What happens with El Cheeto and Mar-a-lago?

Politics & Elections
#1

So Donnie is moving to Mar-a-Lago as his permanent residence - only something he signed 25+ years ago, turning it into a club, means nobody may use it as a permanent residence, or even stay there more than 21 days in a year.

That all hit the news headlines in December, with reports of Palm Beach neighbors really, really NOT wanting him there.

A friend was insistent that he couldn’t go there, that the Secret Service would not support taking him there because he couldn’t legally reside there.

I took the attitude that he’ll just go there, and dare them to throw him out.

Looks like I was right, so far at least. Certainly Donnie has never had any reason to believe that the law applies to him - he has successfully sued and/or ignored his way out of rather a lot of blatant misdeeds.

But: as I understand it, he still owns the place, but he owns it as a club vs as a private residence.

What are the odds of Palm Beach County taking him to court over this?

What are the legal ramifications of misuse of the property? Does it affect the taxes on the place somehow? either property (business vs private residence) or income, from the income producing part of the property? If he does still own it, could he claim an exemption from the paperwork he signed, as the owner?

Could the county prevent him from operating it as a club? If so, what happens to the place’s cash reserves (if any; the initiation fees are pretty damn steep but I’m sure the place is not cheap to maintain)?

Mods: this doesn’t seem quite like GQ, or IMHO, so I put it in the politics forum, move as desired.

#2

I think that summarizes it. I feel Trump will continue to reside there illegally. He’ll face legal problems but he’ll ignore any decisions he doesn’t like. I don’t think it will reach the point where somebody will enter Mar-a-Lago and physically carry Trump off the premises, which means he’ll get away with it.

#3

I’ve been hearing that membership in the club is shrinking fast, as almost no one who has the money to afford the place wants to be associated with him.

#4

I suspect that what may get him out of there more effectively than pressure from the neighbors or the city of Palm Beach will be financial pressures, exacerbated by expensive legal problems of all kinds. Truly, the chickens are coming home to roost. You can only play the con game for so long.

#5

I don’t know. Trump has 70 million followers. It seems like that should translate into financial security somehow.

#6

He has 70 million followers but they’re not going to give him a billion-dollar allowance. Or, looked at from a different historical perspective — what sort of actual billionaire wastes his time making infomercials about steaks and shitty wine pitched at the aspirational middle class? He’s been scratching at the edges of real sustained wealth for years. He had actual money once upon a time, but squandered it.

As far as Mar-a-Lago, here’s what I think happens: His neighbors file legal complaints and the community puts pressure on him to leave. He fights them. Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank and other creditors are foreclosing on the leveraged properties where they have a direct interest, and putting liens on the other Trump properties to force payments against debt. Trump sacrifices all other properties to maintain control of Mar-a-Lago. Eventually, he dies there, a recluse.

Then the Trump Organization liquidates everything remaining and is dissolved.

This assumes he isn’t criminally charged and/or doesn’t flee the country.

#7

AIUI, IANAL.

He requires a permit from the county to operate Mar-A-Largo as a club. They granted the permit with the proviso that he doesn’t live there, or spend more than 21 days per year there, or build a helicopter landing pad, or other forbidden structures. He has broken his agreement.

They cannot evict him. The contract does not give them the power to force him to move out. No court would uphold that.

What they can do is to revoke his permit, meaning that the club is out of business. They don’t need to go to court, they can simply revoke it. It would be up to him to go to court if he wishes to challenge it, and he would lose.

#8

Presumably if it goes out of business, any remaining active members will sue the club for the return of their membership fees.

#9

Could well be.

#10

It’s not the Secret Service’s business to enforce private contracts. They will go wherever he does.

#11

You may want to read this:

I doubt that would be viable as a long-term plan at the $1B level (the masses will move on the next guy who has actual power), but it could certainly get him over the hump and probably provide substantial income for the rest of his life (which, let’s face it, isn’t likely to be THAT long).

IIRC, the reason Trump turned it into a club in the first place was that he could no longer afford to keep it running as the private residence it was built as.

#12

What kind of pressure could the neighbors possibly put on him to get him to leave? Also, keep in mind that no matter how much we talk about him being ‘broke’, he’s still got more money than most of us. It’s gonna take a whole lot of $100 or $1000 fines from the jurisdiction to make a scratch in his net worth and even then, he’d have to pay them.

ISTM if the only issue here is that he can’t legally stay there for more than 21 consecutive days, he could just buy a nearby house and claim he lives there a week out of each month. Or buy a nearby large estate/mansion and float back and forth between the two (or at least claim to do so).

Another option may be to petition the jurisdiction to allow him to make that his permanent residence, even if means closing down the club or rezoning the part of land where his residence is/would be. It’s a big enough building on a big(ish) plot of land. It’s possible he’ll mostly keep to himself anyway. I don’t expect he’s going to be running his own errands so it’s not like he’s going to be out and about all that much.

But I have a feeling this could turn into a ‘not in my backyard’ situation. He has to live somewhere, but no one is going to want him. If he gave a flying fuck what people thought of him, he might realize his best option is to buy a large ranch somewhere (ie Texas) and slink out of the public eye. But he doesn’t care and if it weren’t for legal issues, I imagine he’d live in New York and go out of his way to make sure he’s seen as much as possible.

TLDR: My WAG is that he’ll just live there. He’ll ignore all complaints, not pay any fines and the city will just turn a blind eye to him so as not to make waves and hope his permanent residence on earth is over sooner rather than later.

#13

It’s 21 days total per year.

#14

No, the agreement is that he can’t stay more than 21 days in a year, and can’t stay more than 7 consecutive days at a time.

Ninja’d

#15

Even better: shut off the water to Mar-a-Lago. No running water, no toilets, no showers, no sprinklers on the golf course; no water in any form at any time. He’d fold like a cheap suit pretty quickly, I imagine.

#16

Yeah I would think the city or county have a number of options to make his life uncomfortable. Shut off the water, stop picking up the trash, send in a health inspector to shut down the kitchen, etc.

#17

70 million times $1 a month is potentially 840 million a year. He only needs a fraction of that if he can be convinced to let his financial handlers do a proper job of restructuring and cutting losses early on (including, yes, sacrificing other properties).

As mentioned before, he’ll just stonewall with countersuits to not have to comply, and will likely seek to settle for a dissolution of the club and a reversion of the property to private residence… in which he’ll disregard zoning and insist in setting up business and campaign offices and holding paid events.

So that means he’ll be breaking yet another provision of the contract as of Thursday. But as was implied in an earlier post, the way he sees his world as long as there is no authority for someone to put their hands on him and literally drag him off the property and before a judge, he can keep saying “oh yeah? MAKE me”

#18

Just build a wall around Mar-a-lago. Problem solved.

#19

And as he dies, a snowglobe of the White House slips out of his hand and rolls onto the floor.

#20

Okay, I misunderstood that part, but my point still stands, that is, he’d probably just ignore it.

I think a good way to get him out of there is hope another state (or the feds) want him extradited and cooperate with them.