According to this article in WaPo, Mar-a-Lago is not in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood, because the President’s future neighbors are singing “You Won’t Be My Neighbor.” Before Mar-a-Lago became a private club, it was a private residence, decorated with the sort of tasteful understatement that the President favors, as the living room at right suggests. According to WaPo, the President entered into an agreement in 1993 which the residents claim precludes him from transforming the property back into a residence. Under the agreement, intended to prevent the property from becoming a residential hotel, the President agreed that nobody could stay in the club’s guest suites for more than seven consecutive days or twenty-one days in a year.
The residents sent a demand letter to the town Palm Beach, requesting that the President be informed that he will not be permitted to set up residence at the club. The residents asked the town to do so in order to avoid the awkward situation of having to remove a former President like some squatter.
While the residents are confident that their demand must be legally enforced, the town has a history of lax enforcement of the terms of its agreements with Mar-a-Lago (pictured, in 1967), which may suggest defenses of waiver, acquiescence or laches. But wait, there’s more. WaPo also reports that the President entered into an agreement with the National Trust for Historic Preservation in which he pledged not to develop the Mar-a-Lago site or to use it for any purpose other than a private club.
For more wonky, property-law-type analysis, see this thread from @sarabronin, to whom we tip our hats.
The story also reports that when the President changed his official domicile from New York to Florida, he attempted to register to vote in Florida, using the White House as his home address. After that attempt was rebuffed like a Sidney Powell lawsuit, the President registered using his Mar-a-Lago address. But if that address cannot be a domicile, we might have a serious case of voter fraud. Release the Kraken!
