Trump Needs to Checkmate James and Engoron

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So, Mar-a-Lago is worth $18MM? Ummmm…OK. 

With the very Soviet-style “verdict first, then trial” show trial proceeding apace in Manhattan, President Donald J. Trump has a delicious opportunity to turn the tables on his persecutors waging lawfare against him, his family, and his companies.

For those at home just tuning in, creepy Cryptkeeper Judge Arthur Engoron granted New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ motion for summary judgment in the unprecedented fraud case James brought in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan. 

Engoron’s ruling relied in large part on his absurd, off-the-cuff, no-basis-in-reality valuation of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club at a mere $18 million. To understand how ridiculous this valuation is, one needs to understand the property and its location.

The house was built by Marjorie Merriweather Post, the Post Cereals heiress and at the time the wealthiest woman in the United States, with her husband, stockbroker Edward F. Hutton. Completed in 1927, the house cost  $7 million (equivalent to $118 million in 2022; perhaps Judge Engoron merely forgot a 1 in the hundreds place?).

It is said that in real estate, the three most important things are location, location, location. Mar-a-Lago is truly an unique property. Located on the Southern end of Palm Beach Island, it is the only property on the island to span its width, with both oceanfront and lakefront (hence its name, meaning “sea to lake”). It is not only listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places, it is also a United States National Historic Landmark.

Another real estate yardstick, “comps” or comparable properties, is also instructive to understanding just how ludicrous Engoron’s valuation is. Let’s conduct the analysis from both perspectives: how much are comparable properties valued and what Palm Beach Island properties are valued at $18 million? 

With respect for properties comparable to Mar-a-Lago, other than the White House and perhaps Gracie Mansion in Manhattan, only two spring to mind: William Randolph Hearst’s La Cuesta Encantada (the Enchanted Hill), commonly known as Hearst Castle in San Simeon, CA, and the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC.

Like Mar-a-Lago, both estates are listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places and are also also United States National Historic Landmarks, with Biltmore House, the largest privately owned house in the United States, actually being designated an United States National Historic Landmark District due to the vastness of the estate, which comprises some 8,000 acres and includes Biltmore Village. The Hearst estate is over ten times that large, at 82,000 acres. 

In contrast, Mar-a-Lago sits on a mere 20 acres of land. But it anchors one of the most, if not the most, exclusive resort towns in the country. And despite the orders-of-magnitude disparity between it and both Hearst Castle and Biltmore in terms of size, it has been valued comparably to the former and significantly higher than the latter.

Hearst Castle has an estimated value of $700 million and Biltmore less than a quarter that amount, at $144 million. In 2022, Forbes magazine valued Mar-a-Lago at $350 million, but Palm Beach real estate professionals (who understand the intangibles that add value to properties on Palm Beach Island) valued the property much higher, with one estimate coming in at $725 million and another at $1 billion. 

Now, what Palm Beach properties near Mar-a-Lago are valued at $18 million? Not many. One home to the South that sits on a half-acre on Lake Worth is valued at $40 million. Another to the North that sits on 0.89 acres with neither ocean frontage nor lake frontage, is valued at $37.5 million. 

The closest to an $18 million valuation is a house  squeezed into 0.28 acres in the middle of the block on a side street that is valued at $18.95 million. Indeed, the house where I used to stay when I went to Palm Beach in the Nineties and Naughts, which is four doors down from Mar-a-Lago and across the street from the ocean, is valued at $25 million.

Suffice it to say, both Engoron’s valuation of $18 million* and James’ valuation in her pleadings of $75 million are wildly at odds with the true value of Mar-a-Lago and belie their personal animus toward and political bias against President Trump. 

Here’s what I would love to see happen. It would be the ultimate flex by President Trump. He should sell 20,736 1-square inch plots of Mar-a-Lago for $1,000 each and build a 12’ x 12’ outdoor chessboard on the property. Donate the proceeds of the sale to election integrity efforts. Then crow to James and Engoron that his chessboard alone is worth more than $18MM!

Then arrange the pieces in checkmate. 

This case never should have been brought by James and would have been dismissed with prejudice by an honest judge. 

There needs to be severe professional consequences for both James and Engoron once his pre-determined order is handed down and inevitably reversed on appeal. President Trump, the people of New York State, and our judicial system deserve nothing less.

Timothy Shea is the host of The Reckoning on TNT Radio and the Co-Founder of MAGA Institute, an election integrity nonprofit.

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* Interestingly, from 2011 to 2021, Mar-a-Lago was assessed for tax purposes by Palm Beach County as having a value from $18 million to $27.6 million. Engoron clearly went with the lowest possible valuation he could justify. One wonders if there had been one of those  phony Craigslist listings for $1 whether he would have assigned that value to the President’s Palm Beach property.

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