Latest news with #Mar-a-Lago
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Trump has helped make his neighbours richer than ever. They aren't pleased
But the true economic – and cultural – impact of the second Trump administration here isn't in the dust of construction sites. It's the noisy influx of Republican insiders, favour-seekers and pols who have altered the delicate social ecosystem of one of the richest enclaves in the world, home to more than 50 billionaires. The newcomers regard Trump as a living tourist attraction and Palm Beach, an 18-mile sliver of land off the east coast of South Florida, as his buzzy natural habitat. Trump has played a key role in the stratospheric real estate transactions here, though indirectly. During his first term, he signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which sharply limited the amount of state and local tax that could be deducted from federal taxes. For high-net-worth individuals, moving to a state with no state income tax, like Florida, was suddenly an idea worth many millions of dollars. 'The ripple effect has kept prices soaring for years,' said Holly Meyer Lucas, a real estate agent in South Florida. For decades, Palm Beach was a redoubt of old-money families, with names like Whitney and Harriman. A strain of country-club antisemitism had been embedded in Palm Beach for years, many residents say, and it surfaced, inevitably, in the country clubs. Only one, the Palm Beach Country Club, was dominated by Jews. Loading Enter Donald Trump. He'd bought Mar-a-Lago in 1985, and turned it into a membership club a decade later. He welcomed anyone who could pay the $US25,000 initiation fee. 'It became an overwhelmingly Jewish club,' said Laurence Leamer, author of Mar-a-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump's Presidential Palace. It was also, soon enough, the hoppingest spot on the island. At the time, Trump owned casinos and had pull with the best entertainers in the industry. Billy Joel performed. So did Tony Bennett, Celine Dion and Rod Stewart. 'And Trump was a wonderful host,' Leamer said. 'He would stand at the door, greet everyone. He didn't do this to change the world. He did it to make a buck. But who cares? The results were terrific.' Mar-a-Lago has evolved. After 2016, and the start of Trump's first term, locals who had flocked to it for a bit of networking found it was soon overstuffed with people they didn't like. Getting a reservation for dinner became a chore. Many in the old guard quit, replaced by the new contingent, even after the initiation fee was doubled to $US200,000 in 2017. Today, the initiation fee is $US1 million, and the Moorish mansion is busier than ever. The MAGA crowd at Mar-a-Lago and around the island is something new, and as with everything that is new in a place that has a style of its own, not exactly welcome. 'It's like new convertibles, fake nails, fake boobs, fake hair, fake eyes and big jewellery,' said Celerie Kemble, an interior decorator who grew up in Palm Beach. At dinners and galas at Mar-a-Lago, Secret Service agents tell guests to stay in their seats when the president walks in and please, ladies and gentlemen, do not take any photographs. 'I think this town is a little bit aghast at itself. But the fact is, everybody here is safe because of their money.' Celerie Kemble, an interior decorator who grew up in Palm Beach. This rarely works. 'It's like you're asking kids not to eat sugar, right?' said Andrés DePew, a 27-year-old entrepreneur who founded a chapter of the Conservative Political Action Conference in his native Colombia. DePew has posted many images of his own from Mar-a-Lago, part of an Instagram feed crammed with parties and dinners with other yoletaung, photogenic conservatives. On one memorable night, he met Mike Tyson and Russell Brand ('Great guy') along with Michael Flynn, a former US national security adviser; Bo Loudon, an 18-year-old conservative influencer; and one of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. For revellers in search of more rarefied, less politicised air, there's the Carriage House. It's one of a relatively new style of private club catering to a younger audience seeking a bit of New York City's always-on energy. A membership reportedly costs $US400,000. Put off, but staying put Republicans outnumber Democrats in Palm Beach County 2-to-1, according to data from the Supervisor of Elections. If the resistance to the MAGA tide has a spiritual home here, it is Leta Austin Foster & Daughters, a twee little store that sells bedding, children's clothing, gifts and interior design services near Worth Avenue. In June 2020, the only person to show up at a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Town Hall was Foster, then 80. Many retailers boarded up their stores, braced for vandalism that never happened. Foster's daughter India grew up on Palm Beach, and one recent afternoon she sat on a staircase in the store and mused about the changes she's seen over the years. On the plus side, the place has gotten younger. When she moved back in 2006, after living in San Francisco, she looked up some stats and found that less than 1 per cent of the island's population was under 35 years old. 'Here's a young person,' she said to a 20ish customer, and everyone else within earshot. 'This never happened before.' But many of the members of Generation Z and plenty of millennials she meets grate on her. One guy told her that he is 'part of the new world order.' So as gorgeous as Palm Beach is, India Foster isn't sure she can handle the rightward tilt of the place for the rest of her life. (And at least for her business, the influx of young MAGA types has not helped the bottom line.) Loading Republicans outnumber Democrats in Palm Beach County 2-to-1. The MAGA day-trippers notwithstanding, Republicans here still tend to be the variety that gets their news from The Wall Street Journal, not Newsmax. Many are deeply put off by Trump. But they will benefit from much of the president's agenda, like tax cuts for the rich, and their beloved island will continue to prosper, whether they like him or not.
