Scoop: Mar-a-Lago raising entry fee to $1 million

Former President Donald Trump's Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, will increase its initiation fee to $1 million, according to a little-noticed mention in a Bloomberg Businessweek article published this week.

Bloomberg interviewed Trump a few days before Trump's June 27 debate with President Joe Biden.

"Even back at Mar-a-Lago, a few days before Biden’s debate stumble, Trump seemed to be riding this heightened sense of good fortune," the magazine's reporters wrote. "When the resort’s longtime managing director dropped by during the conversation, Trump noted with pride that the club would increase its initiation fee from $700,000 to $1 million in October, with four new slots open—a sign, presumably, of the increased value of proximity to potentially the next commander-in-chief."

The interview was conducted at Trump's Palm Beach club.

Originally built in the 1920s by cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, the 114-room mansion sits on a 20-acre property between the Atlantic Ocean and Florida's Intracoastal Waterway. After Post's death in 1973, the estate changed hands a few times before being purchased by Donald Trump in 1985 for around $10 million.

"The Mar-a-Lago sitting room features a soaring red balloon tower dotted with giant gold ones reading “47,” shorthand for the next president—a gift from a local admirer who affixed a card gushing over 'the best commander in chief America has ever known,'' Bloomberg's reporters note. "At Trump’s insistence, a staffer fetches the hot new fashion item he enjoys showing guests: a red MAGA-style cap emblazoned with 'Trump Was Right About Everything.'"

In recent years, Mar-a-Lago has been at the center of several legal and ethical controversies involving Trump. In 2022, the FBI executed a search warrant at the property over mishandled classified documents. There have also been concerns raised about foreign nationals potentially gaining access to the president through Mar-a-Lago's lax security protocols.