just talking about who we [are] going to pick for the FCC, who [are] we going to pick for this, who we gonna accept -- boy, can you give me some recommendations?"
The supportive crowd ate it up as the relaxed Trump, in his element, gave them a close-up view of how he was setting up the government. ”You are the special people," he told the crowd of about 100 members....
.....
White House officials received a copy of the tape from POLITICO on Friday but did not comment. On Saturday morning, after this story posted, White House deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders disputed the story and said it "tries to create a narrative that just isn't true by taking snippets of conversations and events out of context." She also disputed that Trump was inviting club members to join him in meetings. Instead, she said he was "giving a description of what is happening and explaining the nature of the disruptions at the club and reassuring the members."
Trump isn't totally cut off from his old set of contacts when he is working from the White House. He keeps the same cell phone number he had before the election, but he is more careful now -- friends leave messages for him on his cell phone, and their calls are returned from a secure line, two people who speak regularly to Trump said.
.....
The compliments of the guests, however, don't come for free. Part of the appeal, for Trump, is that they're all paying him. Last weekend, after delivering a joint statement on North Korea with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump stopped by a wedding at the club.
”They've been members of this club for a long time," Trump said, referring to the bride's family. ”They've paid me a fortune." Since his election, Mar-a-Lago has reportedly doubled its initiation fee to $200,000.
And the fact that the club family doesn't come for free is a running rib. At the party at Bedminster, Trump nudged his new chief of staff, Reince Priebus, to speak to the crowd. ”These members are loaded, Reince," he said. ”He will work the room for campaign contributions. Don't quote me!"
Source: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-leaked-audio-clubs-guests-235161
Virtually overnight, Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump's members-only Palm Beach, Fla., club, has been transformed into the part-time capital of American government, a so-called winter White House where Mr. Trump has entertained a foreign head of state, health care industry executives and other presidential guests.
But Mr. Trump's gatherings at Mar-a-Lago — he arrived there on Friday afternoon, his third weekend visit in a row — have also created an arena for potential political influence rarely seen in American history: a kind of Washington steakhouse on steroids, situated in a sunny playground of the rich and powerful, where members and their guests enjoy a level of access that could elude even the best-connected of lobbyists.
Membership lists reviewed by The New York Times show that the club's nearly 500 paying members include dozens of real estate developers, Wall Street financiers, energy executives and others whose businesses could be affected by Mr. Trump's policies. At least three club members are under consideration for an ambassadorship. Most of the 500 have had memberships predating Mr. Trump's presidential campaign, and there are a limited number of memberships still available.
William I. Koch, who oversees a major mining and fuels company, belongs to Mar-a-Lago, as does the billionaire trader Thomas Peterffy, who spent more than $8 million on political ads in 2012 warning of creeping socialism in America.
Another member is George Norcross, an insurance executive and the South Jersey Democratic Party boss, whose friendship with Mr. Trump dates to the president's Atlantic City years, when Mr. Norcross held insurance contracts with Mr. Trump's casinos, and Mr. Trump wrangled with the state's Democratic leaders over tax treatment of the properties. Yet another member is Janet Weiner, part owner and chief financial officer of the Rockstar energy drink company, which has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying federal officials to avoid tighter regulations on its products.
Bruce Toll, a real estate executive who co-founded Toll Brothers, one of the nation's largest home builders, and who is still active in the industry, owns a home nearby and frequently sees Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, he said. While they did not discuss any of Mr. Toll's specific projects, he said, the two would occasionally discuss national issues, such as Mr. Trump's plans to increase spending on highways and other infrastructure projects.
Mr. Trump's son Eric, in an interview on Friday, rejected suggestions that his family was offering access to his father and profiting from it. First, he said, only 20 to 40 new members are admitted per year, and second, the wealthy business executives who frequent the club, among others, have many ways to communicate with the federal government if they want to.
”It assumes the worst of us and everyone, and that is unfair," Eric Trump said.
Hope Hicks, a White House spokeswoman, said the president had no conflicts of interest, a reference to the fact that federal law exempts him from provisions prohibiting federal employees from taking actions that could benefit themselves financially.
”But regardless, he has not and will not be discussing policy with club members," she said in a written statement.
Mar-a-Lago, she added, is ”one of the most successful private clubs in the world," and it ”was intended to be the Southern White House, and the president looks forward to hosting many world leaders at this remarkable property."
