https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mar-a-lago-neighbors-legal-action/
Worshiper at Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) (1966–present)How will Trump’s Mar-a-Lago-neighbors enforce the 1993 covenant that he cannot stay more than 21 days a year and 7 consecutive days when he has spent 130 days during his presidency and it is registered as his permanent Florida address?The Mar-a-Lago Club; 1100 South Ocean Boulevard, Palm Beach, Florida 33480
Mar-a-Lago was supposed to be Mr. Trump’s protected place from creditors. The theory that Mr. Trump is following is that Florida has some real cool laws on the books that prevent people from chasing you to this state to pay your debts. This also has two sides to it. Mr. Trump sees himself as a public person – the rich and shameless come to his door because literally, no matter what shit you have on your soul, it is not worse than Trump.
Trump likes all those people visiting him but he has made a scam out of it. Instead of being a host and opening a home to people – I can name dozens of millionaires who have opened a bedroom and fed me a dinner in the last five years alone – Trump makes you pay for the pleasure. Locals pay for the club, people from out of town pay a per-diem.
By the way, here is how this whole dodge works. This “house” that looks like a hotel for gaudy drug lords is actually Trump’s one and only residence. Or so he “legally” claims. Everything else is just a front. As his one and only residence, Mar-a-Lago is thus subject to being protected under the Homestead act as exempt. Under the Florida Constitution, homestead exemption accomplishes three types of exemptions:
- Exemption from forced sale before and at death – all those people he owes money to cannot come and get Mar-a-Lago.
- Restrictions on devise and alienation. What is this? Devise occurs when property passes to the next generation through a will, and alienation by occurs when there is no will. The Florida law prevents huge amounts of taxes from being paid on the first homesteaded house.
- Exemption from taxation per Article VII, Section 6, which says, “Every person who has the legal or equitable title to real estate and maintains thereon the permanent residence of the owner, or another legally or naturally dependent upon the owner, shall be exempt from taxation thereon, except assessments for special benefits, up to the assessed valuation of twenty-five thousand dollars and, for all levies other than school district levies, on the assessed valuation greater than fifty thousand dollars and up to seventy-five thousand dollars, upon establishment of right thereto in the manner prescribed by law…” Which means he pays next to nothing in tax on the property.
The problem for Trump is he is taking two different legal ideals and jamming them together illegally.
Mar-a-Lago is a house, in which case he owes education and property taxes and cannot run a business there.
Mar-a-Lago is a business, in which case he cannot live there or protect it through homestead.
To make sure Trump understood this, they had him sign a contract which says, I won’t live there and run it as a hotel except when I am president and have the power to tell you to fuck yourself.
The power to tell people to fuck themselves is ticking away. So the end game for Trump-
#1 Shut the hotel down, pay your taxes of what I personally figure is 1.8 million per year, and you are OJ Simpson safe from losing the property.
#2 Run the hotel and pay business taxes, but stay out of the residence two days in three through audits. And someone can come and sue you for it.
He cannot do both.
By the way, there are a lot of minor errors in some posts. I want to put them right without implying they are outlandish.
- The status of the club is a significant issue and was under threat of adjudication before Mr. Trump won the presidency. With his change of residence from New York to protect him from a last minute NYS records request as he was running for president, he agreed that in exchange for forbearance on the issue of Mar-a-Lago, he would return to the agreed upon 130 day residence per year – in essence matching the yearly residence process that a few shared properties, where family members exchange the property each month with other family members, and thus being a legal clear zone for removing litigation.
- The issue is affecting the value of some even more expensive property, and thus is not simply a poor little city fighting a big behemoth. Right now the “Marion Sims Wyeth” house – one of the most beautiful I have ever seen anywhere – and the Maurice Fatio Residence are coming on the market or are now being shown, plus four new constructions, and the Trump circus is not making selling easy. The Kushners are already finding out that just a hint they may be buying property in New York City is causing real-world loss of property value. My friend in Satellite says the Trump name is on par with Sirhan Sirhan in terms of popularity. A lot of movers and shakers are saying the Trump circus just needs to go buy acreage in Glendale California and make friends with the Kardashians. All of this means there is great pressure to see Trump et. al. follow their contract, with an eye to seeing him off.
- Then there is the money. Everyone I know in the industry says no one will lend Trump 50 cents unless he spends the money making a raft to take it to Cuba. The idea that Trump has the money to maintain a 30-million dollars property that he has listed as worth ten times that is a joke. The word is – he owes 500 million on paper, 500 million on tax dodges, and has no property worth a cent, even Mar-a-Lago is leveraged, and his only income not coming from cheating the Government is something called Trump Ice, which may allow them to have a comfy split level in Snell island. To make Mar-a-Lago work he needs all the scams to stay in place.
Donald Trump’s money faucet is getting turned off
His money troubles have started. If he is filthy rich these small loses should not matter.
