Thread: County considers special tax for Trump's Mar-a-Lago visits

Rust, mold, parasites: Trump's Mar-a-Lago cited for 78 health violations in the last three years

Associated Press

Unsafe seafood. Insufficiently refrigerated meats. Rusty shelving. Cooks without hairnets.

Reports show Florida health inspectors cited President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort with 15 violations in late January, days before the U.S. leader hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for a diplomatic visit.

Still, the state inspectors allowed the luxury resort's main restaurant and beach club grill to remain open as staff scrambled to make several immediate corrections.

Among the "high priority" problems described as "potentially hazardous" were faulty fridges with meats stored well above the required 41 degrees Fahrenheit. For example, in the restaurant's walk-in cooler, the duck and beef were measured at 50 degrees, while a ham was at 57 degrees.

Other issues included smoked salmon being served without undergoing "proper parasite destruction" and a hand washing sink for employees with water that was not hot enough.

Stephen Lawson, spokesman for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, said the violations were the result of a routine inspection and not prompted by any consumer complaints or food-borne illnesses.

"The infractions were corrected on site, and the establishment was immediately brought into compliance," Lawson said on Thursday.

The January inspections were not the first time authorities have found problems at Mar-a-Lago. Over the last three years, records show the club has been cited 78 times for violations that included chefs handling food without washing their hands, dirty cutting boards, a slicer "soiled with old food debris" and an "accumulation of "black/green mold-like substance" in the ice machine.

Lawson said inspectors will return to Mar-a-Lago for another unannounced visit before the end of the year.

The Trump Organization, which operates the family's business empire, did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment. The violations were first made public weeks ago, but received broader attention this week following a report in the Miami Herald.

Trump is a frequent visitor to his private club in Palm Beach.

The president often refers to the property as the Winter White House. He hosted a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping there last weekend, where Trump said the men shared a "beautiful" chocolate cake while discussing the U.S. cruise missile strike on Syria.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nation...413-story.html

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Rust, mold, parasites: Trump's Mar-a-Lago cited for 78 health violations in the last three years

Associated Press

Unsafe seafood. Insufficiently refrigerated meats. Rusty shelving. Cooks without hairnets.

Reports show Florida health inspectors cited President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort with 15 violations in late January, days before the U.S. leader hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for a diplomatic visit.

Still, the state inspectors allowed the luxury resort's main restaurant and beach club grill to remain open as staff scrambled to make several immediate corrections.

Among the "high priority" problems described as "potentially hazardous" were faulty fridges with meats stored well above the required 41 degrees Fahrenheit. For example, in the restaurant's walk-in cooler, the duck and beef were measured at 50 degrees, while a ham was at 57 degrees.

Other issues included smoked salmon being served without undergoing "proper parasite destruction" and a hand washing sink for employees with water that was not hot enough.

Stephen Lawson, spokesman for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, said the violations were the result of a routine inspection and not prompted by any consumer complaints or food-borne illnesses.

"The infractions were corrected on site, and the establishment was immediately brought into compliance," Lawson said on Thursday.

The January inspections were not the first time authorities have found problems at Mar-a-Lago. Over the last three years, records show the club has been cited 78 times for violations that included chefs handling food without washing their hands, dirty cutting boards, a slicer "soiled with old food debris" and an "accumulation of "black/green mold-like substance" in the ice machine.

Lawson said inspectors will return to Mar-a-Lago for another unannounced visit before the end of the year.

The Trump Organization, which operates the family's business empire, did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment. The violations were first made public weeks ago, but received broader attention this week following a report in the Miami Herald.

Trump is a frequent visitor to his private club in Palm Beach.

The president often refers to the property as the Winter White House. He hosted a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping there last weekend, where Trump said the men shared a "beautiful" chocolate cake while discussing the U.S. cruise missile strike on Syria.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nation...413-story.html

Perhaps he can take care of those problems now that he has raised membership fees.

"The Trump-owned Mar-a-Lago resort raised its initiation fee to $200,000 this month, double the cost from a year ago. And management says membership is hovering at about 480 people -- close to the cap of 500."

