Trump increases Mar-a-Lago membership to $1 million, raising concerns about selling access | Donald Trump

Donald Trump has set a $1 million price tag for whispering in his ear if he wins back the presidency in November, prompting ethics watchdogs to worry that the Republican nominee is selling his access and political influence for personal gain.

Trump is making available four new, rarely available memberships at his exclusive Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he mingled freely with unvetted guests during his first term and accepted political advice from guests scribbled on cocktail napkins.

The $1 million cost per membership, which opens in October, exactly one month before the presidential election, also represents a 43% increase over the current $700,000 registration fee, a dramatic increase given that the former president has lambasted Joe Biden for what he sees as out-of-control inflation.

The revelation came in a lengthy interview with Trump published by Bloomberg last month, in which Bernd Lembcke, the longtime manager of Mar-a-Lagos, justified the price hike by saying the lavish Palm Beach beachfront club was not desperate for new members.

In October, we're going to go up to $1 million because we have four memberships to sell,” he said, noting that the club was preparing for its 30th anniversary celebrations. Trump quickly jumped in to try to steer the interview back to other topics.

Ethics observers say the move suggests Trump is courting a new clique of wealthy donors willing to pay for access, while tapping a lucrative new revenue stream to ease his hefty legal bills and settlement obligations.

Trump is the ultimate con man, said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, a pro-transparency group based in Washington, D.C.

Some people may simply want to hang out with a president and be around him, but it was explicit during his first presidency that it was an opportunity to tell him what you thought, and also to curry favor.

Of course, the people who are most interested in this initiative are going to see this as a really smart investment. Why not pay a million dollars and talk to the president?

Weissman highlighted several episodes during Trump's term in which Mar-a-Lago members received choice appointments.

They include Lana Marks, the luxury handbag designer who became the U.S. ambassador to South Africa with no diplomatic training or experience; Adrian Zuckerman, Trump’s lawyer and golf buddy, who served in the same capacity in Romania; and David Cornstein, the jewelry magnate and longtime Trump friend who was sent to Hungary as an ambassador to woo strongman Prime Minister Viktor Orbn.

Mar-a-Lago's list of 500 members has traditionally been kept secret, but in 2019, USA Today identified eight past or present members of Trump's clubs who were chosen for roles in his administration.

At the start of his presidency, membership fees were estimated at $200,000, and if that's accurate, it's obviously a matter of supply and demand, Weissman said.

Now, are people really suddenly interested in this spectacular club in Florida in a way that they weren't in 2016, because word got out? Or another theory is that it's worth five times what it was because you might get a chance to give Trump advice, or apparently get an ambassadorship.

There are deep, systemic problems with ethics, money, and access for the rich, but Trump is in a category of his own. To say it’s an ethics problem is to kind of understate the scope of the situation. There’s Trump, and then there’s everything else.

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The 20-acre Mar-a-Lago resort, which Trump purchased in 1985 from the estate of the late cereal heiress and philanthropist Marjorie Merriweather Post, has been the scene of a series of security incidents and controversies during and after his presidency.

Perhaps most remarkable, it was in the 1927 mansion that he stored boxes of classified documents taken from the White House that were the subject of a since-dismissed lawsuit. Special counsel Jack Smith has appealed the decision.

The Trump Organization, the umbrella organization for Trump's portfolio of resorts and golf clubs, did not respond to a request for comment.

But other observers say Trump is likely to pocket the $4 million he stands to make from selling the memberships.

This is capitalism, and Trump is taking full advantage of the interest generated by the proximity of the election. If he loses, it will be harder for him to get such a bonus, said Dave Aronberg, a Palm Beach County district attorney and frequent Trump critic.

This is Trump money. This is his most beautiful and lucrative property, and I can’t imagine he’s going to send the money he’s allowed to keep in his pocket to his campaign. He has legions of die-hard supporters to fund this, his lawsuits and his legal fees.

Aronberg said the chance to meet Trump would be a big draw for a certain type of person with a million dollars to spend, if he wins in November.

There's tennis, golf, entertainment, Andrea Bocelli has performed there, and there's food, he said.

But I think if he loses the election again, the price might stay the same, but demand will decrease.

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