Next year marks the 40th anniversary of Donald Trump’s purchase of Mar-a-Lago, his 126-room Mediterranean-style mansion resort, in Palm Beach, south Florida. Any festivities marking the ruby anniversary of Mar-a-Lago will, however, struggle to match its spectacular election-night shindig on November 5.

“It was f---ing electric,” recalls Mar-a-Lago regular Grant Cardone, a Florida-based fund manager and chief executive of Cardone Capital and Cardone Training Technologies. “It felt like the American revolution was starting there, one involving a golden age of prosperity.”

In addition to Trump and his family, also present that night were stalwart allies of the president-elect including tech titan Elon Musk, billionaire investor Vivek Ramaswamy and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

It wasn’t just the calibre of the guests that impressed Cardone. “I grew up in Louisiana but they had the biggest jumbo shrimp I’ve ever seen in my life,” he says. “It had to be more than five inches. The stone crabs were phenomenal as well.”

One month later, the partying at Mar-a-Lago is still going on – and Trump’s Palm Beach palace has effectively become a shadow White House as a roll-call of global statesmen, businessmen and political loyalists fly in to pay court, all striving to serve in, or influence, the president-elect.

‘Mar-a-Lago and Palm Beach have become the centre of the universe of power.’

Nick Iarossi, Florida-based lobbyist and Republican fundraiser

The opulent club, dubbed Trump’s “winter White House” during his first term and designated as his primary residence in 2019, was originally built in the 1920s as a home for Marjorie Merriweather Post, a cereal company heiress and one of America’s wealthiest women. On her death in 1973, she bequeathed the property to the National Park Service hoping it could be used as a winter White House. But the costs of maintaining the property were too high and it was eventually sold to Trump in 1985. He converted it into a club with paying members in 1994, but the Trump family maintains private quarters in the compound.

In a case dismissed last month, Trump was charged by federal authorities with taking dozens of classified documents from the White House and storing them at Mar-a-Lago. Now the estate is at the heart of his preparations for his second term.

“Mar-a-Lago is a classy and classic building, like an American Versailles,” says Farage, who had predicted Trump’s win on election day in a video he filmed while being driven to the club with a suitcase visible behind him. Farage has become a familiar face at Mar-a-Lago, repeatedly posting pictures of himself with Trump there, most recently in February.

“It’s a medieval court,” adds Farage. “Anyone that wants a recommendation, an endorsement, a job, has to go to Mar-a-Lago. That’s the place where Donald Trump is most comfortable, where he feels at home, and where he can be himself, work, play golf and eat well.”

Chief among the visitors have been those jockeying for cabinet positions and roles in the Trump administration, which begins next month. Republican sources singled out former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, his nominee to serve as director of national intelligence, and Kash Patel, Trump’s controversial FBI director pick, as two of those who pressed the flesh at Mar-a-Lago to maximum political effect.

Another Trump loyalist who made the most of spending time at Mar-a-Lago was Sebastian Gorka, former deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counter-terrorism in the new administration. Gorka, a British-Hungarian American, has not been shy about banging the drum for his future boss’ residence, posting on Instagram on election night: “The party is joyous at Mar-a-Lago!” Gorka, born and raised in London, says that compared with UK private members’ clubs, Mar-a-Lago is “always fun and not class-ridden”.

Gorka adds that operating out of Mar-a-Lago benefits Trump in ways which transcend politics: “Whether it’s the recent video of him complimenting a little girl on her cool hairdo during a recent golf round, or all the viral posts of everyone at Mar-a-Lago and around the world doing the ‘Trump dance’ [imitating Trump’s characteristic gestures at rallies], president Trump has had as much of a cultural impact as a political one.”

The renewed appeal of Mar-a-Lago further cements south Florida’s importance in American society. Wealthy east-coast and west-coast denizens flocked to Florida during COVID-19, lured by the Sunshine State’s looser lockdown restrictions and lower tax rates. Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and soccer legend David Beckham are among those to have recently bought property in Miami.