The Age
3 days ago
- Business
- The Age
Trump has helped make his neighbours richer than ever. They aren't pleased
But the true economic – and cultural – impact of the second Trump administration here isn't in the dust of construction sites. It's the noisy influx of Republican insiders, favour-seekers and pols who have altered the delicate social ecosystem of one of the richest enclaves in the world, home to more than 50 billionaires. The newcomers regard Trump as a living tourist attraction and Palm Beach, an 18-mile sliver of land off the east coast of South Florida, as his buzzy natural habitat. Trump has played a key role in the stratospheric real estate transactions here, though indirectly. During his first term, he signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which sharply limited the amount of state and local tax that could be deducted from federal taxes. For high-net-worth individuals, moving to a state with no state income tax, like Florida, was suddenly an idea worth many millions of dollars. 'The ripple effect has kept prices soaring for years,' said Holly Meyer Lucas, a real estate agent in South Florida. For decades, Palm Beach was a redoubt of old-money families, with names like Whitney and Harriman. A strain of country-club antisemitism had been embedded in Palm Beach for years, many residents say, and it surfaced, inevitably, in the country clubs. Only one, the Palm Beach Country Club, was dominated by Jews. Loading Enter Donald Trump. He'd bought Mar-a-Lago in 1985, and turned it into a membership club a decade later. He welcomed anyone who could pay the $US25,000 initiation fee. 'It became an overwhelmingly Jewish club,' said Laurence Leamer, author of Mar-a-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump's Presidential Palace. It was also, soon enough, the hoppingest spot on the island. At the time, Trump owned casinos and had pull with the best entertainers in the industry. Billy Joel performed. So did Tony Bennett, Celine Dion and Rod Stewart. 'And Trump was a wonderful host,' Leamer said. 'He would stand at the door, greet everyone. He didn't do this to change the world. He did it to make a buck. But who cares? The results were terrific.' Mar-a-Lago has evolved. After 2016, and the start of Trump's first term, locals who had flocked to it for a bit of networking found it was soon overstuffed with people they didn't like. Getting a reservation for dinner became a chore. Many in the old guard quit, replaced by the new contingent, even after the initiation fee was doubled to $US200,000 in 2017. Today, the initiation fee is $US1 million, and the Moorish mansion is busier than ever. The MAGA crowd at Mar-a-Lago and around the island is something new, and as with everything that is new in a place that has a style of its own, not exactly welcome. 'It's like new convertibles, fake nails, fake boobs, fake hair, fake eyes and big jewellery,' said Celerie Kemble, an interior decorator who grew up in Palm Beach. At dinners and galas at Mar-a-Lago, Secret Service agents tell guests to stay in their seats when the president walks in and please, ladies and gentlemen, do not take any photographs. 'I think this town is a little bit aghast at itself. But the fact is, everybody here is safe because of their money.' Celerie Kemble, an interior decorator who grew up in Palm Beach. This rarely works. 'It's like you're asking kids not to eat sugar, right?' said Andrés DePew, a 27-year-old entrepreneur who founded a chapter of the Conservative Political Action Conference in his native Colombia. DePew has posted many images of his own from Mar-a-Lago, part of an Instagram feed crammed with parties and dinners with other yoletaung, photogenic conservatives. On one memorable night, he met Mike Tyson and Russell Brand ('Great guy') along with Michael Flynn, a former US national security adviser; Bo Loudon, an 18-year-old conservative influencer; and one of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. For revellers in search of more rarefied, less politicised air, there's the Carriage House. It's one of a relatively new style of private club catering to a younger audience seeking a bit of New York City's always-on energy. A membership reportedly costs $US400,000. Put off, but staying put Republicans outnumber