Trump may be forced to leave Mar-a-Lago as Palm Beach officials launch 'legal review' after he violated 7-day limit
A “legal review” has been launched by Palm Beach officials after it was found former President Donald Trump is planning to make Mar-a-Lago his permanent residence after leaving the White House. It has been said that Trump has bypassed a 1993 permit that bans long-term stays at the resort. But the 74-year-old’s son Eric has claimed that his father has not violated any rule and he has all the rights to stay at the luxurious place as long as he wants.
Around 27 years ago, Trump reportedly signed a “special exception use” agreement under which he transformed the historic mansion into an exclusive club for profit. The agreement has a clause that restricts the number of guests to ten at a time, also no guest can stay there for more than seven days at a time, and are allowed to live there for up to three non-consecutive visits a year. However, neighbors of the exotic place have complained that Trump has not only breached the rules in the past but this time also after leaving Washington on January 20, hours before Joe Biden’s inauguration, he flew back to the club and stayed there for more than seven days. Wednesday, January 27, marked the seventh day since the Republican came to Mar-a-Lago.
Town Manager Kirk Blouin said that Palm Beach's town attorney John Randolph is legally reviewing the matter. But Blouin claimed that he has “no personal knowledge of where ex-President Trump is living or intends to live.” The town manager also added that probably the town council will discuss the 1993 permit and Trump's residency during a meeting on February 9. According to the signed document, if after the probe it is found Trump violated the 1993 agreement, the town can cancel the club's occupational license. The town also has the right to seek relief in civil courts.
However, Eric believes that the “legal review” has no basis. “There's absolutely nothing that prohibits my father from living at the property. My father has the absolute right to live at Mar-a-Lago,” he told DailyMail.com. He mentioned Section 134-2 of the town's municipal code, which is meant for private clubs, and pointed out that Palm Beach property maintains its RAA-Large Estate Residential zoning. “Club, private means buildings and/or facilities, not open to the general public, owned and operated by a corporation or association of persons for social or recreational purposes for members and their bona fide guests and which may render, as an accessory use, services that are customarily carried on as a business. Within residential zoning districts, a private club may provide living quarters for its bona fide employees only,” the ordinance stated.
The authoritative order also explains what it means to be an employee. “Employee means any person generally working on site for the establishment and includes sole proprietors, partners, limited partners, corporate officers, and the like,” it added. Eric said that the 1993 permit application filed by his father stated that the property usage won't change. “The use of property is not permitted to have changed, and has to be used in the way Marjorie Merriweather Post had used the property,” the 37-year-old said, naming the businesswoman who constructed the property in the 1920s, before adding, “He's the owner and he's the director and this why these guys aren't gaining any traction. There is a big difference between a guest and an owner.” Eric also noted a point in the decades-old agreement that mandated “the property return to residential if for some reason the club didn't work or wasn't profitable. They didn't want to have commercial use inside Palm Beach.”