You know, it’s one thing to piss off Democrats, that’s what Republicans, especially Donald Trump do. It’s no big deal to piss off other politicians, political cat fights are part of the quirky charm in following politics. It's not even unusual for a politician to piss off his supporters, all politicians lie, or cast votes that are unpopular with at least some of their constituents. But when you’re pissing off not only your neighbors, but your home city without even doing anything overtly political, you are indeed one special breed of political cat.
And that is exactly what The Tiny Thumbs Diktator is doing right now. Not in Washington D.C., the city is used to the oddities of politics, and the random disruptions to their lives. And not in New York, where being irritated at your neighbors is a part of daily life. Trump is doing it in the least likely place, Palm Beach Florida, home to his estate and newly christened “winter White House” Mar-A-Lago.
It has been widely reported that neighbors, local residents and especially local businesses are mickle displeased with their now even more powerful celebrity neighbors frequent visits home. Residents are upset with travel disruptions due to road closures by police when Hair Furor is in town. Local businesses are aggravated by the loss of revenue due to road closures to traffic making their businesses close to the complex more difficult to get to. And local flight schools are incensed due to a loss of revenue due to their helicopters and small planes being grounded at local airfields by the FAA “no fly zone” when Trump is in residence.
But now, according to a REPORT in The Hill, even the city of Palm Beach and the county are fed up. Trump has made six visits to Mar-A-Lago since inauguration day, and is planning to spend the Easter weekend there, and it’s breaking the city and county budgets in the process. It is estimated that it costs the city $60,000 in police and support overtime per day for a Trump visit. The police chief estimated that Trump’s summit with the Chinese President last weekend cost the city $250,000 all by itself. The city is hopeful that the government will reimburse them for the expenses, but at least one of the officials is not taking chances. According to the report;
However, the high cost of Trump's visits has led County Commissioner Dave Kerner to propose a tax on the resort to cover the costs.
"We're very honored to have the president here, but at the same time, his travel here is such high frequency he's not visiting Palm Beach County — he's governing from it," Kerner told Money magazine.
"Whatever our priorities are, the taxpayers didn't pay this money to us to protect the president."
The city went to pains to point out that Trump already receives a serious tax break due to the fact that the property is incorporated as a resort, not his personal residence, and because Trump surrendered development rights to the property in 1985. But the Palm Beach mayor sounded an even more dire warning, and not to His Lowness, but to Trump’s own neighbors;
Palm Beach's mayor also suggested creating higher taxes for residents in early March, saying if the government didn't help cover costs, local taxpayers would likely have to bear the burden of the added security costs associated with the visits.
Apparently Trump’s background research for spouting off the inane drivel of “The Art of the Deal" to his collaborating author didn’t include thumbing through a copy of “How to win friends and influence people”. If, God forbid, Trump decided to run for reelection in 2020, and if his government doesn’t pony up to Palm Beach county, I don’t think he had better count on carrying Palm Beach county the next time around.