For nearly a quarter-century, President Trump has envisioned boats docking at Mar-a-Lago, his swanky club set on 17 acres of prime real estate in Palm Beach, Fla., that rambles across manicured grounds between the beach and the placid waters of the Lake Worth Lagoon and the Intracoastal Waterway.
Trump’s quest has, predictably, irked his wealthy neighbors, sparking one of those pesky territorial squabbles that occupy town halls and zoning boards in tony neighborhoods across the country. But the attempt by Trump and his legal team to squeeze through approval of his dock while the nation’s attention is trained on the coronavirus pandemic is now surfacing a potentially nettlesome problem for the president.
Digging into the catacombs of local records to build an argument against the dock, a small group of loosely aligned preservationists, disgruntled neighbors and attorneys have unearthed documents that they assert call into question the legality of Trump’s much-publicized decision late last year to change his official domicile from Manhattan to Mar-a-Lago and to register to vote in Florida using the club’s address. According to those documents, and additional materials obtained by The Washington Post, Trump agreed in writing years ago to change the use of the Mar-a-Lago property from a single-family residence to a private club owned by a corporation he controls. Continue reading.