Trump bought Mar-a-Lago Dec. 27, 1985. A look at Palm Beach history

Some who have watched and studied the president's time at Mar-a-Lago since late December 1985 say it is Trump's Xanadu.

Palm Beach Post

Dec. 27, 2025, 5:04 a.m. ET

Forty years ago, a Manhattan real estate developer purchased a dilapidated Palm Beach estate. Four decades later, Mar-a-Lago is the belle of the island's social scene, the nerve center of MAGA politics and, once again, the Winter White House.

President Donald Trump was, at the time, a headliner tycoon from New York City when he purchased the former Marjorie Merriweather Post estate on Dec. 27, 1985.