Trump turns West Palm Beach club into a private family payout

By Maya Ellison · Reporting from Detroit · October 7, 2026

Donald Trump wants to turn his West Palm Beach golf club into a presidential retreat, a scheme that uses public prestige to enrich his family business while ordinary people struggle.

Donald Trump is attempting to turn the presidency into a family trust. By proposing to convert his private West Palm Beach golf club into an official presidential retreat, he is not offering a "gift" to future leaders. He is building a permanent pipeline of public prestige and profit for his own children. This is a brazen act of self-dealing that treats the federal government as a marketing arm for the Trump Organization.

A "gift" that pays the Trump family

The White House announced the plan on Wednesday, October 8, 2026. Donald Trump, an 80-year-old billionaire, wants to model this new retreat after Camp David. The Washington Post reports that the plan involves the federal government taking part of the property. The Trump family will continue to operate the rest of the resort.

Harvey Oyer, a lawyer for the club, sent a letter to Palm Beach County officials in September 2026. He compared the property to Windsor Castle and the Elysee Palace. He asked the county to cede a portion of the land to the federal government. While Trump says he will pay for the construction, the real value is in the traffic.

The Daily Beast notes that the Trump family will benefit financially if future presidents use the site. These future leaders would even receive comped memberships to the club. This is not about national security or diplomatic utility. It is about ensuring that the Trump brand remains a world-class destination on the public's dime.

The blueprint for public extraction

I grew up in Flint, where we saw what happens when the state ignores the people to serve the powerful. This plan follows a familiar pattern. It is the same mechanism as the 2008 financial crisis. In both cases, public power and state resources are used to insulate and enrich a concentrated private interest at the expense of the public good.

We have seen this movie before. During his first term, the president used the Trump International Hotel Washington DC to profit from foreign governments. He leveraged state resources to benefit his holdings at Trump National Doral Miami. He used the Trump World Tower to maintain luxury assets while the working class suffered.

The numbers show a relentless extraction of public wealth. Taxpayer-funded golf expenses for Trump's second term surpassed $100 million by the end of March 2026. During his first presidency, his properties charged the government over $1.1 million. He visited his own properties on 428 days of that first term.

This is not an isolated whim. It is a business model. The goal is to make the line between the U.S. Treasury and the Trump bank account as thin as possible.

The architecture of an ego

The absurdity of the proposal is matched only by the president's disregard for history. He rarely visited the actual Camp David during his two terms. Instead, he prefers his own courses. He has already renamed the local airport the Donald J. Trump International Airport. He even demolished the historic East Wing of the White House to build a large ballroom.

The security argument is a joke. In September 2024, a gunman named Ryan Routh tried to assassinate Trump at this very club. Routh hid in the shrubbery with a rifle. The White House now claims the property has "great security features." It is hard to call a site a secure sanctuary when an assassin almost succeeded there.

The club is an exclusive fortress. In 2011, the initiation fee was reported at $150,000. The annual fee was $25,000. Turning this into a presidential retreat does not make it more accessible or more democratic. It simply grants a billionaire's family a permanent, government-sanctioned luxury anchor in Florida.

This is the ledger of the modern era. While my generation carries student loans and watches the climate burn, the man in the Oval Office is busy designing a palace for his heirs. He is not serving the public. He is using the public to serve his estate.

The Trump Organization will likely secure federal infrastructure subsidies and land cessions to upgrade this course. They will funnel public funds into private equity. This is the only logical conclusion for a president who views the state as a subsidiary of his own company. Justice would require a total divestment of these assets and a ban on using federal funds to upgrade private resorts. Instead, we are watching the formalization of a royal court in West Palm Beach.

Trump turns West Palm Beach club into a private family payout

A "gift" that pays the Trump family

The blueprint for public extraction

The architecture of an ego

Sources