MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
President Trump has plans to make one of his private golf clubs in Florida into a presidential retreat like Camp David. One of the Palm Beach Post staffers who broke the story is political editor Antonio Fins, and he's here with us now. Good morning.
ANTONIO FINS: Good morning. Thank you for having me on.
MARTIN: Thanks for coming. So what exactly is the president proposing?
FINS: Well, just like you said, a - sort of a Camp David-like retreat down here in south Florida, but really revolving around golf. He has his golf course, Trump International, just outside of West Palm Beach, and he is offering to locate this kind of presidential lodging retreat there where heads of state can come and do diplomacy on the golf course.
MARTIN: How did you hear about this?
FINS: Well, we got it through a letter that the - a lawyer representing The Trump Organization sent to the county commission. And the reason the county commission in Palm Beach County plays a role here is because while The Trump Organization owns the golf club - the actual golf club and facilities - the land really is owned by the county, and The Trump Organization leases it from the county. So therefore, the county has a say here in any kind of improvements.
MARTIN: So who would pay for this?
FINS: That's a good question. The letter explicitly says that this is a gift. But as we've seen down here with the Trump presidential library that required a donation of land to The Trump Organization, land valued in downtown Miami at tens of millions of dollars. We've seen the issue, the rebranding of Palm Beach International Airport as President Donald J. Trump International Airport. Taxpayers have been on the hook for that. So I think, you know, while this proposal was very well received by the county commission, I think everybody's looking for the fine print details.
MARTIN: So why was it - just explain this to me. So the plan involves a gift of Palm Beach County's land to the federal government, and then the Trump administration says, or President Trump says, they will build it out. But...
FINS: No, I don't think it's that complicated. I think it's more that what they're saying is on this land that we have leased from the county, we are going to locate this presidential retreat, this golf club Camp David facility on this land. And I think that - we believe that the reason the county is involved is because they would have to approve the - you know, the improvement, but that is land already leased to The Trump Organization for the golf club.
MARTIN: So I understand that, as he has with other projects, the president cites security as a reason for this, just as he has with the White House ballroom, his plans for this arch in Washington, D.C. But has he said anything about the potential for this to increase business at his golf club at his Mar-a-Lago resort?
FINS: No, that's not been discussed at all. I think what they have pitched this as is that this is a place - you know, Palm Beach County has kind of, because of the "Winter White House" in Mar-a-Lago and all the heads of state that have come to visit there, and, you know, the - a lot of the presidential actions that have taken place at Mar-a-Lago, there's sort of in the county, almost this desire to see this going. And this would be a way of always having, you know, I guess, this political - you know, this backdrop play out here in the Palm Beaches. So that's really what's been the focus on. We haven't - there's really been no details on who gets these revenues, how much money, who would pay for this? That's why everybody's sort of saying, OK, hey, nice idea, but (inaudible) the fine print.
MARTIN: That's Antonio Fins at the Palm Beach Post. He also hosts the "Inside Florida Politics" podcast. Antonio, keep us posted. Thanks so much.
FINS: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
