Men wore tuxedos, women wore extravagant evening dresses. They crowded into Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, unmasked and with no pretensions of social distancing. After cocktails and a fancy dinner, the partygoers danced the new year with live music from rapper veterans Vanilla Ice and Beach Boy.
“We shouldn’t be caged in our house,” said Amber Gitter, a local real estate agent who attended. No government should “tell you that you have to stay there and you can’t work.”
Once Trump leaves the White House this week, the twice-accused president is expected to reside in Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. It’s an unhappy prospect for many Palm Beach residents who fear Trump’s presence and that Mar-a-Lago’s maskless evenings undermine the small town’s tranquility and its fight against the pandemic. The display of unbridled riches and festivities in Mar-a-Lago highlights the awkward and ugly reality of a wealthy elite who continue to party while their poor working-class neighbors struggle to survive.
Trump in Florida
Located on an island off the coast of Florida, Palm Beach is an ideal location for 1% of the United States. The tree-lined South Ocean Boulevard, which runs past Mar-a-Lago, is nicknamed the Row of Billionaires, home to some of the richest mansions in the world. Residents include cosmetic heiress Aerin Lauder, financial billionaire Stephen Schwarzman and notoriously convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump isn’t even the rich community’s first experience with presidents: John F Kennedy used his family’s property as a winter White House.
Trump divides the residents of his future hometown, as do all Americans. Although he won the city’s vote in the 2020 presidential election and more than 500 supporters paid a $ 1,000 ticket to attend the Mar-a-Lago New Year’s Eve party, the president has confronted with neighbors and local officials. In 2006, Trump erected a giant flagpole in Mar-a-Lago, which violated local zoning rules. The city began fining him $ 1,250 a day. Trump sued and kept his flagpole. Mar-a-Lago declined to comment on the dispute or its maskless parties.
During Trump’s presidential visits to Mar-a-Lago, dozens of police and secret service officers protected the property. Barricades blocked the main road and created traffic jams. A group of angry neighbors has sought legal advice to prevent him from living in Mar-a-Lago full-time, the Washington Post reported for the first time.
Trump bought the Moorish-style Baroque mansion overlooking the ocean in 1985. When he turned the estate into a social club in 1993, Trump agreed to ban members from staying on the grounds for more than 21 days at a time. ‘year. Neighbors are demanding that the municipal government enforce this agreement. Palm Beach City Manager Kirk Blouin said so Observer that the council will review the matter during next month’s meeting.
Covid has pushed for another schism between Trump and the locals. Unlike the president, city officials took the pandemic seriously from the beginning. They started controlling the virus as early as January last year, Blouin says. When it proliferated in mid-March, the city imposed a curfew, closing restaurants, shops, beaches and apartment pools. Even Mar-a-Lago was closed. We wanted to “hit pots and pans to alert people and our neighboring cities that the virus will come, and it will be very bad,” Blouin added. “Many thought we had reacted too much.”
Tough action saved lives. Despite an elderly population (two-thirds of the city’s residents are over the age of 65, according to the U.S. Census), Palm Beach had only 26 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and two deaths during the first two months of the year. pandemic. By contrast, despite its young population, Palm Beach County workers had a similar proportion per casualty population: 5,429 confirmed cases and 315 deaths, according to data from the Palm Beach Civic Association. “There has been, from the beginning, a pandemic for the rich and one for everyone else,” complains Omari Hardy, a Democratic state lawmaker who represents strips in Palm Beach County.
While Palm Beachers hide in their luxury homes, the poorest Floridians have to go out to work. “My constituents have to choose between two evils,” Hardy says. “If they can work, they are at risk of contracting the virus. If they can’t go to work, they can’t earn an income. “
At Lupita’s, a taco restaurant across the water in Lake Worth, co-owner Roberto Alvarez says he’s “fighting”. He immersed himself in his personal savings to pay his staff last week. In contrast, the Palm Beach luxury real estate market has grown. During the first quarter of 2020, while millions of Americans were applying for unemployment, single-family home sales in Palm Beach rose to $ 416 million, 168% more than the same period last year. previous, according to a study. Just before the new year, Sylvester Stallone would have paid $ 35 million for a seven-bedroom, 12-bathroom estate.
Big money shoppers fled Covid-infested areas, such as New York City, to sunbathe and the beach, according to local real estate agent Scott Gordon. Trump’s 2017 tax reforms, which raise taxes on wealthy people in states like New York, make Florida and its low tax rate an attractive home.
During the pandemic, Palm Beachers has been quarantined in luxury. When the beachfront Four Seasons Hotel closed in March, Citadel Securities rented the entire property to its stock traders. Only employees of the firm or hotel were allowed to enter, with private security guarding the property. Ten months later, the station is still under surveillance. The hotel will only start making reservations in early April, a hotel spokesman said.
Now, however, this pandemic paradise is running out. Since Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who backed Trump, lifted most restrictions in September, Palm Beach’s stores, restaurants and bars have been opened, for indoor and outdoor seating, and attract a lot people. Since November, the city has seen a faster increase in cases than in Palm Beach County, according to local government data. The local population of 8,800 people rises in the winter as northerners escape the cold, increasing the chances of contact and infections, according to Blouin. He also blames the “crown fatigue,” explaining that some residents are fed up with rules and restrictions. “We’re social animals,” he admits.
Mar-a-Lago is the zero point for breaking the rules. It hosted an election night without masks, a fashion show and a young, conservative party. After the New Year’s Eve party, county officials last week sent a warning letter to Mar-a-Lago for a “break in application” of the mask’s warrant. But few believe Trump will listen to him. “A heavily worded letter will do nothing for the president and his business to comply,” Hardy said. “He has shown nothing but contempt for our rules.”