"We don’t want you to be our neighbor."
Mar a Lago well-to-do warn Trump he can't legally live at his Palm Beach club after taking tax breaks that promise he won't use it as his residence. @RoigFranzia and me..
https://t.co/DCH5vQYvIN— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) December 16, 2020
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.
Late Night Open Thread: The Nightmare NeighborPost + Comments (69)