Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

This fight is for everything.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

People are complicated. Love is not.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Late Night Open Thread: The Nightmare Neighbor

Late Night Open Thread: The Nightmare Neighbor

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I don’t recall West Palm Beach being known for its quiet good taste and understated aesthetics, but it seems that even rich racist snowbirds have some standards. I assume the unhappy litigators won’t win, because if there’s anything the Trump Organization has actual expertise on, it’s escaping legal consequences by some combination of bribery, extortion, and sheer willingness to outlast its opponents. And Donny Dollhands loves Mar-A-Largo — it’s gaudy, it’s familiar, it’s full of noisy blowhards who pay him money, and not incidentally Florida has a very generous ‘homestead exemption’ should his creditors finally catch up with him. But at least they’ve let him know he’s not wanted on their exquisitely pampered turf!

… In the demand letter, obtained by The Washington Post, a lawyer for the Mar-a-Lago neighbors says the town should notify Trump that he cannot use Mar-a-Lago as his residence. Making that notification would “avoid an embarrassing situation” if the outgoing president moves to the club and later has to be ordered to leave, according to the letter sent on behalf of the neighbors, the DeMoss family, which runs an international missionary foundation.

For years, various neighbors have raised concerns about disruptions, such as clogged traffic and blocked streets, caused by the president’s frequent trips to the club. Even before he was president, Trump created ill will in the town by refusing to comply with even basic local requirements, such as adhering to height limits for a massive flagpole he installed, and frequently attempting to get out of the promises he had made when he converted Mar-a-Lago into a private club.

“There’s absolutely no legal theory under which he can use that property as both a residence and a club,” said Glenn Zeitz, another nearby Palm Beach homeowner who has joined the fight against Trump and had previously tangled with him over Trump’s attempt to seize a private home to expand his Atlantic City casino. “Basically he’s playing a dead hand. He’s not going to intimidate or bluff people, because we’re going to be there.”…

The current residency controversy tracks back to a deal Trump cut in 1993 when his finances were foundering and the cost of maintaining Mar-a-Lago was soaring into the multimillions each year. Under the agreement, club members are banned from spending more than 21 days a year in the club’s guest suites and cannot stay there for any longer than seven consecutive days. Before the arrangement was sealed, a Trump attorney assured the town council in a public meeting that his client would not live at Mar-a-Lago.

At the time, the town’s leaders were wary of Trump because he had sued them after they blocked his attempt to subdivide the historic Mar-a-Lago property into multiple housing lots. Placing the limitations on lengths of stays ensured that Trump’s property would remain a private club, as he had promised, rather than a residential hotel…

Which sounds rather like my city councilor questioning would-be developers about their reliance on Section 8 vouchers to keep their proposed extended-stay building profitable, frankly.

I guess if Rush Limbaugh is really a terminal cancer patient, *somebody* has to pick up the torch…

Reader Interactions

69Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    The thought of Trump spending his post-Presidency in an endless dispute with what is essentially an HOA writ large feels oddly appropriate.

  2. 2.

    Kent

    The DeMoss family are very famous old-school right wing evangelical family.  Of the Billy Graham type.  Even they want nothing to do with Trump as a neighbor!

  4. 4.

    Mary G

    Odd, I can’t get the side wing to show up from the Denali post, even after refreshing two ways.

    If Trump can grind the entire Republican Party into the ground, I very much doubt a few neighbors, however rich, will be able to control his behavior.

  6. 6.

    Kent

    @Steve in the ATL: Well, I think the DeMoss family just give out bibles and do normal religious bible thumping.    They don’t own mercenary armies or earn billions through exploitative fraudulent MLM schemes like the DeVos clan.

    There must be some axiom where if you have two similar people or families, and one is a trump associate, they are by definition, worse.

  8. 8.

    MoeLarryAndJesus

    @Mary G: Think positive. Florida is a Stand Your Ground state. How far is that from a “I can’t stand you being above ground” state?

  9. 9.

    NotMax

    Fully expect him to order the building of a mock-up of the Oval Office, complete with a laminated fiberboard version of the Resolute desk. Drapes to be ‘donated’ in exchange for an inflated tax deduction by certain hotels.

  12. 12.

    Jackie

    He’s losing his helo pad as of Jan 20th. Which will make traffic to and from Mar a Lago more gridlocked than ever. Heh.