Democrats in Palm Beach County 2-to-1, according to data from the Supervisor of Elections. If the resistance to the MAGA tide has a spiritual home here, it is Leta Austin Foster & Daughters, a twee little store that sells bedding, children's clothing, gifts and interior design services near Worth Avenue. In June 2020, the only person to show up at a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Town Hall was Foster, then 80. Many retailers boarded up their stores, braced for vandalism that never happened. Foster's daughter India grew up on Palm Beach, and one recent afternoon she sat on a staircase in the store and mused about the changes she's seen over the years. On the plus side, the place has gotten younger. When she moved back in 2006, after living in San Francisco, she looked up some stats and found that less than 1 per cent of the island's population was under 35 years old. 'Here's a young person,' she said to a 20ish customer, and everyone else within earshot. 'This never happened before.' But many of the members of Generation Z and plenty of millennials she meets grate on her. One guy told her that he is 'part of the new world order.' So as gorgeous as Palm Beach is, India Foster isn't sure she can handle the rightward tilt of the place for the rest of her life. (And at least for her business, the influx of young MAGA types has not helped the bottom line.) Loading Republicans outnumber Democrats in Palm Beach County 2-to-1. The MAGA day-trippers notwithstanding, Republicans here still tend to be the variety that gets their news from The Wall Street Journal, not Newsmax. Many are deeply put off by Trump. But they will benefit from much of the president's agenda, like tax cuts for the rich, and their beloved island will continue to prosper, whether they like him or not.
Miami Herald
4 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
How did Trump's name get on a South Florida building? See real estate issues
Real Estate News How did Trump's name get on a South Florida building? See real estate issues These articles explore real estate issues in South Florida, focusing on challenges such as gentrification, building maintenance, and historical property values. One article details Donald Trump's effort to establish his name in South Florida's real estate market. He bought a condo in West Palm Beach and branded it Trump Plaza. Another article highlights the plight of Black South Floridians in rapidly gentrifying Miami neighborhoods. and a story about the Golden Key condo in Bay Harbor Islands illustrates how a board's foresight helped the building meet tough new state requirements after the Champlain Towers collapse. Read the stories below. A unit at Trump Plaza in West Palm Beach in 1987. NO. 1: HOW DONALD TRUMP PUT HIS NAME ON A SOUTH FLORIDA BUILDING FOR THE FIRST TIME A year after he bought Mar-a-Lago, he took on a new venture. | Published January 9, 2025 | Read Full Story by Miami Herald Archives Sabrina Guillaume stands outside the duplex she owns in Liberty City. Guillaume spent several years trying to buy a property in the neighborhood where her parents live and she grew up. By Carl Juste NO. 2: BLACK SOUTH FLORIDIANS STRUGGLE TO BUY AND KEEP HOMES IN MIAMI'S GENTRIFYING COMMUNITIES 'We're losing ground every day.' | Published April 18, 2025 | Read Full Story by Raisa Habersham Michael Butler Manager Heri Kletzenbuer, left, and board president Andre Williams stand outside the Golden Key Condominiums in Bay Harbor Islands. The managers of the modest 1960s condo have maintained affordability for owners while extensively refurbishing the building and successfully navigating recertification and stringent new post-Surfside state regulations. By Pedro Portal NO. 3: HOW A SMALL BAY HARBOR CONDO MET FLORIDA'S TOUGH RULES. AND KEPT COSTS DOWN DOING IT 'We wanted to get ahead of the curve , but we didn't want to financially cripple anyone.' | Published April 30, 2025 | Read Full Story by Andres Viglucci The summary above was drafted with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists in our News division. All stories listed were reported, written and edited by McClatchy journalists.
Chicago Tribune
20-06-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Clarence Page: Did you miss a national holiday, Mr. President?
