Miami

Delays Expected For Travelers, Residents of Palm Beach Neighborhood With President-Elect Trump in Town

If your Thanksgiving plans are taking you up the road to Palm Beach and the area around the Mar-a-Lago resort, be prepared for delays with the presence of America’s President-elect.

Donald Trump will be heading to South Florida for the holiday – which will mean extra delays on roads he, his family and entourage are traveling on during the visit.

Experts told NBC affiliate WPTV-TV that roads will be closed from Palm Beach International Airport to the resort owned by the businessman turned Commander-in-Chief. Other blockades could pop up across the area depending on where the family wants to travel – including his nearby golf courses in West Palm Beach or Jupiter.

The FAA will now restrict the airspace over the resort when Trump is in town, allowing just military, law enforcement or ambulance flights or flights already scheduled. Any other flights will be rerouted – meaning possible delays for people arriving.

The waterways around the area will also be under tight security, with zones established through the weekend even though it’s believed that Trump and his family will leave on Friday.

Palm Beach is quiet, and residents like it that way. Earlier this year, the town went to court to block a planned march by farmworkers to the home of Wendy's fast-food Chairman Norman Peltz. Town officials wanted to ban the use of loudspeakers. A judge approved their use, but told marchers they had to stay on the sidewalks.

With Trump as president, more protests are likely, although the area around Mar-a-Lago isn't inviting. The club sits on a busy stretch of road with limited sidewalks.

The town is also rich. It has Florida's 10th highest median household income at $105,700, according to census data. Conservative commentators Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, former New York Mayor and Trump confidante Rudy Giuliani and entertainers Howard Stern and Jimmy Buffett are among the celebrities with homes there.

“Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, I am sure the residents of the Town of Palm Beach will take this as a great honor,'' Mayor Gail Coniglio said. “We will all accept (Trump's visits) with gentility.''

When Trump bought Mar-a-Lago for $10 million from the estate of cereal tycoon Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1985, he was not greeted warmly by everyone in town. He was seen as brash, nouveau riche and a limelight seeker, not genteel, quiet old-money like his neighbors. After the town rejected his plan to subdivide Mar-a-Lago's grounds and build up to 10 mini-mansions, he converted the property into a club in 1995 to bring in revenue. The property is now believed to be worth more than $100 million.

Trump and his neighbors have battled over the years about noise emanating from his grounds and over a car-lot sized U.S. flag and its 80-foot pole that he erected in 2006 without the proper permits. The two sides eventually settled. Trump got his pole, and his foundation gave $100,000 to veteran charities.

Former Secret Service agents Dan Bongino and Arnette Heintze say Trump's neighbors should expect some security-related disruptions such as the possible construction of a helipad, but it shouldn't be too stressful.

“Mar-a-Lago is a Secret Service agent's dream to secure. It is everything you would want,'' Bongino said. “You have limited access and a really exclusive enclave where people who don't live down there will generally stick out pretty quickly.''

Mar-a-Lago's members, who pay a $100,000 initiation fee and $14,000 annual dues, can expect to walk through metal detectors and have their cars and luggage sniffed by bomb dogs when Trump is there. Still, Bongino and Heintze said, Secret Service agents will do their best to allow the resort to operate near normalcy while still protecting Trump.

“Look at when the president visits the Waldorf Astoria in New York. There are a lot of people who live there,'' Heintze said. “They aren't thrown out.''

Berndt Lembke, Mar-a-Lago's general manager, did not respond to calls and emails seeking comment from The Associated Press. He told the Palm Beach Daily News that guests won't notice anything different unless Trump is present.

“He's mostly here for Christmas, New Year's Eve and Easter, when it's mostly just members,'' he told the Daily News.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
Contact Us