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Once freewheeling, Mar-a-Lago buttons up
2017 political moments to lift your spirits
Once freewheeling, Mar-a-Lago buttons up -- some -- in Trump's first year
Story highlights
- The changes have been implemented over a series of months
- They are designed partly to avoid security hassles
(CNN)The suntanned snowbirds who comprise Mar-a-Lago's membership have noticed something different at President Donald Trump's private club this winter.
On
the patio and inside the dining room, a red velvet rope now surrounds
the table where Trump and his immediate family sit for dinner. Around
him, tables with his in-laws and grandchildren provide a buffer zone,
making it nearly impossible for the average member to approach the
club's owner, who is now leading the country.
The
changes, which have been implemented over a series of months, are
designed partly to avoid security hassles. But officials and club staff
say they're also meant to keep the advice-givers, favor-askers and
suck-ups at bay.
How successful these tactics will be remains an open question.
Trump
-- who thrives on the very type of schmoozing that has caused headaches
for his staff -- still makes circuits himself around the room,
including making his own plate at the Christmas Eve buffet. He still
waves over old friends to chat over plates of wedge salad and chocolate
cake. And this week he conducted a freewheeling impromptu interview with a reporter, unstaffed, in the dining room of his golf club.
Still,
Trump is finding during his first Christmas as president that his
Mar-a-Lago retreat is no longer the same cosseted comfort zone as it was
during his days as a reality television impresario and brash New York
celebrity.
His South Florida haven
Trump,
then a New York businessman with money to spend and a profile to raise,
bought Mar-a-Lago in 1985 and turned it into his South Florida haven.
The residence was eventually changed to a private club in 1995 and
friends and colleagues who regularly traveled with Trump to Florida in
those years say Trump felt just as home in Mar-a-Lago as he did in Trump
Tower.
"Mar-a-Lago is as much home
to Trump as Trump Tower," Michael Caputo, a longtime Trump adviser,
said of the club. "In Trump Tower, he is on a high floor, away from
people. But Mar-a-Lago is the one place where, if he so chooses, he can
be constantly interacting with people."
Trump,
Caputo said, was known to be "ultimately accessible" in Mar-a-Lago, in
part, because members are "people in that club that have known Donald
Trump for decades, longer than he has known Melania."
Longtime
Trump friends tell stories of lounging with the now-President, or
calling Mar-a-Lago in the early years and finding Trump on the other
end, without a receptionist to screen his calls.
That is no longer the case.
With
Trump now more restricted at Mar-a-Lago, the estate is feeling more
like a respite from the White House and less of home, people close to
Trump said.
Trump has scoffed at
some of the restrictions put on him in the White House, so his time at
Mar-a-Lago is still freeing. But considering the openness with which
Trump schmoozed in the club for the last three decades, it has been a
marked change for those close to him.
Changes
There have even been changes in how Mar-a-Lago handled the President over the last year.
While
Trump's first few visits to the club were marked by frequent social
media boasts from club members about their access to Trump -- complete
with photos -- that has dwindled over the last few trips. Gone is the
evidence of Trump dropping by weddings and fundraisers, replaced by
people taking photos inside Mar-a-Lago and noting that they were told
not to snap a shot of Trump.
Earlier
this month, as Trump started his Christmas visit, one club-goer posted a
photo of her high heel above a carpet emblazoned in the Mar-a-Lago Club
logo.
"He was so animated and
happy tonight with his family and friends all around," the user wrote,
adding an explanation of why the photo was of her foot: "Sorry, no
inside photos allowed."
Even with
the restriction, Mar-a-Lago is by far the most open presidential estate
in modern history. Former President George W. Bush would regularly
travel to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, and President Barack Obama would
vacation in Hawaii, but both former commanders in chief would pass
their hours in private homes, not a club that welcomes hundreds of
visitors a day.
Trump's presidency has also significantly altered the club and its clientele.
Once a bastion for fundraisers and philanthropic galas, the club is now more of a Republican mecca than a bipartisan hangout.
Mar-a-Lago,
once known for the premiere venue for fundraisers and philanthropic
events, saw at least 15 organizations cancel on them during the Trump
presidency, including groups like the American Red Cross, the Salvation
Army and the American Cancer Society. Some of those events have been
supplemented with Republican focused events, like a group known as
Trumpettes USA, who plan to hold their Red, White and Blue event at the
venue in January.
Polarization
As the politics of Mar-a-Lago change, so do the politics of the area, South Florida lawmakers say.
Much
like the rest of the country, Palm Beach and the surrounding area have
grown more polarized during the Trump presidency, and with the President
regularly on local news down here -- especially when he is in town --
many residents feel like it is impossible to escape Trump in the Palm
Beach area.
"The support or
objections to the President as his policies remains consistent but I
would say that it seems like it is a more robust level of support and
objection to the President," Dave Kerner, a Democratic county
commissioner in Palm Beach, said, adding that Democrats have grown more
anti-Trump in the area because of his frequent visits.
Kerner
added: "He is constantly here, more so than other parts of the United
States, he is constantly in the news here ... Having him here serves as a
catalyst and it brings other people in his orbit here. It is always in
our face."
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