Town of Palm Beach will address Trump Mar-a-Lago residency ‘if and when’ it’s official

As President Donald Trump prepares to return to Mar-a-Lago for the holidays, the town of Palm Beach is watching to see if he will indeed try to make his Winter White House his home when his time in office ends — and whether that would violate the 27-year-old deal that allowed Trump to turn the property into a social club.

“Officials and representatives of the Town of Palm Beach have received inquiries, primarily from the media and from some members of the community, regarding the reported intent of President Trump to make Mar-a-Lago his residence after his term of office as president has expired,” Town Manager Kirk Blouin told the Miami Herald. “The town is not aware of the president’s intent in this regard and has no evidence to support said claim. If and when the town learns, as a matter of fact, that President Trump intends to reside at Mar-a-Lago, it will address the matter appropriately at that time.”

Listen to today's top stories from the Miami Herald:

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Alexa | Google Assistant | More options

Trump continues to claim falsely that he won the election, and has not explicitly said that he intends to move to Mar-a-Lago next year. But the first family has been dropping clues for weeks that they will decamp to Palm Beach from Washington after President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office on Jan. 20.

Renovations were reportedly ordered at the family’s living quarters on the 18-acre estate, which the first family declared as its primary residence last year even as the Trumps spent most their time in Washington. President Trump is expected to fly into Palm Beach County Wednesday evening and remain at Mar-a-Lago into the New Year.

Amid reports that the president intends to live full-time at Mar-a-Lago once the White House becomes unavailable, some of Trump’s neighbors have posited that the 1993 agreement that allowed the developer to turn the 118-room mansion into a private club also blocked Trump from living at the property.

The agreement barred members from visiting the club more than three times or for more than 21 total days during a single year. Town minutes of the meeting during which the deal was approved state that Trump’s attorney said that he would not reside at Mar-a-Lago “except that he will be a member of the club and would be entitled to use the guest rooms.”

Then in 2002, Trump signed another agreement, this time with the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, transferring development rights for the historic landmark to the non-profit. The deal substantially reduced his property taxes in exchange for a pledge to “forever extinguish their right to develop or use the property for any purpose other than club use.”

“In order to avoid an embarrassing situation for everyone and to give the president time to make other living arrangements in the area, we trust you will work with his team to remind them of the use agreement parameters,” Reginald Stambaugh, an attorney representing some of Trump’s neighbors, wrote in a letter last week to Mayor Gail Coniglio.

Stambaugh argued that Trump — who before the start of the pandemic made frequent visits to the club — was already in violation of the agreement.

Even if that’s true, the town likely can’t block the Trumps from moving to Mar-a-Lago, or any of Trump’s other properties on the island. “There is no document or agreement in place that prohibits President Trump from using Mar-a-Lago as his residence,” said a spokesperson for the Trump Organization, which manages the properties in Trump’s portfolio.

But Mar-a-Lago’s use agreement gives the town government the ability to enforce the terms of the deal that allowed Trump to convert the residence to a commercial enterprise. Options include moving to revoke the club’s occupational license if Trump violates the deal, a potentially costly and complicated problem for Trump, whose club continues to function as a nexus for conservatives even as his time as president comes to an end.

On Friday, Republican lawmakers, lobbyists, media figures and socialites gathered at Mar-a-Lago for a high-priced, mask-less gala held by Turning Point USA, the conservative youth organization, which was holding a conference at the West Palm Beach Convention Center and hosted Vice President Mike Pence Tuesday.

Membership fees for Mar-a-Lago — which Trump tried to subdivide and develop in the ‘90s to cut carrying costs — were hiked to $200,000 after Trump became president.

McClatchy DC White House correspondent Francesca Chambers contributed to this report.