An agreement Trump signed says he cannot live in Mar-a-Lago
Neighbors of the president say he has violated the 1993 agreement he made with Palm Beach that allowed him to convert a private residence into a for-profit club.
President Donald Trump's Florida neighbors are trying to enforce a decades-old pact that says Mar-a-Lago, his private social club, cannot be used as a full-time residence, something Trump has suggested. what you plan to do after you leave the White House.
Mar-a-Lago residents sent a letter to the Palm Beach mayor and the U.S. Secret Service on Tuesday, complaining that Trump has violated the 1993 agreement he made with the city that allowed him to convert the owned by a lucrative club.
"Under the 1993 use agreement, Mar-a-Lago is a social club, and no one can reside on the property," wrote Reginald Stambaugh, a lawyer representing the DeMoss family, who own property alongside Mar-a. -Lake.
“To avoid an embarrassing situation for everyone and to give the president time to make other living arrangements in the area, we trust that he will work with his team to remind them of the parameters of the use agreement,” Stambaugh wrote. "Palm Beach has many lovely properties for sale, and you can surely find one that meets your needs."
The letter came as Trump's days in office are about to end and he is pursuing plans to move his wife and son to Florida after the inauguration of his successor, President-elect Joe Biden, the January 20. The New York Times reported in 2018 that Trump had changed his address to Mar-a-Lago, in part for tax reasons. Almost immediately, city residents began to question the legality of the move, given the agreement the president struck with Palm Beach decades ago.
It has been built in the president's residential area at the club, where the Trump is expected to spend the Christmas holidays, something that Stambaugh says already violates the use agreement.
A White House spokeswoman declined to comment on Stambaugh's complaint, which was first reported by The Washington Post, and the mayor of Palm Beach and a spokeswoman for the Trump Organization did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Glenn Zeitz, a New Jersey attorney who assists Stambaugh and who is not being paid by the DeMoss family, said the city had declined to enforce certain aspects of the agreement in the past on several issues, including how many days a year the president has stayed there.
In other cases, the city has given Trump leeway due to legitimate security concerns. Among them is the addition of a helipad for Marine One, which will be retired after he leaves office.
"As president, I think they gave him certain considerations that they deemed appropriate because of his status," said Zeitz, who met Trump decades ago when he represented a client whose property the then-casino owner wanted for expansion in Atlantic City.
Trump has tried to take actions such as building a dock attached to his property that the agreement prohibited, apparently for the use of club members. That initiative was blocked by the city, and then the president submitted a revised attempt in which he claimed it was for the private use of him and the first lady. He withdrew the second request for the dock after the 1993 use agreement was made public.
With the letter, Stambaugh hopes to pressure the city to make it clear that Trump is breaching the terms of his agreement that allowed him to convert the sprawling Mar-a-Lago property, once owned by Marjorie Merriweather Post, from a residence. private to a club.
"The significant tax breaks that the President received from this agreement remain in effect, as does the use agreement," Stambaugh wrote. "Some press reports indicate that renovation has already begun in Mar-a-Lago to make family rooms more comfortable for full-time residency."
Part of that usage agreement, which was reviewed by the Times, limits how long members can stay there. It says there can be no stays for "three non-consecutive seven-day periods of any member during the year."
The club is also supposed to submit affidavits to the city each year, stating that a minimum of 50 percent of its members live or work in Palm Beach and that the club has no more than 500 members.
Some of those reports have not been submitted. And the club has seen a boom in the number of members who have joined in recent years, according to records reviewed by the Times, although it is unclear whether they replaced members who left.