    What Leto said.

  13. 13.

    NotMax

    @NotMax

    And search for body doubles for Biden and for Harris so he can enact some kind of “You’re fired” scene on a regular basis.

  14. 14.

    patrick II

    Most of them probably contributed to his campaign for president. Having him for a neighbor is a step too far.

  15. 15.

    ColoradoGuy

    NotMax, that’s quite a thought there. A re-creation of the Oval Office, where he does live-actions re-creations of the “high points” of his wretched Presidency. With tiered pricing, of course. Buy the DVD, get a subscription to his channel, become a supporter, watch a taping with the Great Man himself, win a trip to Moscow!

  16. 16.

    Jager

    I lived across the Intracoastal from Palm Beach in West Palm in 96, 97, and 98. Donald has never fit in. Palm Beach is a combination of old money and new money, it’s a very tranquil town. Jimmy Buffet, Rod Stewart, and David Gilmour from Pink Floyd live there, they never raise hell or make the papers. We used to go to the much-missed Chuck and Harold’s for drinks and dinner. Rod Stewart and his wife and kids ate there, no entourage, no bullshit. Trump is not a fit at all. Even Rush Limbaugh keeps a low profile. Mar-a-Lago is across the road from the ocean, it has a beach house across the street. When I lived there, Mar-a-Lago’s beach house looked like shit, needed paint, the roof was ratty and the landscaping sucked. I went to a charity event at Mar-a-Lago (the organizers rented it), this was in 97, it was a dump, a little dirty, the drinks were weak and the food was shitty. The next year the event was back at the Breakers Hotel. I hope the Pam Beach folks kick trump’s ass.

  18. 18.

    SC54HI

    DeMoss family v. tRump embodies an important principle of interpersonal conflict: let the assholes get in a fight with each other.

  19. 19.

    Splitting Image

    On one hand, I think that kilgore trout has Trump’s exit strategy mapped out perfectly.

    On the other, I think Trump will fail miserably here. 20 million Twitter followers won’t translate into 20 million subscribers because most of them won’t be willing to pay for a service they used to get for free. Not to mention that every still-elected Republican will be better able to own the libs than he will. Once he’s been dragged out of the White House and banned from Twitter, Trump’s next stop will be Dancing With the Stars, followed by being the unanimous first vote off the island in season 50 of Survivor.

  21. 21.

    West of the Rockies

    I think it’s sometimes forgotten that Trump, in addition to now being a very sore loser, is an abused (sedentary/bad diet) 74.  His cognitive decline is already evident.  He’s not going to be much of anything in two or three years.

  24. 24.

    smike

    @Jackie:

    How much of an entourage of secret service, etc., is he allowed after he leaves office? Seems like the motorcade, blocked streets, etc. should be much less obtrusive.

    I will, however, enjoy watching him lose that fight, too. My schaden freudeth over.

  25. 25.

    feebog

    @smike:

    Just wondering how low you have to be on the Secret Service Totem Pole to get the assignment of protecting Trump after January 20?  Talk about shit jobs.

  26. 26.

    columbusqueen

    @feebog: I guess it’ll be the equivalent of fighting on the Eastern Front in WWII, the thing senior agents hold over the heads of the newbies. “DO IT RIGHT, OR IT’S TRUMPY FOR YOU!”

  28. 28.

    Martin

    It’s a pretty routine request:

    1. Rich asshole pulls job-creator card and demands tax immunity for vanity home that will absolutely be a job-creating hotel, I promise.
    2. Tax immunity granted, vanity home is remodeled to suit the rich asshole, pretends to open as a hotel, fails because he doesn’t want it to be a hotel.
    3. Concedes failure, decides to just live there tax-free.

    City full of rich assholes that pull shit like this kind of wise up, tell the city they support the tax cut provided it can never be a residence. Turns out not to matter, rich asshole can afford more lawyers than the city.

    Never give the tax break. Ever. Make them pay the taxes, and offer grants back out of the tax receipts from the employees instead if you want to do anything.

    But the other variable in this is that Mar a Lago is on the national historic registry. His authority over the property is pretty limited.

  29. 29.

    Jay C

    @patrick II:

    I’m going to guess “martyr”, if only because I’m sure Trump will spend at least his first year out of office relentlessly pitching that line to the red-hat marks. And on every media outlet he can. Disgracefully, The Donald has turned himself ( with the willing participation of millions of “fans”) into a political personality cult: that “patina” isn’t going to wear off -much- any time soon.

