Read on Twitter
Waking up to morning shows discussing the reportage in WaPo and elsewhere about Trump making Mar-a-Lago his permanent residence, and I have thoughts.
In the mid-'90s I worked as the fashion editor at the Palm Beach Daily News, aka the Shiny Sheet, where I first met Trump ...
In the mid-'90s I worked as the fashion editor at the Palm Beach Daily News, aka the Shiny Sheet, where I first met Trump ...
This was the time when Trump was trying to get Mar-a-Lago, the white elephant estate owned by Marjorie Merriweather Post, into a private club. Trump bought it for the prestige, a way to get in with Palm Beach's old money. It wasn't working. They couldn't stand him.
The thing to know about Palm Beach during that time is that it was three things: old, rich and white. All that's changed in roughly 25 years is the old. A lot of his distractors have died off. Now it's young(er), rich and white, and today they're more accepting of him. Mostly.
Back then, when he hit upon turning Mar-a-Lago into a private club, trust me, Trump LOVED the media. At events, he'd spot a reporter across a room, and before he reached you he'd already be starting a quote about what a great idea it was to turn Mar-a-Lago into a private club.
I was one of those reporters -- even a lowly fashion editor was going to help him with his cause, he decided. Here's the card he gave me with an invite to call him anytime for interviews (nope, I never throw anything away when it comes to work and contacts):
Again, the Town Council hated Trump, as did any resident who wanted to keep Palm Beach sleepy and discreet, and not a showcase for their publicity-loving new occupant. The gossip at Palm Beach Bath and Tennis or Ta-boo mainly focused on how they wished he would go away.
Trump was married to Marla at the time -- I'm firmly of the belief that seeing her through Palm Beach's eyes is among the reasons he divorced her. Nouveau riche was still frowned upon on "the island," and she wasn't the right kind of wife for what he wanted to project there.
Trump, of course, never had the level of quiet, elegant taste favored in Palm Beach at the time. I've tweeted before about being at Mar-a-Lago then, and how he and Marla had populated every horizontal surface with silver photo frames containing cut-out articles about them.
Old-money Palm Beach side-eyed that like crazy.
The Town Council wouldn't allow Trump to subdivide the land; maybe they knew he would have torn down Mar-a-Lago. Trump feels zero sentiment about architectural history; ask New Yorkers about Bonwit Teller: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaellisicky/2020/10/03/how-donald-trump-took-down-bonwit-teller-a-fifth-avenue-landmark/?sh=7198fe775f69
The Town Council wouldn't allow Trump to subdivide the land; maybe they knew he would have torn down Mar-a-Lago. Trump feels zero sentiment about architectural history; ask New Yorkers about Bonwit Teller: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaellisicky/2020/10/03/how-donald-trump-took-down-bonwit-teller-a-fifth-avenue-landmark/?sh=7198fe775f69
He wanted fame for Mar-a-Lago, of course, which is why he rented Mar-a-Lago to Versace to shoot a campaign there, starring Madonna, in 1996. And it was Trump who alerted the media about their presence. Donatella didn't have positive thoughts years later: https://www.vogue.com/article/donatella-versace-madonna-donald-trump
Here's the story I wrote for the Palm Beach Daily News about that photo shoot -- apologies, my memory was fuzzy about the timing, it was 1994 ...
The Town Council wasn't happy about the photo shoot, of course; the code-enforcement board fired off a letter, saying Trump had violated zoning restrictions re photo shoots at single-family homes (Mar-a-Lago was not yet a club). Trumps m.o., of course, has never been about rules.
But what you have to understand about Palm Beach is that they enforce code rules like you wouldn't believe (that's their right, of course). Here's a November story about a couple of benches outside the Four Arts library: https://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/story/news/2020/11/20/landmarks-board-approves-compromise-four-arts-library-benches/3764146001/
All of which is to say, keep an eye on the Palm Beach Town Council over these next six weeks. I hope reporters will try to track down people who were around in the mid-'90s, who can speak to how Trump said one thing to the Town Council, then did another.
As I said earlier, the makeup of Palm Beach has changed considerably since those days -- old money is mostly gone, new money has taken over, and Trump is far more accepted (he won five of the island's seven districts last month). I would say local coverage of him is questionable.
If I had to predict, it would be that, regardless of the outrage of some residents and Town Council members, the latter will cave and give him what he wants/needs to stay. He has too many allies there now who own pricey homes nearby and now outnumber the old guard.
Trust me, I'm not on the side of the old guard in this. I'm glad of my time in Palm Beach only because it was a desired audience in fashion and netted great stories. But this is not a town that comes close to representing America; if anything, it screams high-end Trumpism now.
I do hope the Town Council keeps an eye on what he does to the property, one of the most unique buildings in America. I later did a photo shoot there after it became a private club (and long before he was running for office), its details are worth preserving ...
And honestly I don't trust Trump or the current wife to adhere to the letter of the law when it comes to what needs to be preserved within the interiors. If they knocked down the ornate fireplace in the bedroom that once was occupied by Dina Merrill, it wouldn't surprise me:
I know that last remark sounds snarky, I don't care. If we've learned anything over the last five years, it's that he only cares about his own comfort -- morality, legalities or history be damned.
Apologies for the long thread -- though I have more stories for another time :)
Apologies for the long thread -- though I have more stories for another time :)