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/26/news/trump-mar-a-lago-hotels/index.html

Should Trump be making a profit off his elected position while actively sitting in the White House? Maybe he can use some of that extra money to help secure Mar-a-Lago.

Mar-a-Lago Has Three Bomb Shelters Built During the Cold War


Mar-A-Lago (AP Images)

By Bill Hoffmann | Wednesday, 12 Apr 2017 12:57 PM

Mar-a-Lago, the stunning 17-acre estate President Donald Trump calls his "Winter White House," is equipped with three bomb shelters built during the Cold War.

But the mostly-forgotten shelters — some used for storage — have taken on a somewhat renewed importance as the commander-in-chief uses the lush, palm tree-dotted property to relax and receive domestic and world leaders.

The Palm Beach Daily News reports Post cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, who built Mar-a-Lago with her financier husband E.F Hutton in 1927, had the shelters installed during the Korean War in the early 1950s.

They are hidden among the hedges of the property, and may be the least glamorous part of the spread which boasts 58 bedrooms, 33 bathrooms, a 29-foot marble dining table, 12 fireplaces, six tennis courts, and a gym.

Bomb shelters are not new among dignitaries in Florida.

When John F. Kennedy became commander-in-chief in 1961, the military built him a secret nuclear shelter and command post on Peanut Island, a 79-acre expanse at the mouth of the Lake Worth Inlet in Palm Beach County.

Until 2015, the Kennedy family owned an oceanfront estate less than two miles from Mar-a-Lago, where JFK vacationed.

Designed in 1923 by noted architect Addison Mizner, it was bought by Kennedy patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy in 1933.

http://www.newsmax.com/US/mar-a-lago.../12/id/784010/

It's cute the fascination some people have with Trump's home in Florida.

Trump's Mar-a-Lago visits are the ultimate grift: The more he vacations, the more he profits

By Laura Clawson
Saturday Apr 15, 2017 · 8:00 AM PDT
86 Comments (86 New)

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• Daily Kos

No reasonable person would say presidents don’t have the right to vacation a little. It’s a stressful job and they’re never fully off the job anyway. But there’s “a little” and there’s “28 percent of the time, in such a way as to profit yourself.” Guess which category Donald Trump is in? (And in fact, he attacked President Obama for vacationing—saying

“If you're in the White House, who wants to take a vacation?”—but that’s covered by the “no reasonable person” clause above).

Yes, 28 percent of the time:

… since his January inauguration, President Trump has spent seven of 13 weekends at his Palm Beach, Florida estate. According to NBC News' estimates by Sunday Trump will have spent 28 percent of his term traveling to or staying at Mar-a-Lago. Trump hosted his second world leader at the "winter White House" last weekend, with Chinese President Xi Jinping joining Trump for meetings Thursday and Friday. Trump stayed the rest of the weekend, frequenting his nearby golf club on both days.

And that doesn’t cover Trump’s trips to his Virginia golf club or his Washington, D.C., hotel—not “vacations” as such, but opportunities to promote his own properties, from which he is still profiting. That, more than the amount of time he is spending away from the White House, is the important issue:

"It's just another example of his consistent efforts to exploit public office for private gain," ethics expert Steve Schooner told NBC News. "He's using his official office and the fact that people have to travel with him, meet him, and follow him to promote his commercial enterprise, in this case his privately owned club." [...]
"This is a privately owned club that for all intents and purposes was just another golf property in Florida before, that almost now is something that Americans immediately recognize," Schooner continued. "Imagine what you would have to pay to get that kind of brand recognition. That's extraordinary."

As we’ve seen from the amount of time he obviously spends watching Fox News and tweeting about it, Trump is fully capable of being in the White House and not working. He’s getting something more important (to him) out of visiting his properties. He’s building the brand, justifying Mar-a-Lago’s doubled membership fees, and drawing business from people who want to be in a room with him or just plain suck up. Profit, profit, profit, with a heaping side of surrounding himself with sycophants.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/4...ore-he-profits

GOP Sen. Ernst says Trump should spend less time at Mar-a-Lago

Joni and her Congressional colleagues should spend more time in DC and work until they get their job and legislative agendas done.