00:00Today on Forbes, profits at Mar-a-Lago have quadrupled since Trump left the White House.
00:08When a member of Donald Trump's exclusive Mar-a-Lago invited Joni Bryan's nonprofit
00:13to hold its annual gala at the Palm Beach Club in 2021, Bryan jumped at the chance.
00:19The executive director and founder of the 917 Society, which aims to educate students
00:24about the U.S. Constitution, thought it would be a great way to raise awareness about her
00:29small grassroots group and gain higher-profile support.
00:33While Bryan won't disclose how much the 917 Society paid the former president to
00:38host the event, it went well enough that the Nashville-based group has returned two more
00:43times in the past three years.
00:46In 2024, the nonprofit sold around 225 tickets at $1,250 apiece, bringing in about $280,000,
00:56which she says covered all costs and added a little cash to its coffers.
01:01Bryan says, quote,
01:02It's expensive there, sure, but not much more than Nashville.
01:07She notes that people are more than willing to pay extra for the chance to go to Trump's
01:10historic club.
01:12She adds, quote,
01:13It's not something you can just do every day.
01:16You really get the value, and it raises awareness.
01:20It also provides Donald Trump with a lot of money.
01:23The former president bought Mar-a-Lago for $10 million in 1985.
01:28The 18-acre property, which stretches from Palm Beach's oceanfront on the east side
01:32of the island to the lake on its west side, turned out to be one of his best real estate
01:37investments, now worth an estimated $325 million.
01:43Trump's family boasted that it was worth more than $1 billion during his civil trial
01:46in New York last fall.
01:49It's also one of the most profitable properties in the Trump empire, thanks to rising membership
01:54dues and a parade of events, including weddings, nonprofit benefits, and political fundraisers.
02:01While Mar-a-Lago did decent business before Trump got into politics, it performed even
02:05better when he was president, and even better still after he left the White House.
02:10The club took in an estimated $40 million or so in 2023.
02:14That's more than double what it generated in 2019, the year before the pandemic, and
02:19almost triple what it produced in 2014, before Trump entered politics.
02:24This according to an analysis of court filings and Trump's financial disclosures, the most
02:28recent of which was filed earlier this month.
02:32Most of that growth has come since Trump left office.
02:35In the four years Trump was in the White House, Mar-a-Lago took in about $90 million.
02:40In the three years after he left, it's done $105 million of business.
02:45That's money from initiation fees, currently reported to be $700,000, estimated annual
02:51dues north of $15,000, and dining tabs from the club's members, as well as event catering
02:57and facility rentals.
02:59Interestingly, spending by federal campaigns and committees is only on pace to reach $2
03:04million in 2024, roughly 2% of all spending at the club this year.
03:10The cost to run Mar-a-Lago, meanwhile, has remained relatively stable over the same time,
03:15ranging from around $12 million to $16 million.
03:19As revenues increase, so too have Trump's profit margins, which soared from about 9%
03:25in 2011 to around 60% in 2023.
03:29The Palm Beach Club threw off an estimated $22 million last year, more than seven times
03:35as much as it did before the most famous real estate mogul in America turned his attention
03:39to politics.
03:42As for why Mar-a-Lago is doing so well, in a 2016 deposition, Trump suggested it was politics.
03:49In the deposition, he said, quote,
03:51The manager told me recently, he said,
03:53Boy, it is actually the best year we've ever had at Mar-a-Lago.
03:56And I was looking at the numbers.
03:58I said, what do you attribute this to?
04:00He said, the campaign.
04:04For full coverage, check out Zach Everson's piece on Forbes.com.
04:09This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.
04:12Thanks for tuning in.
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