President Trump recently hosted Japanese Prime Minister Abe at Mar-A-Lago for an official visit.\u00a0 By most accounts the meetings went well, but that is a separate discussion.\u00a0 During their joint press conference at the end of the visit, President Trump rambled on a tangent for a while about the history of Mar-A-Lago in which he referred to Mar-A-Lago as the \u201cSouthern White House,\u201d giving his private elite club official status.\u00a0 Ignoring the fact that much of what Trump said about the history was reportedly inaccurate, his asserting official status for Mar-A-Lago raises interesting legal and financial questions that require answers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The White House is \u201cThe People\u2019s House,\u201d owned by the Government, not by any individual.\u00a0 It is the seat of Presidential power and the executive branch and as such contains the necessary security, infrastructure, etc.\u00a0 The White House is where U.S. Presidents receive foreign heads of state and conduct the nation\u2019s business.\u00a0 People around the world recognize the role of the White House as the symbol of the free world.\u00a0 Mar-A-Lago is an elitist membership resort with no national, international, or political significance.\u00a0 It has been Donald Trump\u2019s vacation and golf destination for many years.\u00a0 As President, in his first year, Trump has taken an excessive number of vacation days, including weekends at Mar-A-Lago and golf outings.\u00a0 Forgetting the optics of so many vacation days, the cost to the American taxpayers is outrageous.\u00a0 Not only is there the frequent travel between Washington, DC, and Florida, but also the cost of housing the security and staff that travel with the President, resulting in ridiculous amounts of taxpayer dollars being paid to Mar-A-Lago and the Trump Organization.\u00a0 It is as if he planned it this way.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The problem goes well beyond questionable expenditure of U.S. funds for personal gain.\u00a0 President Trump refers to his private elite resort as the Southern White House and conducts official business on the premises.\u00a0 Abe is not the first world leader the President entertained at his private club.\u00a0 During various visits, President Trump has spoken in open areas with dignitaries and staff about classified or sensitive matters, clearly overheard by random people and in complete disregard for national security.\u00a0 He has also engaged groups of people in his club, seeking political approval from them for various statements or policies he is contemplating.\u00a0 It is important to note these are not random individuals walking down a public street.\u00a0 These are elites paying to use Trump\u2019s private club and thus also paying for special access to the President.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The President\u2019s use of Mar-A-Lago thus raises intriguing legal and financial issues.\u00a0 He calls it the \u201cSouthern White House\u201d because he not only frequently vacations there, but also conducts the affairs of the nation.\u00a0 Members pay premium fees for the privilege of using the President\u2019s private club as a residence, resort, golf club, etc., and for access to the President and his guests.\u00a0 Should those fees be considered campaign contributions or otherwise considered under applicable ethics standards?\u00a0 If Mar-A-Lago is the \u201cSouthern White House\u201d then is it right for Trump to charge the U.S. (premium rates at that) for all of the security and staff that must accompany him when he travels there?\u00a0 \u00a0We need government lawyers and ethicists to address these issues because it is clear President Trump plans to continue his recurring trips to Florida and the financial, security, and other costs will also continue to accrue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Trump recently hosted Japanese Prime Minister Abe at Mar-A-Lago for an official visit.\u00a0 By most accounts the meetings went well, but that is a separate discussion.\u00a0 During their joint […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[101,106,179,225,285],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-ethics","tag-finances","tag-mar-a-lago","tag-president-trump","tag-taxpayers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}