Trump-Abe trip to Florida raises ethical questions

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11:28 a.m. ET

After a friendly meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the White House on Friday, President Trump along with First Lady Melania Trump, Abe, and Japanese First Lady Akie Abe flew to Florida to spend the weekend together at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. The two couples were joined by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft for dinner Friday, and on Saturday the two first ladies took a guided garden tour while both presidents played golf.

Though Trump has invited the Abes to stay at the Mar-a-Lago at his own expense rather than asking taxpayers to foot the bill, the trip has still raised ethical questions. "Hosting a foreign leader at the president's business resort creates impossible sets of conflicts," said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, a watchdog organization. "Why should you go to a resort in Florida? Fine, you want to go to a resort in Florida? Don't go to one Trump's family owns."

Typically, U.S. presidents wishing to spend a weekend with foreign leaders repair to Camp David, the presidential retreat in rural Maryland ...

http://theweek.com/speedreads/679704/trumpabe-trip-florida-raises-ethical-questions

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1. Trump's Florida estate stirs protests, spurs ethics debate

By Darlene Superville and Jill Colvin, The Associated Press

PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump's South Florida estate is no longer just the place where he goes to escape.

He has described the sprawling Mar-a-Lago property as the Winter White House and has spent two weekends there so far this month. But it's also become a magnet for anti-Trump protesters and the subject of an ethics debate over his invitation to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to join him this weekend — with Trump pledging to pay for the accommodations ...

Trump's election is also putting charitable organizations, such as the American Red Cross, in an awkward position for choosing Mar-a-Lago for events booked months in advance. The Red Cross held its annual fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago, as it has done for many years, on Feb. 4, about a week after Trump enacted the travel ban. Trump and his wife, Melania, attended ...

http://www.telegram.com/news/20170211/trumps-florida-estate-stirs-protests-spurs-ethics-debate

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2. Golf Outing, With a Twist: Trump Owns the Place

JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVISFEB. 11, 2017

... it was the latest reminder that Mr. Trump’s presidency is mixing his official role with the business that bears his name. Mr. Abe’s visit was the first of what Mr. Trump’s top aides say will be many in which he uses Mar-a-Lago, the 126-room, pink-hued and Spanish-tiled castle on Florida’s Gold Coast, as a setting for forging high-stakes relationships with important world leaders.

That is likely to mean that the property — along with Trump golf courses nearby in Jupiter and West Palm Beach, where the president squired Mr. Abe on Saturday, along with the professional golfer Ernie Els — will draw increased attention and prominence, with all the potential for additional profit that brings. Mar-a-Lago has doubled its initiation rate for new members, to $200,000 ...

“It’s just one more example of using public office for private gain,” Richard W. Painter, a White House counsel to Mr. Bush who is an expert on government ethics, said. “He’s going to Trump this, Trump that — it’s clearly designed to raise the value of the brand and send the message to foreign leaders that you ought to patronize Trump properties if you want to get in good with the president” ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/11/us/politics/donald-trump-shinzo-abe-golf-mar-a-lago.html

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3. Realtors in Palm Beach affected by security closures

By Darrell Hofheinz - Daily News Real Estate Writer

... At the height of the prime real-estate showing season, access to those properties via a half-mile stretch of South Ocean Boulevard has been limited — for the second consecutive weekend — to accommodate Trump’s visit to his winter White House.

Only residents who live in that area are allowed to enter, providing they show a government-issued I.D. with proof of their address, according to Palm Beach police spokesman Phil Salm, explaining the U.S. Secret Service’s road-closure policy.

That requirement has left real estate agents in a quandary. Several agents worry about how they’ll get house-hunters in to see properties this weekend, including one with a client who is flying in expressly to see a house in the neighborhood. The issue gets even more complicated when the property’s owner is out of town.

“We do get complaints on it (from residents and others who don’t live in the area),” said Salm. “But this (policy) is mandated by the Secret Service and not by the town – so we have no control over it” ...

http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/local/realtors-palm-beach-affected-security-closures-near-mar-lago/oyPGpRhC5gXtpWrEizxcjI/

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4. Palm Beach businesses stung by cost of hosting Trump's weekend retreat

... as the 45th US president enjoys a second vacation in as many weekends at Mar-a-Lago, his private coastal retreat, the wealthy town that hosts him continues to grapple with the unprecedented financial and logistical burdens imposed upon it as a sometimes home to the new commander-in-chief.

