President Donald Trump, already dogged by criticism about blurring the boundary between his family businesses and the presidency, now faces questions about a breach of national security last weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort, which is doubling as the “Winter White House.”
Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dined Saturday night on a patio in view of other guests about an hour after North Korea launched a ballistic missile 300 miles into the sea of Japan.
Members of the exclusive club in Palm Beach, Florida — who pay $14,000 in annual dues after an initiation fee that was doubled to $200,000 this year after Trump’s election — quickly broadcast on social media their take on how the world leaders digested that news along with their iceberg wedge salads.
Richard DeAgazio, 72, of Stoneham, the retired president of the investment firm Boston Capital Services, wrote on Facebook: “HOLY MOLY!!! It was fascinating to watch the flurry of activity at dinner when news came that North Korea had launched a missile in the direction of Japan.”
An Instagram user posted a photo of senior counselor Stephen Bannon and Michael Flynn, then still the national security adviser, behind Trump at the dinner table.
CNN reported, “As Mar-a-Lago’s wealthy members looked on from their tables, and with a keyboard player crooning in the background, Trump and Abe’s evening meal quickly morphed into a strategy session, the decision-making on full view to fellow diners, who described it in detail to CNN.” Flynn and Bannon “left their seats to huddle closer to Trump as documents were produced and phone calls were placed to officials in Washington and Tokyo. The patio was lit only with candles and moonlight, so aides used the camera lights on their phones to help the stone-faced Trump and Abe read through the documents.”
After dinner, Trump and Abe stopped by the wedding of Carl Henry Lindner IV, son of the chief executive of American Financial Group, where the president posed for selfies with guests, including the bridesmaids.
At the very least, the open mingling of the public’s business and Trump’s private club underscore concerns raised by ethics experts about Trump’s businesses benefiting from the bright light of his presidency. While he has turned management of the Trump Organization over to his children, the president has not legally severed ties with his international real estate and marketing conglomerate.
“Plenty of presidents had places they go. George W. Bush spent a lot of time on his ranch in Texas, quite famously. But he wasn’t selling membership to his ranch,” Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for the watchdog group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, told The Nation. “All the reporting, all the cameras, are serving as a free ad from his property,” he added about Mar-a-Lago. “It raises some serious ethical concerns about whether he’s using the presidency for his personal benefit.”
Beyond that, Saturday’s dinner drama also raises significant questions about Trump’s entertaining Mar-a-Lago members and their guests with foreign policy talks, particularly those involving sensitive national security issues. A traveling president normally confines those conversations to a mobile secure area where they can be held privately. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said that no classified material was discussed over dinner and that Trump was briefed in a secure area.
Nevertheless, lawmakers from both parties were critical. “There’s no excuse for letting an international crisis play out in front of a bunch of country club members like dinner theater,” tweeted U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the House minority leader.
Democratic Senators Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Tom Udall of New Mexico issued a statement comparing the episode to Trump’s campaign attacks on Hillary Clinton for using a private email server while she was secretary of state. “Now we have unknown and unvetted Mar-a-Lago members looking over the president’s shoulder as he conducts our foreign policy. … We urge our Republican colleagues to start taking this administration’s rash and unprofessional conduct seriously before there are consequences we all regret.”
Republican Senator John McCain, of Arizona, told The New York Times, “Can’t make it up.”
Unfortunately, that’s true. The weekend follies at Mar-a-Lago are typical of Trump’s often bizarre and unpresidential behavior during his first month in office — not surprising for a man who can’t resist his craving to be at the center of attention, the consequences to the nation be damned.