A legal review by Palm Beach’s attorney concluded the agreement between Trump and the town allowing him to convert Mar-a-Lago into a private club with certain residency limits “does not expressly prohibit him from residing there,” and town zoning ordinances allow him to do so if he’s “a bona fide employee of the club,” which Trump’s attorney argues he is, CNN reported on Wednesday, February 3, 2021. Read story here.
That was a long sentence. I gotta come up for air. But it’s arcane legal stuff, and complicated.
Mar-a-Lago’s neighbors don’t want Trump for a neighbor. That’s understandable. Who wants to live next door to a famous, notorious, badly-behaving celebrity — Justin Bieber, for example? Not to mention the papparazzi and tourist buses they attract to a neighborhood?
However, if the town attorney concludes there’s no contractual prohibition, and the zoning allows club employees to live there, then it does seem reasonable that the club’s full-time manager should be treated the same as the waitstaff, maids, gardeners, and drivers.
That is, if he’s a full-time manager, not spending 80% of his time holding rallies and campaigning for political office elsewhere, or spending all of his time relaxing by the pool and not managing anything. But to argue that he’s an employee of the club merely because he owns the club seems like a stretch. The fact I might own a company’s stock doesn’t make me an employee.
It may all be moot anyway. With all his legal problems in New York, Georgia, and elsewhere, Trump may end up living somewhere else anyway.
Photos: Above, a palace fit for a potentate; below, pool accessories
Trump could:
1. Stay put and enjoy the sunshine, play lots of golf, while turning brighter and more glowing shades of orange.
2. Shop around for another country with a warm climate that has no extradition treaty with the US.
He probably has something else in mind, but may not have a choice about where he ends up.