Historically, of course, American presidents have often been rich men with mansions, who sometimes conducted the people's business in weekend haunts of the wealthy: the Bush compound in Kennebunkport, Me., for example, or the Kennedy family home in Hyannisport, Mass.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower joined the elite Augusta National Golf Club before he was elected, frequently hanging out there with a group of affluent businessmen who became known as ”the gang," which included top executives from Coca-Cola and an oil company, an investment banker and a lawyer-financier-lobbyist.
But Mr. Trump's weekend White House appears to be unprecedented in American history, as it is the first one with customers paying a company owned by the president, several historians said.
”Mar-a-Lago represents a commercialization of the presidency that has few if any precedents in American history," said Jon Meacham, a presidential historian and Andrew Jackson biographer. ”Presidents have always spent time with the affluent," he added. ”But a club where people pay you as president to spend time in his company is new. It is kind of amazing."
But Mar-a-Lago, where Mr. Trump's old New York circle blurs easily into his presidency, is now a place where the president of the United States might seek guidance on a major government project the way another New Yorker might ask around for a good orthopedist.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/18/...ackage-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Article is quite lengthy so give it a look.
Politico piles on:
Leaked Trump tape: 'You are the special people'
Exclusive audio shows how Trump lets loose at his clubs — inviting guests to join him on staff interviews
That showed last November at a cocktail and dinner reception celebrating longtime members of his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club. Deep into the process of meeting potential Cabinet nominees, the president-elect invited partygoers to stop by the next day to join the excitement.
”We're doing a lot of interviews tomorrow — generals, dictators, we have everything," Trump told the crowd, according to an audio tape of his closed-press remarks obtained by POLITICO from a source in the room. ”You may wanna come around. It'll be fun. We're really working tomorrow. We have meetings every 15, 20 minutes with different people that will form our government."
"We're going to be interviewing everybody — Treasury, we're going to be interviewing Secretary of State," he continued. ”We have everybody coming in — if you want to come around, it's going to be unbelievable....so you might want to come along."
As he prepares to spend the third straight weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, the tape provides a window into how Trump conducts himself away from the prying press and among the loyal faces of his club.
.....
For Trump, the ”Winter White House" of Mar-a-Lago offers him more than a warm and gilded setting outside of Washington, D.C. — it puts the isolated president back in the mix with his club family, where friends said he feels most like himself.
”So, this is my real group," Trump said at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, on November 18, according to the audio tape. ”These are the people that came here in the beginning, when nobody knew what this monster was gonna turn out to be, right?"
.....
Turning to a longtime club member that night, he said: ”We were just talking about who we [are] going to pick for the FCC, who [are] we going to pick for this, who we gonna accept -- boy, can you give me some recommendations?"
The supportive crowd ate it up as the relaxed Trump, in his element, gave them a close-up view of how he was setting up the government. ”You are the special people," he told the crowd of about 100 members....
.....
White House officials received a copy of the tape from POLITICO on Friday but did not comment. On Saturday morning, after this story posted, White House deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders disputed the story and said it "tries to create a narrative that just isn't true by taking snippets of conversations and events out of context." She also disputed that Trump was inviting club members to join him in meetings. Instead, she said he was "giving a description of what is happening and explaining the nature of the disruptions at the club and reassuring the members."
Trump isn't totally cut off from his old set of contacts when he is working from the White House. He keeps the same cell phone number he had before the election, but he is more careful now -- friends leave messages for him on his cell phone, and their calls are returned from a secure line, two people who speak regularly to Trump said.
.....
The compliments of the guests, however, don't come for free. Part of the appeal, for Trump, is that they're all paying him. Last weekend, after delivering a joint statement on North Korea with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump stopped by a wedding at the club.
”They've been members of this club for a long time," Trump said, referring to the bride's family. ”They've paid me a fortune." Since his election, Mar-a-Lago has reportedly doubled its initiation fee to $200,000.
And the fact that the club family doesn't come for free is a running rib. At the party at Bedminster, Trump nudged his new chief of staff, Reince Priebus, to speak to the crowd. ”These members are loaded, Reince," he said. ”He will work the room for campaign contributions. Don't quote me!"
Source: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-leaked-audio-clubs-guests-235161
