Immediately after winning the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump said that Mar-a-Lago, the estate he turned into his official residence in Palm Beach, would serve as a "Winter White House."
It was also the venue where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday night. Trump may be pleased to have been elected president twice, but he has shown little interest in spending all his time in cold Washington rather than in sunny Florida.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump during their meeting at Mar-a-Lago
(Video: Reuters)
Indeed, during his first year in office in 2017, Trump spent dozens of days at Mar-a-Lago, more than at any other property he owns. Images of Trump and then-Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe holding security discussions around a dinner table at the club, surrounded by guests and waiters, became emblematic of the chaos and the blurring of private and presidential business.
In the first 100 days of his second term, Trump spent 31 days at Mar-a-Lago, nearly a third of the period. He is also spending the end of 2025 and the start of 2026, including New Year’s Eve, at the estate.
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Mar-a-Lago, seen from above. The estate was completed nearly 100 years ago
(Photo: Reuters)
While the term "Winter White House" never fully entered common parlance, Trump accustomed Americans to the idea that he spends at least 10% of his time as president at Mar-a-Lago, with little they can do about it.
World leaders who were once used to flying to Washington to meet the U.S. president at the White House learned to instruct their pilots to head instead to Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump purchased the estate in 1985 for an estimated $7 million to $10 million, including the mansion, furnishings and beachfront property, and invested an additional $10 million in renovations. In 2022, Forbes magazine estimated Mar-a-Lago’s value at about $350 million, while various brokers and analysts say it hovers between $300 million and $500 million. Much of the dramatic increase in value is attributed to the role held by the property’s owner, the president of the United States.
Mar-a-Lago has more than 120 rooms across roughly 5,800 square meters. It sits between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Worth Lagoon, which is the source of its Spanish name, Mar-a-Lago, meaning "sea to lake."
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5,800 sq. mt. and more than 120 rooms. The name comes from Spanish
(Photo: Steve Helber/AP)
The estate includes a private beach with an underground tunnel leading to it, swimming pools, tennis and cricket courts, a spa and fitness center and an events venue with a massive ballroom that Trump has said he wants to replicate at the White House at a cost of $400 million.
The estate was built in the 1920s and completed in 1927 for millionaire businesswoman Marjorie Merriweather Post and her husband, Edward Hutton. After her death, Post bequeathed the property to the federal government with the intention that it serve as a "Winter White House."
The government declined the offer due to high maintenance costs, and the estate returned to the private market. Trump purchased it in 1985 and in the 1990s converted it from a private residence into an exclusive club, while continuing to live there.
Trump uses his apartment in Trump Tower in New York only when visiting the city, which has become increasingly rare over the past decade. In recent years, Mar-a-Lago has also turned into a cash-generating machine. Beyond the club’s direct revenues, Trump benefits from his constant presence in the dining room and reception areas, which attracts members and guests willing to pay high prices for memberships and events.
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Trump at a Halloween party at his estate with Secretary of State Marco Rubio
(Photo: Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz)
In its early years, the club’s initiation fee (not including annual membership fees) stood at around $200,000, later dropped to $100,000, and returned to $200,000 after Trump’s election in 2016.
In 2024, fees jumped again, rising from $700,000 to $1 million, with annual membership fees of about $20,000. Guests of members can stay in rooms at the club, with estimates suggesting prices of up to $2,000 per night for luxury suites during major events. The Secret Service and the federal government also pay for rooms for agents and staff.
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Donald Trump and his wife Melania alongside Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell pictured at Mar-a-Lago
(Photo: Davidoff Studios Photography/Getty Images)
Mar-a-Lago also serves as a hub for Republican fundraisers and lavish gala events, with proceeds flowing both to political organizations and to Trump-owned companies. During the 2024 election, the estate functioned as Trump’s campaign headquarters. It was where he followed the election results, delivered his victory speech and oversaw much of the transition work ahead of his second term.
The estate is also known as the site where, in the summer of 2000, Ghislaine Maxwell, then the partner of financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, approached Virginia Giuffre, then 16, who was working in the spa’s locker rooms. Maxwell persuaded her to go to the home of a "wealthy man who was a longtime club member" to give him a massage.
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Virginia Giuffre, who fought Jeffrey Epstein before taking her own life
(Photo: Reuters)
That evening, Giuffre traveled to the address Maxwell provided, also in Palm Beach, and met Epstein for the first time, beginning the path that led her to become his most prominent victim.
Epstein died by suicide in jail in 2019. Giuffre became a leading symbol of the fight against Epstein and sexual exploitation. In April this year, she died by suicide. "She was a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She will be missed beyond measure," her family said after her death.