Is Trump at Mar a Lago Again
(CNN)In Mar-a-Lago's disco-lit main ballroom, he watched as a big oversupply serenaded his son's girlfriend while sparklers flared. On the stone dining patio, he hosted the Brazilian President for talks as diners sabbatum at tables nearby, crammed together like normal. Eager to appear similar everything was fine, he shook hands and spoke at close range with members and guests, which that weekend included a roster of congressmen, Fox News personalities and family members.
President Donald Trump'southward last visit to Mar-a-Lago in March was a final gasp of "before times," both an embodiment of the pre-Covid era and an analogy of how the President was spending his days every bit the virus was beginning its binge across the land.
Trump returns Friday to his Palm Beach club for the starting time time since, badly damaged politically because of his handling of the virus and eager for the days when the patio hummed with activity, the ballroom was packed with paying parties and the prime number rib cafe was steaming.
He'll find the place has inverse. The Beach Club, tennis courts, gym and spa all reopened earlier this month, though dining in the main house -- where Trump has his private quarters -- isn't scheduled to restart until the start of November, according to a letter members received last calendar month.
Trump won't stay long. He arrives late Friday evening subsequently ii rallies in Florida. He'll cast an early ballot on Saturday forenoon in Westward Palm Beach before heading to campaign events in North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin.
7 months ago, Trump's four-day-long weekend at Mar-a-Lago encapsulated the lost days when health experts say more than could have been done to foreclose early spread of the affliction. Even though he'd privately been telling people the pandemic was serious -- including the journalist Bob Woodward -- in public Trump was downplaying information technology.
"So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and lxx,000 per year. Nothing is shut downwards, life & the economy keep. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!" he tweeted from Florida on March 9.
As Trump returns to his club, the rampant virus has not waned. The 546 cases he cited in his tweet have multiplied to virtually eight.5 one thousand thousand; the 22 deaths to more than than 220,000.
Trump, meanwhile, continues to downplay the severity of the crisis, and he said during his final presidential fence on Thursday that the country was almost out of the forest.
"It will become abroad, and as I say, nosotros're rounding the turn. We're rounding the corner. It'due south going away," he said.
Last visit
Trump last arrived to his gild on March 6 after touring a laboratory at the Centers for Affliction Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where he made false claims about the availability of tests and boasted almost his own acumen in understanding the disease.
"Every one of these doctors said, 'How do yous know so much near this?' Maybe I take a natural power," Trump, wearing a red Keep America Peachy hat, said within the bureau, which since and so has get a hotbed of discontent as the President undermines its scientists and health recommendations.
By the time he made information technology to Palm Beach, the party atmosphere was in full swing -- though at least one person at the resort that weekend, Play a trick on News host Tucker Carlson, was there to convey his concerns that the President wasn't taking the pandemic seriously enough.
"People you trust, people you probably voted for, have spent weeks minimizing what is conspicuously a very serious trouble," Carlson would warn his viewers a few days later.
Trump, hosting his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro, did not announced to internalize the message.
"We're doing very well and we've washed a fantastic task," Trump said, standing in front of Mar-a-Lago'due south wrought-iron front doors. Asked whether he was concerned the virus could attain the White House -- which information technology did a few months after -- Trump voiced nonchalance: "I'thou non concerned at all."
Moving from his patio meetings with the Brazilians into a packed ballroom for Kimberly Guilfoyle'south birthday, Trump demonstrated little business organization that guests at his club might exist carrying the virus. The marble-and-gilt room was jammed with revelers from the wider Republican orbit -- including Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, who each delivered toasts.
"Four more years!" shouted Guilfoyle, decked out in gold sequins, as the President stood nearby.
Two weeks after, Mar-a-Lago shut down.
Several people who were at the club that weekend tested positive for coronavirus, including members of the Brazilian delegation and attendees at Guilfoyle'due south 50th birthday party. Others placed themselves in protective quarantine. A note was sent to donors who had attended a fundraiser that a beau attendee had received positive examination results. Out of an abundance of caution, a dog mode show scheduled for the side by side calendar week was postponed.
Short-lived seriousness
It would only exist a matter of days before Trump, adopting a short-lived seriousness about the virus, formally unveiled the authorities's "30 Days to Dull the Spread," which was eventually extended to lx days. Businesses beyond Florida and the land were shuttered. Mar-a-Lago itself, forced to close alee of schedule, furloughed more than 100 workers every bit the pandemic began to rage across the country.
"You can't have many hundreds of employees continuing around doing nil," Trump said of the decision to allow become workers at his resort. "There's no client. You're not allowed to accept a customer."
The President'due south treatment of the virus has earned him wide disapproval and has imperiled his political prospects. In the months since he was last at his Palm Beach order, Trump, Bolsonaro and Guilfoyle accept all contracted the virus, forth with big numbers of Trump's aides.
Now Trump is pushing for businesses to reopen, insisting farther lockdowns aren't necessary and only cause more than harm.
"We're learning to live with it," Trump said at Th's debate. "We have no option."
Mar-a-Lago did reopen its outdoor facilities in May with enforced social distancing guidelines for members visiting the Beach Guild. Loungers and tables were spaced half dozen feet autonomously and guests were told to go along their distance from one another "on the pool deck and in the pool/jacuzzi."
The members-but club also conducted a heightened cleaning regimen. Restrooms were to be "thoroughly sanitized hourly" and the club was to take "sanitizing stations" spread around the pool deck. The lodge airtight for the flavour at the end of June and members were told that certain renovations had been fabricated over the summer.
When information technology opens for dining in November, spots on the patio will exist harder to come past. Members were told that occupancy will be limited for dinner. And though the annual New Year's Eve political party is notwithstanding on -- "We can expect an even more exciting gala this year," the letter to members read -- members were told to reserve early on to ensure they tin secure one of the more than-limited tickets.
In the nearer term, the club is planning an annual Halloween masquerade brawl and an election night viewing party. And before this week, Donald Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle hosted a lunch fundraiser in the master ballroom, where many guests weren't wearing masks.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/23/politics/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-coronavirus/index.html
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