“Mar-a-Lago and Palm Beach have become the centre of the universe of power,” says Nick Iarossi, a Florida-based lobbyist and Republican fundraiser. “The presidential transition being run from there means nominated cabinet members, as well as senior White House staff who are filling the positions of government, are living and working out of there. What’s interesting is that a lot of folks who are doing their transition planning from Palm Beach really like it there.

“It’s the modern-day political Silicon Valley,” Iarossi adds, “where instead of the tech industry breeding innovation, connection and networking, you now have the political industry in Palm Beach and Mar-a-Lago.”

Trump purchased the seven-hectare Mar-a-Lago in 1985 for $US10 million ($15.7 million at today’s exchange rate), including furnishings and land, converting it from a private residence into a public club in 1994 to fight subdivision restrictions. Republican insiders say the majority of recent visitors to Mar-a-Lago are friends of the 500 members and many stay outside club quarters. Musk is among friends of Trump who have reportedly been staying on the property as invited guests.

On many evenings, the main ballroom in Mar-a-Lago is devoted to a particular event, engagement or launch. On December 3, Marissa Streit, chief executive of conservative educational non-profit Prager University, hosted a school-themed fundraiser in the ballroom that featured a brief speech given by Trump and a rousing rendition of his campaign anthem, the Village People’s YMCA. Attendees say the event was notable for previous critics of Trump, such as right-wing media personality Glenn Beck and British historian Sir Niall Ferguson, joining his enthusiastic supporters.

On other nights, Trump dines with foreign dignitaries in the ballroom in full view of members. On November 14, right-wing Argentinian President Javier Milei became the first foreign leader to meet Trump following the election nine days earlier, when he attended a gala at Mar-a-Lago. He said the president-elect’s victory showed “the forces of heaven [were] on our side”. On November 29, Trump broke bread with Canadian President Justin Trudeau, flanked by incoming commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and prospective interior secretary Doug Burgum, where they discussed the sharp increases in tariffs on Canada that Trump has floated.

“That’s what makes Mar-a-Lago even cleverer,” says Farage. “They have to go into his den and he meets them on his terms. I think people must feel slightly intimidated because this is the centre of the conservative court in America, and so as a place for negotiations it beats a stale government building in DC.”

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Mar-a-Lago during the past month has been akin to Chequers, the British prime minister’s closely guarded country residence, crossed with a fashionable restaurant full of paying customers.

Yet, Republican loyalists insist Trump is equally at home with civilians as much as with the political elite. “It’s like King Charles opening up Buckingham Palace for the regular people to visit every day,” says Cardone. “You sit down, have coffee, a drink, dinner, a cigar, while Donald Trump is building out his cabinet.

“My wife was there two nights ago and ran into him,” Cardone adds.

What did they discuss? “I [had] put out the idea that I would consider in the future looking at running for governor of California. That was part of the conversation.” Cardone says he also discussed with the president-elect his own crusade to make “all Americans wealthy and have the same access to financial information”.

Trump’s style, he says, is “mostly him rolling through the place, moving from one room to another for a meeting. It looks to me like he makes time available on the entry and the exit to greet and acknowledge people. He can shift from Trudeau to thanking the person that dropped off his Diet Coke”.

‘I think if he had his choice, he would run the entire US government out of Palm Beach.’

Melissa Rein Lively, conservative communications executive

A video posted by Milei on Instagram following his visit to Florida showed some of the accidental encounters in action, with the Argentinian president filmed bear-hugging Trump and actor Sylvester Stallone in the ballroom before greeting Musk as he passed the Tesla founder in a corridor.

Among those who decamped by day to Mar-a-Lago after the election is conservative communications executive Melissa Rein Lively, who stayed at a nearby resort to put herself within commuting distance of Trump’s retreat.

