Ballroom, helicopter pad, a revamped Rose Garden. Trump will leave the presidency better than when he came in.
As his father lay dying in the family’s home in Palm Beach, President Kennedy visited the Old Man one final time. It was the last time the son would see the dad because 5 days later, Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated JFK.
His father bought the 15,000 square foot La Querida, a Mediterranean-style mansion at 1095 N. Ocean Boulevard, for a mere $120,000 in 1933 during the Depression. His son used it as a winter White House.
Previously, FDR had a winter White House at Warm Springs, Georgia, where he went for treatment for his polio. Although he was very wealthy, FDR had a modest six-room cabin there.
But it was JFK who inspired Marjorie Merriweather Post to bequeath her mansion—Mar-a-Lago—in Palm Beach to the USA to serve as a winter White House when she died.
Her father had started Post Cereal. He committed suicide in 1914 and at age 27, she took over. A few years later, she married E.F. Hutton. Together, they grew the company into General Foods by acquiring Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, Jell-O, Baker’s Chocolate and Maxwell House.
She became the richest woman in America.
Post also revolutionized the food industry by buying Birdseye, whose founder, Clarence Birdseye, had invented flash freezing based on his observations of Eskimos (you were allowed to call them that back then) freezing fish to eat later. Other attempts to freeze food left it soggy. Birdseye mimicked the natives and nailed it.
Post became the Doyenne of DC until she died in 1973.
No one knew in the government what to do with Mar-a-Lago other than tax or regulate it. In 1980, Jimmy Carter and a Democrat Congress gave it back to the family like it was the Panama Canal.
The family sold it to a brash real estate developer who spoke with an outer borough accent. He spent a lot of money and turned Mar-a-Lago into a resort. It was the first country club in Palm Beach to have black people and Jews as members along with white members. It became a winter White House when its owner, you-know-who, became president.
4 1/2 miles west of Mar-a-Lago is Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. Trump leases the land (214 acres) from the county. The lease began in 1999.
The Washington Post reported, “Trump wants to turn his West Palm Beach golf club into the new Camp David.
“The plan calls for the federal government to be granted part of the property, with the rest maintained as a private course.”
The story is a little bigger than that because Trump will pay for the construction of a presidential residence and facilities on that land. Construction would not begin until after his second presidency ends.
In fact, Harvey Oyer, a lawyer representing the Trump course, in a letter to the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners, said, “Just as Camp David, Windsor Castle, or the Elysee Palace are known worldwide, so too will the Presidential Golf Course in Palm Beach County.”
That’s nice because every president since William Howard Taft golfed, except for FDR who was disabled, and Jimmy Carter who was too busy giving away the Panama Canal.
The Post (Washington, not Margaret) reported:
The county is seriously considering the proposal and is seeking more information, Palm Beach County Administrator Joseph Abruzzo told The Washington Post. In a meeting last week, Trump representatives assured county officials that, under the proposal, Trump’s company would continue to make lease payments for the golf course and would agree to build the presidential retreat on a connected piece of land that would have a separate entrance from the private club, Abruzzo said.
Trump’s club would continue to operate under the Trump family company and would probably benefit from more business if it becomes a site of long-lasting presidential importance.
Abruzzo said, “My understanding is that President Trump views this as a lasting contribution to the presidency and to those who will hold the office after him.”
When Trump took over the White House, it needed revival. Presidents are loathe to maintain and remodel the White House for fear of criticism of being labeled extravagant.
Abigail Adams was the first to live there in the final months of her husband’s presidency. The mansion was unfinished. Rather than decorate it, she coped with it, famously drying laundry in the East Room.
But Dolley Madison was a socialite and she spruced the place up—especially after the British burned it down.
50 years later, another socialite, Mary Todd Lincoln tried to redecorate. Congress said it was too expensive to replace furniture after 50 years. This is what presidents are up against.
Julia Grant squeezed Congress and got the job done.
Caroline Harrison in the 1880s and Edith Roosevelt in 1902 oversaw major renovations. Truman had the place gutted and wooden beams replaced with steel. Jackie Kennedy also spruced the place up.
But the rest refused to keep the place up.
In his second presidency, Trump is doing what others have neglected. There’s a new Air Force One, a sorely needed helicopter pad, a renovated Rose Garden and the ballroom.
He will leave the White House better than the one he inherited.
Finally, I do not want to waste an entire newsletter on Muslim terrorist Major Nidal Hasan, who gunned down 12 soldiers and a civilian, and injured 30 others at Fort Hood. Barack Hussein Obama dismissed it as workplace violence because he hates those who defend America. Trump signed off on executing him. Today’s poll question is: How should we kill Major Allahu Akbar?
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This article first appeared on Don Surber’s Substack. Reprinted here with permission.
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