Visitors to several government websites may notice that there is an article popping up highlighting Mar-a-Lago — which is odd because Mar-a-Lago isn’t government property, its a private resort owned and managed by Donald Trump himself. Burrowing into the article, a reader may notice that the piece isn’t written in a dry, serious tone befitting a governmental agency, its one glorified advertisement for the place Trump and his family exclusively profit from which places a positive spin on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago profiteering.
Right from the start, the marketing angle is obvious. It, like Trump, insists on calling Mar-a-Lago the “Winter White House” a term made up by Trump to justify his numerous vacations to Florida. Nobody agreed to label Mar-a-Lago the “winter White House” and given its lack of security and the way it profits from Trump’s access, calling it a White House is in all likelihood illegal. Nevertheless, Trump and writer Leigh Hartman insist.
Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s Florida estate, has become well known as the president frequently travels there to work or host foreign leaders.
The first meeting between Trump and President Xi Jinping of China will take place April 6–7 at Mar-a-Lago, which is located at the heart of Florida’s Palm Beach community.
From his base at Mar-a-Lago, Trump has golfed over a dozen times at a golf course he owns in Florida. He does not, by any account, do much “work” while he is there. In at least one example, Trump’s morning filled with “meetings” turned out to be Trump’s attempt to bingewatch golf in an empty dining room with two friends.
Someone just posted this on Instagram from Trump’s golf club. POTUS appears to be watching Golf Channel with 2 other people. pic.twitter.com/5LpVRHR1Do
— Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) March 26, 2017
The article only gets more absurd from there.
After refurbishing the house and adding an events space, Trump opened the estate to dues-paying members of the public in 1995 as the Mar-a-Lago Club.
Post’s dream of a winter White House came true with Trump’s election in 2016. Trump regularly works out of the house he maintains at Mar-a-Lago and uses the club to host foreign dignitaries.
“Dues-paying members of the public” is code for “rich people.” Those members now have untold access to Donald Trump and many have been seen dining near Trump while the president discusses sensitive, sometimes classified information. They giddily share their brushes with Trump on social media, including once photographing the military staffer in charge of carrying the “nuclear football.” On Trump’s end, he does much to entertain the people who pay him. Before the annual White House egg roll, Trump threw a private Easter party for rich families at Mar-a-Lago the night before.
VIPs come first pic.twitter.com/75hLNSIFk2
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) April 16, 2017
And in case readers didn’t understand why they should pay to go there, here is a fluffy description of the features:
When socialite and cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post built Mar-a-Lago — Spanish for “Sea to Lake” — in 1927, she spared no expense. The 114-room mansion sits on 8 hectares of land, with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and an inland waterway on the other.
The ornate Jazz Age house was designed with Old-World Spanish, Venetian and Portuguese influences and decorated with Post’s personal collection of antiques.
It’s baffling to think why this advertisement for Mar-a-Lago would be allowed on any government website, but it has shown up on at least two. It seems to have originated on “Share America,” a website run by the State Department with pro-America articles written in the vein of “Upworthy.” From there it was posted inexplicably on the website for the U.S. Embassy in the United Kingdom. No other articles of this nature show up on that website. The Mar-a-Lago promo seems to be unique.
It’s hard to imagine this isn’t blatantly illegal. Trump’s private business is once again getting a major boost thanks to the government Trump now believes he controls. It’s like cranking his conflict of interest violations up to 11.
Featured image via screengrab
