The Pig Doesn’t Fall Far From The Trough at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago

Of all the sensational snippets in Laurence Leamer’s new bestseller, Mar-A-Lago, the one about Donald Jr. and the toast to his mother on her wedding day to husband #4 is among the ickiest.

Being a New Yorker –since my arrival in the U.S. in 1987– I have followed Trump’s narrative arc for several decades, mainly through the pages of the New York Post. Today, more and more Americans (not to mention the rest of the world) are “shocked, just shocked” by the antics of the First Buffoon.  For most New Yorkers, however, we knew what lay ahead when the election results came in on November 6, 2016.

Mar-A-Lago — a portrait of Trump, his friends, his hangers-on, and his life at his Palm Beach estate pre-2016 election — drives home the fact that Trump was a fabricating, bullying, win-at-all-costs loud-mouth long before he became President.

Author, Laurence Leamer is a part-time resident of Palm Beach and documented the foibles of its rich back in 2009 in Madness Under the Royal Palms. His focus in this new, well-sourced tome is all on Trump and the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

Shocking Snippets

So, many of the snippets in Mar-a-Lago are new, and shockingly so — to me, at least.

Take the one about Donald Jr.’s toast. His father was obviously in a magnanimous mood when he let 59-year old Ivana, his first wife, and mother of his three children, hold her wedding (to a man 24 years her junior) at the Florida estate (pictured.) Donald Jr., the first born of Ivana and Donald gave the toast. Leamer writes about it as follows :

“Trump was so enthusiastic at Ivana’s pending nuptials that he agreed to stage the wedding at Mar-a-Lago […]  At the wedding dinner, Donald Jr., gave a toast worthy of his father. 

“She’s got some mileage on her, but she’s still pretty hot. Yes, despite the body and the boobs and all that, yes, she is a grandmother.'”

If that isn’t the very definition of eewwwwww, then, it’s certainly reminiscent of his father’s misogynistic-pig comments about wanting to date his daughter Ivanka, and describing her as “hot.” But let’s continue with this disgusting wedding toast.

Also A Bully?

Leamer writes: “Donald Jr., had a message for his new stepfather. ‘And, Rossano, we are in the construction industry. You better be good to her because we have job sites. We can lose people. I have a .45 and a shovel. Nobody’s gonna know you’re gone.”

Two months after the wedding, Ivana discovered that her new husband had a Cuban girlfriend. That was the end of Ivana’s fourth marriage.” 

There is no additional information on Rossano. So, reading the book, we don’t know if he disappeared off the face of the earth, or not. A Google search, however, will inform a reader that Rossano is still alive and well!

Trump Battles With Palm Beach Elites

The sub-title of Leamer’s book is : Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump’s Presidential Palace.

And, sure enough, a major portion of the book is devoted to good, solid reporting of Trump’s run-ins with the old-guard, Wasp-y, established elites of Palm Beach. The book details Trump’s arrival in Palm Beach in 1982 and his purchase of the estate.  And, it details his conflicts with the Town Council over his plans to sub-divide the Mar-a-Lago property, to erect a 70-foot  flagpole in the front yard, and subsequently to turn Mar-A-Lago into a club that would not apply the restrictive anti-Jewish, anti-black, anti-gay restrictions on membership that a couple of other private clubs on Palm Beach appeared to apply.

Fine People ?

It is counter-productive, however, given Leamer’s narration and what we actually know about Trump, to view him as the white-knight protagonist in any of these conflicts. Yes, he fought for the flagpole so he could fly the American flag, and yes, he vowed his club would be open to anyone (Jews, African-Americans, gays) but those were apparently tactics for winning his local battles and had nothing to do with his true beliefs  — which became startlingly obvious in August 2017 when he described the white supremacist, neo-Nazi marchers in Charlottesville, Va., as “fine people.”

Palm Beach Player

Leamer’s book details all of the fascinating twists and turns in Trump’s rise to become a major Palm Beach player on an island that was itself changing from an enclave for super-wealthy, old established families to a playground for the brash, nouveau riche like Trump himself.

In another, gossipy snippet, Leamer tells how Trump, in an effort to attract members to his private Mar-a-Lago club, let it be known that Prince Charles and Princess Diana had become members. Of course, that was simply just another Trump fabrication which Buckingham Palace exposed by denying any such thing.

My Visit to Mar-a-Lago

I have never been back to Mar-a-Lago since the spring of 2015 when I played for the Breakers tennis team against the Mar-a-Lago tennis team. The photos of Mar-a-Lago  (above) which appear here are mine, taken when we visited and had lunch after the match.