Florida is mighty chilly these days… if you’re former president Donald Trump, that is.
Hours before Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president, Donald Trump left the White House and headed down to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, which he plans to make his primary residence. But his welcome to the coastal city was, shall we say, not the warmest.
Two planes circled the skies near Mar-a-Lago on Sunday, each pulling behind it a banner with rather uncongenial greetings.
“TRUMP WORST PRESIDENT EVER,” read one banner; the other reading, “TRUMP YOU PATHETIC LOSER GO BACK TO MOSCOW.”
Welcome back to Florida Mr. Trump pic.twitter.com/JN1AM0DPoq
— Daniel Uhlfelder (@DWUhlfelderLaw) January 24, 2021
Plane circling West Palm Beach carrying a banner that reads “TRUMP YOU PATHETIC LOSER GO BACK TO MOSCOW” pic.twitter.com/IOY262LVlm
— Paxton Boyd (@paxton) January 24, 2021
The former president’s move to Mar-a-Lago has not been met with open arms by fans eager to rub his elbows (although there are some jumping for joy).
“West Palm Beach, where we are right now, is extremely Democratic,” Palm Beach Post senior political reporter Christine Stapleton told CBS News. In fact, his popularity in the area is on shaky ground. “Since the Capitol riots, there has been a real shift in whether or not Mar-a-Lago will continue to be a venue that GOP and conservative groups want to have their events there.”
In December, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago neighbors issued a letter to the town, saying he can’t use the estate as his residence “because of an agreement he signed in the early 1990s when he converted the storied estate from his private residence to a private club,” the Washington Post reported.
The written agreement changed Mar-a-Lago from a single-family historic home into a private club and is taxed as such. Although Trump’s attorney at the time assured Palm Beach officials that he would not live there, the resort’s website maintains that he has a “private quarters” there.
“It’s one or the other — it’s a club or it’s your home,” Reginald Stambaugh, an attorney who represents a neighbor opposed to Trump’s plan, said in a recent interview, according to the Post. “You can’t have it both ways.”