These are all of the president’s own estates, ranging from Seven Springs in Bedford, New York to Palm Beach’s Mar-a-Lago.
Trump previously owned a number of remarkable properties, but he was able to use Camp David as a rural hideaway after moving into the White House in 2017. And based on all the trips he’s made to them as president, which have cost the tax payers millions, it’s obvious that he prefers his own locations over ones that are provided by the government.
This is an overview of Trump’s personal property holdings.
Trump Tower Penthouse, New York City
Trump’s three-story, opulent penthouse in New York City is located 66 storeys above the ground in his skyscraper, Trump Tower, at 725 Fifth Avenue. (His 14-year-old son, Barron, supposedly has the entire floor to himself.) He had lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue before, having worked at the same address since his offices were located in the same building. The penthouse was designed to resemble the Palace of Versailles, complete with rococo furnishings and an abundance of gold, but the White House’s décor may be a little more muted.
Before the election, Trump showed Forbes around the penthouse, bragging that it was the “best apartment ever built” with 33,000 square feet and an estimated worth of at least $200 million. The issue is that “those remarks were characteristically Trump: boastful and inaccurate,” according to Forbes. In actuality, the house is 10,996 square feet in size and is estimated to be worth $54 million.
Because of its connection to the president, Trump Tower was reportedly becoming one of the least attractive condos in New York City in May 2019, according to a Bloomberg article. In addition to the regular protests that can be seen near the door, the city painted “Black Lives Matter” in enormous block letters on the pavement in front of the building in July of this year. Present at the event was Mayor Bill de Blasio, who declared, “Black lives matter in our city and in the United States of America.” Let’s explain to Donald Trump what he doesn’t know. Let’s paint it for him directly in front of his building.
Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach
It is hardly surprising that the majority of the president’s 378 days at a private estate—133 days total—have been spent at Mar-a-Lago. Trump declared in 2014 that the 128-room mansion, constructed in 1927 by cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, is “the great estate of Palm Beach.” In addition, he has resorted to referring to it as the “Winter White House,” even though it is a security nightmare and not a structure that is owned or maintained by the government. He has, however, utilized the private club for official functions. In 2017, for example, he received Chinese President Xi Jinping for a two-day meeting.
Interestingly, Post had always wanted Mar-a-Lago to become a public property. She donated it to the U.S. government upon her death, but in 1980 it was returned to Post’s daughters because of the $1 million in annual maintenance costs. Trump bought the 17-acre property for $5 million in 1985 and turned it into a private club ten years later, adding a 20,000-square foot ballroom with $7 million of golf leaf and spending $100,000 on four gold-plated sinks.
Today, the privilege of hobnobbing with Trump as a member reportedly involves a $200,000 (up from the pre-election rate of $100,000) initiation fee plus yearly dues of $14,000 and annual food minimum of $2,000. Trump made $15.6 million from the club in 2014.
In 2017, the Government Accountability Office tried to accurately calculate how much the president’s frequent Mar-a-Lago visits were costing taxpayers but failed to get the full picture because the White House declined to provide more information. They did conclude, however, that four trips the president had taken to Mar-a-Lago over one month in 2017 had cost at least $13.6 million.
In addition to Mar-a-Lago, the president has three additional homes in Palm Beach that are collectively worth $25 million.
Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster Township, New Jersey
Arguably the president’s second favorite retreat after Mar-a-Lago, the Trump National has been dubbed the “Summer White House.” He has also taken to calling his trips there “working vacations.”
While the main house of the Bedminster, New Jersey, property is a private club open to members (at a reported cost of $350,000), the Trump family owns cottages on the property. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner got married there in 2009, and they won an application to expand their cottage by 2,200 square feet in 2015.
Trump loves the area so much he once wanted to be buried there. (He has since allegedly switched his intended resting place to Florida.)
In 2018, it was revealed that Trump staffers received member discounts (of up to 70%) at the club’s pro shop—reportedly Ivanka’s idea—alarming the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a government ethics watchdog in D.C.
Seven Springs, Bedford, New York
One of Trump’s less well-known homes, Seven Springs features three pools, a bowling alley, and 60 rooms, of which 15 are bedrooms. He purportedly paid $7.5 million for the land in 1996 with the intention of converting it into a golf course, but it has been a private residence ever since (perhaps due to strong resistance to the proposal from nearby homeowners). According to Forbes, the property is currently valued at $24 million.
The Trump family appears to utilize the 50,000-square-foot Bedford home, which was constructed in 1919 by Eugene Meyer, a Washington Post editor and the father of Katharine Graham, as a weekend and summer retreat. Bedford is located around 45 miles north of New York City. It has been stated that Trump, possibly without realizing it, gave late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi a place to stay in a tent during the 2009 UN General Assembly when no hotels would take him as a guest.
Trump Winery, Charlottesville, Virginia
You may learn about the lengthy and peculiar history of Trump Winery here. In summary, Trump acquired 1,100 Virginia acres, including the vineyards and winemaking operation that had been painstakingly tended by the property’s previous owner, Patricia Kluge, for a “bargain-basement price of $8.5 million on a deal that could ultimately be worth $170 million” (Bank of America seized the property after Kluge defaulted on her loans). Eric, his second-oldest son, was appointed president of the newly established Trump Winery by him.
Today, the 23,000-square-foot, 45-room main building, Ablemarle House, is part of the Trump Hotels brand (a recent search showed rates starting at $299 per night). And while Trump said at an August 15 press conference that he owns “one of the largest wineries in the United States,” the winery’s website itself states that it “is a registered trade name of Eric Trump Wine Manufacturing LLC, which is not owned, managed or affiliated with Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization or any of their affiliates” (head here for more on that claim).
Elsewhere in the state, Trump owns two homes in Sterling, Virginia (close to the Trump National Washington D.C. golf club) that are worth $1.5 million.
Le Château des Palmiers, St. Martin
In the spring of 2017, President Trump listed this gated Caribbean complex for $28 million, but that price was quickly lowered to $16.9 million. Trump purchased Le Château des Palmiers in 2013 and has mostly utilized it as a rental home. It contains twelve complete bathrooms and nine bedrooms. The five-acre estate has two villas, a cottage for the estate manager, and pool cabanas.
According to the original listing, there is also “a huge heated pool, an open air and air conditioned fitness center, a tennis court, and covered outdoor bar, [and] billiards and dining areas,” on the site.
Rental prices reportedly start at $6,000 per night in the low season for the smaller of the two villas and go up to $28,000 during the winter holiday season.
There is no information on whether the property has since sold, but it is still on the Trump Organization’s website and Forbes estimated it to be worth $13 million in October 2019.
Donald Trump’s childhood home in Queens, New York, is where it all started.
The 2,500-square-foot house, which the president’s father built in 1940, was, for a short while, available to rent for $725 a night on Airbnb.