Trump paid an estimated $10 million for the lavish home in 1985 and turned it into a moneymaking club, before rising property values made it one of the most valuable homes in the world.
Donald Trump has made a lot of investments over his career. One of the flashiest, his purchase of Mar-a-Lago, also turned out to be one of the best. Trump paid an estimated $10 million for it in 1985 and turned it into a moneymaking club, before a rising real estate market made it one of the most valuable homes in the world. Today, the crown jewel of Palm Beach is worth an estimated $350 million.
The property, which the former president said the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided on Monday, was historic long before Trump got involved with it. The cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post built the estate from 1924 to 1927, incorporating details befitting the Roaring Twenties. Stones traveled from Genoa, Italy via three ships. Silk-needlework panels came from an old palace in Venice. The living room rug hailed from a Spanish monastery.
In 1973, Post passed away, bequeathing Mar-a-Lago, which means “sea to lake” in Spanish, to the federal government, hoping it would be used as a presidential retreat. Richard Nixon traveled to Mar-a-Lago in July 1974 to see whether it might be a good spot to host foreign dignitaries. He stayed for less than an hour, before helicoptering back to Key Biscayne, Florida where he had property of his own.
The government ultimately decided to give Mar-a-Lago back to the Marjorie Merriweather Post Foundation, concerned about maintenance and security. The foundation then sold it in 1985 to Trump, who paid a reported $5 million for the house, $3 million for the furniture and $2 million for beachfront land across the road. At the time, the Manhattan mogul was coming off a series of victories, having renovated the Commodore Hotel near Grand Central Terminal and opened Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.
Trump was also beginning to get ahead of himself. He purchased a USFL football team in 1983 and signed former Heisman Trophy winner (and future U.S. Senate candidate) Herschel Walker, personally guaranteeing the running back’s contract.
