Following Donald J. Trump’s first presidential victory in 2016, the president-elect immediately began referring to his posh private Palm Beach club, Mar-a-Lago, in a whole new way. “Writing my inaugural address at the Winter White House, Mar-a-Lago, three weeks ago. Looking forward to Friday,” he tweeted on January 18, 2017, along with a photo of himself sitting at his desk, gripping a pen and a legal pad.
Ironically, long before the businessman-turned-politician reportedly scooped the storied Barrier Island estate up for a meager $8 million, the prior owner and heiress to General Foods, Marjorie Merriweather Post, willed it in its entirety to the federal government. According to Smithsonian Magazine, Post had high hopes that the estate could be used as a vacation home for presidents. Unfortunately for Post, the government wasn’t interested, citing the exorbitant costs of maintaining the 17-acre, 110,000-square-foot property. In the end, it appears that Trump had his own ideas for the opulent property. In 1994, he introduced Mar-a-Lago as a private, members-only club where the who’s who of Palm Beach could see and be seen — including many celebrity members.
Mar-a-Lago is a playground for business leaders, socialites, and even robot dogs
Mar-a-Lago has long been a playground for Palm Beach Society. But once Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, it suddenly became the epicenter for business deals, social climbers, and Republican politician hopefuls looking to ascend the ranks. Wired reported that business executives were forking over as much as $5 million to get a one-on-one meeting with the two-time prez at the famous club, where billionaire Elon Musk has also become a regular fixture. Silicon Valley meets Palm Beach!
But make no mistake — it’s not all work and no play at the affluent social club. According to English model and socialite Lady Victoria Hervey, for a club that touts a $1.5 million initiation fee and a painfully long waiting list for those desperate to infiltrate, “There’s something surprisingly personal about it all.” In a piece she penned for the Daily Mail, Hervey noted that while there, Trump makes it a point to make the rounds, speaking to all of the dinner guests and even personally DJing the dining room’s tunes from an iPad at his roped-off dining table. Alexa, play “Y.M.C.A.” by Village People.
While it’s no secret that Mar-a-Lago boasts some pretty bizarre things, perhaps the most bizarre is the squad of robot dogs that Hervey claimed was tasked with ensuring the estate’s security. According to The Palm Beach Post, Boston Dynamics makes the robot pooches, and just one of them will set you back a whopping $200,000. Perhaps we should add Trump’s robo-hounds to the list of stupidly expensive things Trump has owned over the years.
