Trump Can Live at Mar-a-Lago as Employee, Town Attorney Concludes
Palm Beach Town Attorney John Randolph issued the final verdict in a long-running dispute over whether former President Donald Trump can live at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Randolph said an agreement between the town and Mar-a-Lago signed in 1993 allows the former commander in chief to live at the club as a “bona fide employee,” Town Manager Kirk Blouin told Palm Beach Daily News.
The agreement converted Mar-a-Lago from a private residence into a private club. Some neighbors had said the private club designation prohibits Trump from residing on the premises. But Randolph pointed to the town’s zoning code, which says that the town zoning code allows private clubs to provide living quarters to a “bona fide” employee.
Trump s duties at Mar-a-Lago, according to his attorney, John B. Marion, include overseeing the property, evaluating the performance of employees, suggesting improvements to the club s operations, reviewing the club s financials, attending events, greeting guests and recommending candidates for membership.
The Town Council hosted an informational session during its February meeting in which Randolph, Marion and two attorneys representing Trump s neighbors shared their views on the matter.
No action was taken at the meeting, but in subsequent discussions with Randolph, council members did not object to his legal findings or to the evidence that Trump is an employee of the club, Blouin said.
Trump s attorney John B. Marion said the former president is responsible for overseeing the property and its financial records, strategizing ways to improve the club, and evaluating employee performance, the Daily News reported.
Marion, at a February hearing over the former president s residence, called Trump the mayor of the town of Mar-a-Lago, Insider s Jacob Shamsian previously reported. This guy, he wanders the property like the mayor of the town of Mar-a-Lago, Marion said of Trump. He s ever-present, and he loves it there, and he loves the people that he sees there.
Randolph s remarks come months after a town council session in which officials heard the residents argue that Trump should not legally be allowed to live there because it would violate the 1993 agreement.
Town attorney s final word: Trump can live at Mar-a-Lago as a bona fide employee
Some of the former president s neighbors had hoped to block him from living at Mar-a-Lago, citing a 1993 declaration of use agreement he signed with the town.
Palm Beach Daily News
When former President Donald Trump heads to his New Jersey golf club for the summer, he will leave his Palm Beach home with the legal right to live there.
Turning aside arguments from neighbors who claim that Trump is not permitted to live at Mar-a-Lago based on a Declaration of Use agreement he signed with the town in 1993, Palm Beach Town Attorney John Randolph concluded that the agreement doesn t specifically prohibit the ex-president from residing at the club, Town Manager Kirk Blouin told the Daily News this week.