“I threw my name in the hat as a contender for press secretary,” she says, a role that ultimately went to Trump’s election campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. “In the early days after the election, it was total frenzy because anybody and everybody that wanted to be considered was going through the process. I was doing a lot of the socialising and networking and there were formal recommendations made on my behalf to the Trump transition team. I was, of course, disappointed that he picked Karoline but I knew I was a long shot, and I’ll continue raising money for conservative causes.”

Lively adds that she frequently ran into Trump during her apparently unsuccessful attempt to serve in his administration. “He’s the consummate host,” she says. “It’s not unusual to see him walk up and give somebody a hug or a handshake or a high five.”

One Mar-a-Lago member, speaking on condition of anonymity, insists that discussions at the club are substantive. “People aren’t sticking pins in voodoo dolls of Joe Biden or fixating on what Elon just tweeted,” he says. “They’re discussing corporate tax reform or [Trump’s daughter-in-law] Lara Trump’s chances of securing the Senate seat in Florida vacated by [prospective secretary of state] Marco Rubio.”

But for all the Mar-a-Lago bonhomie, security has been significantly stepped up at the club following the thwarted assassination attempt on the president-elect in September at Trump International Golf Club in west Palm Beach.

“Right now, the security is over-the-top,” Lively says. “There are random car searches and you cannot cross over the bridge to the island to where Mar-a-Lago is without security service clearance and having your name cleared. There is no way anybody from the street is getting access to Mar-a-Lago … having been here a number of times when he was not president and campaigning, they’ve at least doubled the security now.”

Such is the level of security that robotic mobile dogs named Spot have been seen patrolling the perimeter of Mar-a-Lago in tandem with secret service agents. The remote-controlled robots, made by engineering company Boston Dynamics, carry the warning: “DO NOT PET.”

Vince Marotta, a prominent Palm Beach estate agent, says that security is at an all-time high.

“I’m attending a charitable lunch there where we have to park at a hotel a couple of miles away, take a bus and then come through a checkpoint,” he says. “It’s also more difficult to drive along the beach road with security, but I’m all for it if the most powerful man in the free world is living in your backyard.”

Yet others think security is still too lax. “Trump cannot stand to be alone – he has to have people around him,” says Laurence Leamer, author of Mar-a-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump’s Presidential Palace. “Even if they’ve tightened up security and they’re club members, it’s a crazy thing for the president of the United States to be coming to a club where all kinds of people are coming in and out of.”

The president-elect also raised eyebrows last summer when the membership cost for Mar-a-Lago soared to $US1 million from $US700,000. (At the start of Trump’s first term, it was $US200,000.) Mar-a-Lago is reportedly capped at 500 members and, according to Leamer, members who wanted to leave would previously have been denied a refund. “But apparently, [Trump]’s now paying people back who originally paid $US200,000 because with the new memberships, he makes $US800,000 profit.

“Mar-a-Lago has evolved enormously,” adds Leamer. “When he won the first time, there were a lot of traditional members of a club there because they enjoyed it. Now, more political people have come in. People are paying a million dollars to get in there to get something good out of the administration.”

Meanwhile, Marotta says he’s heard about buyers “in the [president-elect’s] brain trust looking to buy something in the $US10 to 15 billion price range relatively close to Mar-a-Lago”.

What a contrast to 35 years ago when Trump was presumed socially dead in the water in Palm Beach. Fame magazine reported in 1989 that Trump “still can’t get into any clubs. They don’t look favourably on the nouveaux riches here. Whatever Donald was trying to do in Palm Beach didn’t work”.

As he prepares to tackle immense domestic and foreign policy challenges, Trump’s 2005 boast to his biographer, Tim O’Brien – “I’m the king of Palm Beach!” – still rings true. “It [Mar-a-Lago] will remain the 47th president’s winter residence … where the commander-in-chief can huddle and consult with his cabinet team and trusted senior advisers,” says Gorka.

Lively says: “What he does in Palm Beach works so much better than in DC. I think if he had his choice, he would run the entire US government out of Palm Beach.”

The Telegraph, London

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