“It’s a very dispirited place,” Laurence Leamer, historian and author of “Mar-a-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump’s Presidential Palace,” told MSNBC host Alex Witt on “Weekends with Alex Witt” Saturday. He said members are “not concerned about politics and they said the food is no good.”
Leamer said he spoke to a number of former members who “silently walked out” after Trump left office.
Disgruntled members might lead to a smaller paycheck for Trump. When Trump was president, many people paid up to $200,000 for Mar-a-Lago memberships, Leamer pointed out, and he said they don’t think they’ll continue paying that price.
“You could not possibly exaggerate how comical it is,” Kimmel said on The Ringer’s “The Bill Simmons Podcast.” “Everyone there is 100 years old.”
Kimmel told Simmons he went to the resort about six years ago to have dinner with Howard Stern, who lived near the property at the time. He described the Mar-a-Lago attendees as “hunched-over people who are eating soft food” and he said the place is covered in Trump photos.
“It was just quiet and a terrible place,” Kimmel said. “And now he lives in this terrible place.”
“Even here, people don’t like him,” Leamer said, referring to residents of Palm Beach — many of whom voted for Trump in hopes of lower taxes and a booming stock market. “It’s just another measure of how his power has declined.”