Juneteenth came and went Thursday, but curiously something seemed to be missing from the annual celebration: a cordial salute from the president of the United States. Well, sure, you might say at this point in our political history: After all, he's Donald Trump. What do we expect? The only times when the master of Mar-a-Lago brings up a delicate topic like America's troubled racial history is when he can use it to bludgeon Democrats and other liberals. But it wasn't long ago that Trump regularly made a point to mark Juneteenth, the holiday that honors the freeing of enslaved Americans by his Republican predecessor Abraham Lincoln. As The New York Times reported, Trump invoked Juneteenth in each of his first four years as president, before it was a federal holiday. It commemorates June 19, 1865, the day Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Texas, letting them know they had been legally freed by Lincoln's signing of the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier. Better late than never. Much better. When asked on Thursday about Trump's intentions to mark the holiday in the traditional presidential manner, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt answered evasively, 'I'm not tracking his signature on a proclamation today.' That was strange, because by Leavitt's own admission, Trump had in the past week issued proclamations commemorating Father's Day, Flag Day and National Flag Week, and the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill — none of which are among the 11 annual federal holidays. Why does Trump feel differently about the holiday now? Without mentioning Juneteenth by name, Trump bellyached on Truth Social: 'Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed. The workers don't want it either!' Ah, yes, workers and their well-known aversion to paid holidays. He continued: 'Soon we'll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year. It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!' That sounds ominous. Is Trump planning to claw back paid holidays from hardworking government employees? It occurred to me, as a descendant of freed enslaved people, that perhaps Trump simply wants to downgrade our day of jubilee. True, back in his first term, Trump lavishly boasted: 'I made Juneteenth very famous. It's actually an important event, it's an important time. But nobody had heard of it. Very few people have heard of it.' (That would be news to the millions of 'nobodies' who spent years eating soul food and pounds of traditional 'red cake' to celebrate the day.) Trump even spoke favorably about Juneteenth as a federal holiday, but he didn't get around to making it official before he left office. It was then-President Joe Biden who completed that task in 2021. Which may explain Trump's newfound hostility to the holiday. Whereas Biden sought to mend the nation's racial divisions after the George Floyd protests, Trump built his revanchist second presidency on the demonization of diversity. Consider that until recently, the following message could be read on the Army's official website: 'Juneteenth is an integral part of Army life. It is a time to reflect on the crucial role the Army played in the Emancipation Proclamation and ending segregation in the U.S.' It called on readers to 'honor those who fought and sacrificed to ensure the Constitution fulfilled its promise to all Americans.' As an Army veteran, that sentiment makes me feel proud. However, if you Google those words today, and click on the link in the search results, you reach an error page. The Army scrubbed the message. Why? Perhaps for the same reason Trump's secretary of defense ordered Arlington National Cemetery to delete webpage memorials of Black and Latino people and women who defended our country. And the same reason he restored Confederate names to military bases and dismissed several Black generals. It's hard to think of a holiday better suited to uplift our mulligan stew of a nation than Juneteenth, when our armed forces finally broke the shackles of a profoundly unjust institution, beginning a process of liberation and reconciliation that we carry on. Sadly, such historical good news is being suppressed too often in today's classrooms and by political opportunists who would rather build unity in their own ranks by turning us against each other like so many political interest groups. Some, including our president it seems, would rather hide our troubled past than try to use it to learn how to work together and truly make America great. Say, tell me again: What was the U.S. Civil War about?
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump remakes the White House with new flagpoles
WASHINGTON (AP) — The American flag has long flown from a pole on the White House roof, but that's always been too small for President Donald Trump, who wants everything to be bigger and more beautiful. On Wednesday, massive new flagpoles were erected on the North and South Lawns of the White House. 'It's such a beautiful pole,' Trump said as workers used a crane to install the latest addition to the South Lawn. He returned to the same spot later in the day, saluting as the stars and stripes were hoisted for the first time. The second pole, on the North Lawn, is close to Pennsylvania Avenue. The two poles are the most notable exterior modification to the White House since Trump returned to the presidency with grand ideas for remaking the building. He's already updated the Oval Office, adding gold accents, more portraits and a copy of the Declaration of Independence. Workers have begun paving over the grass in the Rose Garden, and there are plans to construct a new ballroom somewhere on the White House grounds. The changes bring the iconic building more in line with Mar-a-Lago, Trump's private club in Florida. The president made time to watch one of the flagpole installations despite the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel, plus questions of whether the U.S. would become directly involved. 'I love construction,' said Trump, who made his mark as a New York real estate developer. 'I know it better than anybody.' He talked about how the pole went down nine feet deep for stability, and the rope would be contained inside the cylinder, unlike the one at Mar-a-Lago. When the wind blows, 'you hear that rope, banging.' 'This is the real deal,' he said. 'This is the best you can get. There's nothing like this.' ____