    Though it can get ground off….

  32. 32.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax: And search for body doubles for Biden and for Harris so he can enact some kind of “You’re fired” scene on a regular basis.

    I wouldn’t be surprised with this whiny ass titty baby.

  33. 33.

    Redshift

    @NotMax:

    And search for body doubles for Biden and for Harris so he can enact some kind of “You’re fired” scene on a regular basis. 

    Though typically, conservatives are hilariously bad with supposed “lookalikes,” so any Black or Brown woman and older white guy who are desperate enough to take the job will do.

  34. 34.

    mrmoshpotato

    @ColoradoGuy: With tiered pricing, of course. Buy the DVD, get a subscription to his channel, become a supporter, watch a taping with the Great Man himself, win a trip to Moscow! to see if you can outsuck Putin’s ass!

    For completeness and accuracy.

  35. 35.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Splitting Image: Once he’s been dragged out of the White House and banned from Twitter, Trump’s next stop will be Dancing With the Stars

    Will he dance with pile of shit Sean “Bigliest Inauguration!” Spicer or pile of shit Rick “Oops” Perry?

  37. 37.

    Redshift

    @Martin:

    But the other variable in this is that Mar a Lago is on the national historic registry. His authority over the property is pretty limited. 

    Yeah, but what are the chances he pulls a Wal-Mart special “oops, the contractor just went rogue and knocked it down in the middle of the night, sorry, too late now”?

    Then it’s back into”who has more lawyers” territory.

  39. 39.

    briber

    @dmsilev:

    Making reference to President Carter’s post office efforts, we could call this dispute between Trump and the residents of West Palm Beach the Habitat for Inhumanity program.

  41. 41.

    lgerard

    here is the future

    donald trump sets up a gaudy studio in mar-a-lago

    I’m sure everyone remembers what a great success the Sarah Palin Channel was

  45. 45.

    trnc

    @Jackie: Yeah, considering:

    For years, various neighbors have raised concerns about disruptions, such as clogged traffic and blocked streets, caused by the president’s frequent trips to the club.

    Seems like letting him live there would solve that problem. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he moved a couple of miles away and then visited the club every day just to jam up the neighbors.

  46. 46.

    trnc

    @Splitting Image: If this is a likely outcome:

    the road to power in the GOP will pass through the renamed trump network, although he’s never given it a dime, as candidates fork over millions to come onto “his network” and say nice things about him

    Then not prosecuting him could be the best thing for all non-republican parties. On the other hand, the GOP tearing itself apart because “no one is protecting Donald from prosecution” also seems plausible and more satisfying.

  50. 50.

    patrick II

    New York doesn’t want him, Mar-a-lago doesn’t want him.  He could become the wandering president, sadly beseeching — won’t somebody give me a home? Mississippi will raise its hand, and Donald will say: “I don’t want to live with all of those crackers!.  I only like dumb people when they vote for me not ones who want to live with me. And so he wanders the earth looking for a place that he considers worthy of his presence, but dumb enough to take him.

  51. 51.

    Geminid

    538 just dropped an article about recent polling of the Georgia Senate races. No big news; the polls all showed close races, with Perdue and Loeffler having 1 or two point leads, except a couple showing Loeffler with 4 point leads. As absolute numbers, polls obviously must be viewed with skepticism.  Another round of the same polls taken closer to January 5 might show trend though, which has more value.

  52. 52.

    debbie

    I like to imagine that he’ll return to New York City. Manhattanites will know how to treat him. //

  54. 54.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Placing the limitations on lengths of stays ensured that Trump’s property would remain a private club, as he had promised, rather than a residential hotel…

    Wait, they are worried Trump is trying to turn Mara a Largo in a flop house? lol

  55. 55.

    geg6

    @Jager:

    My sister was maitre’d at the Stuart Yacht and Country Club for 12 years.  Several times, the chef there was booked to provide food for weddings at Mar-a-Lago and he would always insist in “his” servers going with him, which meant my sister had to go to supervise them.  Gunther, the chef, would not use anything from the kitchen there. He would pack up everything he needed, pots, pans, knives, spoons, even the food (he would not allow it to be kept in their walk-in; said the temperature was not proper) and take it all with him.  He said the cleanliness and quality of everything there was terrible.  My sister agreed.  She said everything there is fake, low quality and tacky.  She ran into Donald once, groping some blonde in the walk-in.  Ugh, I can’t imagine.

