PRETTY PENNY

Trump Significantly Hikes Fee For New Members to Join Mar-a-Lago Club

Those hoping to join the exclusive Palm Beach club will now have to shell out $1 million. In 2017, the cost was just $200,000.

Those hoping to join Donald Trump’s exclusive Mar-a-Lago club in Florida will soon have to shell out $1 million to cover an initiation fee—a sharp increase from years past.

The latest price hike will go into effect in October, just a month before the 2024 presidential election. The new fee is a roughly 40 percent increase from its current price of $700,000, which itself was a significant jump from the $200,000 new members were charged in 2017.

The latest price change was revealed by the club’s manager, Bernd Lembcke, in a recent interview with Bloomberg, where he claimed the price hike was merely an issue of supply and demand. He said there are only four spots available for new members.

“We are going up to $1 million because we have four memberships to sell,” he said. “We are not desperate.”

Mar-a-Lago has been Trump’s home since leaving Washington, with him using it to host countless MAGA fundraisers and, allegedly, to store hordes of classified documents swiped from the White House.

The estate has been a cash cow for the ex-president since he converted it from his personal residence to a members-only club in 1994. Located in Palm Beach, about 70 miles north of Miami, it sits on 20 acres surrounded by palm trees, security, and privacy walls, with the Atlantic Ocean just steps away.

The club’s inside is filled with glitzy furniture, often threaded with gold trim, as well as chandeliers and elegant staircases. Portraits of Trump and his family line some of its walls.

The club’s notable members (as of 2017) included the oil executive Bill Koch, the recently indicted New Jersey Democratic power broker George Norcross, the conservative radio host Howie Carr, and New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

In addition to paying a hefty initiation fee, members must also pay dues of around $20,000 annually, reported the Miami New Times on Tuesday.

Those fees grant members access to “the formal and casual dining areas, the Mar-a-Lago Spa, the pool, the Beach Club, breathtaking guest rooms and exclusive suites, a state-of the-art-fitness center, award-winning tennis courts, beautiful croquet lawns, and an entertainment series which hosts internationally world-renowned talent,” the club’s website says.

While the fee grants members access to the club, those hoping to stay overnight still must pay upwards of $2,000 a night for a room, reported The Globe and Mail in 2016. Current pricing for overnight stays is not public.

The club’s member list has long been shrouded in secrecy and has been the center of controversy, particularly during Trump’s presidency when he’d reportedly considered at least three club members for ambassadorships.

In her 2020 book The Grifter’s Club, Sarah Blaskey claimed she had access to old membership records. Blaskey wrote that Jeffrey Epstein was a Mar-a-Lago member until he “harassed the daughter of a member” and was expelled in 2007.

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Josh FialloBreaking News Reporter

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