THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, opinion columnist: Mr. President-elect, can I ask a question? One of the issues that you actually were very careful not to speak about during the campaign, and haven’t spoken about yet, is one very near and dear to my heart, the whole issue of climate change, the Paris agreement, how you’ll approach it. You own some of the most beautiful links golf courses in the world …
[laughter, cross talk]
TRUMP: [laughing] I read your article. Some will be even better because actually like Doral is a little bit off … so it’ll be perfect. [inaudible] He doesn’t say that. He just says that the ones that are near the water will be gone, but Doral will be in great shape.
It is interesting in the light of his recent civil suit claim that Mar A Lago should be appraised as a billion dollar property, to revisit what the London Review of Books discerned in 2017:Post left the estate to the US government, in the hope it would be used for cultural activities, but in 1981 the government returned it to the Post Foundation, which put it on the market for $20 million. After seeing it in 1985, Trump offered (he claims) $15 million, which the family rejected. He then put in a $2 million offer for the land between the estate and the ocean, and threatened to build a house on it that would block Mar-a-Lago’s ocean view. They sold him the estate for the knock-down price of $7 million. Trump restored the house and grounds, doing little damage – since it’s a listed building, he was limited to restoring the original décor – and adding the ballroom. In the 1990s, beset by the financial woes that have been the hallmark of his business career, he negotiated with the banks to subdivide Mar-a-Lago, to the alarm of the citizens of Palm Beach; the city council vetoed it.
Instead, Trump turned the place into a private members’ club: joining fee $200,000, annual subscription $14,000, overnight hotel charges up to $2000. If it seems weird that the official winter residence of an American president should be a private club, the neighbours appear to agree. The old-money crowd made the exodus to Jupiter and Hobe Sound