  57. 57.

    Anonymous At Work

    This article warmed my heart, to the extent that Southern Florida can be warmed any more than normal.  These are Retired, NIMBY, Rich, Elitist Snobs who thrive on Exclusion and Conspicuous Consumption (expensive things as a status symbol only).  AND many of whom are attorneys whose fortunes were made with corporate litigation similar to how Trump Organization operates: bigger, richer, and willing to use both to grind opponents down.

    This is the grudge match of the century!

    Granted, that’s how long the court battle will last, I imagine…

  58. 58.

    Anne Laurie

    @debbie: I like to imagine that he’ll return to New York City. Manhattanites will know how to treat him. //

    Yeah, especially the NY State Attorney-General.   Who is the main reason, IMO, Trump switched his address to Florida.   He doesn’t want to be within perp-walk reach of the officials he gleefully screwed around with all those years… and if he eventually does have to declare bankruptcy again, Florida is a much better place for it than New York.

  59. 59.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Dump has always been grifter trash.

    Trump gave [Roy] Cohn a pair of “diamond-encrusted’’ cuff links and buttons in a box from famed jeweler Bulgari as a present, said the New York Times.

    Cohn’s partner, Peter Fraser, who inherited the items, said he later had them appraised, and they turned out to be knock-offs.

  61. 61.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Anonymous At Work: Imagine the future generation of Trust Fund Babies and the future grandchildren  of today’s corporate lawyers battling over the status of Mar a Largo’s zoning permits 60 years from now.

  63. 63.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: He’s done it repeatedly.

    Donald Trump has been doling out diamond cuff links to unsuspecting pals as presents — but they’re actually fabulous fakes, sources say.

    At least three recipients later learned that the glittery gifts were valuable only as mementos from Trump.

    Actor Charlie Sheen recently called out The Donald for the ruse, saying Trump once gave him his own cuff links as a wedding present and boasted that they came from one of the city’s leading jewelers.

    “He says . . . ‘I want to give you an early wedding gift as a gesture from me and Melania’ — and she doesn’t say a word, she’s very sweet and very pretty but just kinda sits there,” Sheen told the BBC, referring to a time he ran into Trump and his wife in a restaurant about five years ago.

    “He says, ‘These are platinum diamond Harry Winston,’ and he pulls off his cuff links, and he gives them to me.”

    The actor said he took the links to an appraiser six months later, only to learn that they were worthless.

    “She took [her magnifying] loupe, spent about 4 seconds and kind of recoiled from it,” Sheen quipped. “She says, ‘In their finest moment, this is cheap pewter and bad zirconias.’ And they’re stamped ‘Trump.’”

  65. 65.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    Sure, but that doesn’t answer the question does Trump think they are the real deal and as big brain master negotiator he got a fantastic price for it and no one around him (like Melina in the story) wants to say anything so they don’t have to listen to Trump’s whining. lol

    That’s also hysterical Trump trying to affect an appreciation for Impressionism. What a poser.

  67. 67.

    louc

    Hey, leave West Palm Beach out of it! It’s the *town* of *Palm Beach* that houses Mar-a-Lago. West Palm just gets the vestiges of Trump’s $h!t as the city across the Intracoastal. Trump moved in and promptly sued our airport to move the flight path, which went directly east over MAL. Then when he renovated MAL, he promptly sued his contractors to whittle down his bill. Most WPB residents hate him, or at least they did when I lived there 93-97.

  68. 68.

    ballerat

    The model for his post-presidency network has been around for decades. Just look at any televangelist.

    I figure the televangelicals and other evangelical leaders won’t like this one bit, it will compete for the same pool of rube dollars with no benefit for them. He’s not appointing any judges from Mar-a-Lago.

  69. 69.

    ballerat

    @Splitting Image: I think the Trump network will be sort of a side business for him. What is really in his wheelhouse are rallies simply for the sheer amount of ego gratification. Broadcasting from a studio does not give him the adulation his fragile ego must have.

    It’s the opposite of most bands in that he’ll do the studio releases in support of the concert touring, not the other way around.

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