Community leaders are concerned by the spiralling security costs of protecting Trump and his family during his frequent escapes from Washington DC, and fears are growing that some local traders could be put out of business amid the air and land lockdowns mandated by the presence of a president who has promised to protect the interests of small-business owners.

“People will just say I’m not going to stay in the Palm Beaches, I don’t need the aggravation. It’s going to grind our economy to a halt,” said Jeff Greene, a hotel owner who says that he has already lost bookings from prospective guests at his upmarket Tideline Ocean Resort and Spa further south along Ocean Boulevard from Trump’s waterfront estate.

“For people in Palm Beach, it’s exciting having a president here … But you can’t close down our roads, it’s just not right. You can’t close down our town for four years, or eight years” ...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/11/palm-beach-businesses-cost-trump-mar-a-lago

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5. Shouldnt We Know Who Else Is at the Winter White House?

By George Zornick
YESTERDAY 4:03 PM

President Trump departed Friday for his second consecutive weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort, which administration officials have labored to dub the “Winter White House.” He will be hosting the prime minister of Japan for the weekend as a “personal gift” while the two leaders discuss the US-Japanese relationship amidst rounds of golf.

White House staff has told reporters to prepare for a presidential trip to Florida every weekend this month—a getaway, perhaps, from the cold humdrum of White House life. But Trump’s retreats also appear to be an escape from the routine transparency and ethics laws of his normal residence. Mar-a-Lago, though now treated as a satellite White House, isn’t being subjected to the same rules as 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

People can pay $200,000, a fee that was doubled after Trump was elected, to attend the club and rub elbows with the most powerful man on earth. Shouldn’t we know who is paying that fee, and if they meet with the president? ...

https://www.thenation.com/article/shouldnt-we-know-who-else-is-at-the-winter-white-house/

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7. Aren't the tax payers

paying for this POS. Keep on racking up the law suits you POS.

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8. It's not clear yet exactly what's up here

One possibility is that Trump us effectively selling, to the 200K-per-annum members of the club, secret access to foreign leaders

Another possibility is that Trump is hoping to temporarily crash the Palm Beach economy to create opportunities to grab real estate there

There are several other possibilities

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6. 18 Things You Should Know About Mar-a-Lago

By Leanna Commins
Feb 10, 2017

... According to Trump, he initially offered $28 million to the Post sisters, but was turned down ... Trump then decided to purchase the beachfront property right in front of the estate and threatened to build an ugly home to block the Mar-a-Lago’s oceanfront view. “That drove everybody nuts,” he said. “They couldn’t sell the big house because I owned the beach, so the price kept going down and down.” Trump eventually purchased the Mar-a-Lago for $5 million, and paid an additional $3 million for Marjorie Post’s antiques and furnishings ...

Trump inherited much of Post’s original decor, including imported stone from Genoa, Italy, and 16th-century Flemish tapestries — which eventually faded when Trump filled the room with sunlight. Trump built a 20,000 square-foot-ballroom with $7 million in gold leaf and four gold-plated sinks work $100,000. There was also the club’s "library, paneled with centuries-old British oak and filled with rare first-edition books that no one in the family ever read,” according to Anthony Senecal, Trump’s former butler ...

Trump received approval from the U.S. Department of Labor in October to hire 64 foreign workers through the H-2B visa program, which allows eligible U.S. employers to hire foreign nationals to fill temporary jobs (in this case, for Mar-a-Lago's winter season). Trump hired 69 foreign workers the previous year. He will hire 19 cooks at $12.74 an hour, 30 waiters and waitresses at $11.13 an hour, and 15 housekeepers at $10.17 an hour. "It's very, very hard to get people," Trump said when asked about it at the March presidential debate, "Other hotels do the exact same thing" ...

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a8679174/mar-a-lago-donald-trump-mansion-palm-beach-facts/