Mar-a-Lago Is A Respite For Trump

Donald Trump Jr. posted photo of his father photobombing his son and grandchildren on Christmas

 When President Trump sat down with a reporter for a wide-ranging, 30-minute interview at his private golf club Thursday, not a single aide or adviser was present at the table — and not a single aide or adviser knew about it in advance.

According to The Washington Post, the interview was enabled by Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax Media — a club member with a level of personal access to the president in Florida that rankles White House staffers. He invited New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt as his personal guest to lunch at Trump International Golf Club, sat near Trump’s regular table and brought the reporter over to meet the president, who was still in his golf clothes.

As word trickled back to the White House, advisers worked to reach the president, with Trump’s personal aide interrupting at one point to hand him a cellphone with White House communications director Hope Hicks on the line; she checked in on the interview from afar.

Mar-a-Lago also is the place where Trump is often his most unrestrained and unfettered, making it harder for his West Wing staffers to control his daily media diet and personal contacts as they now try to do in Washington.

Mar-a-Lago, said Roger Stone, a former Trump campaign adviser and longtime friend of the president’s, “allows Trump to be Trump.”

“Nobody tells Donald Trump where he can and cannot go,” Stone said. “The president is able to get a lot of information that is normally blocked from getting to him. . . . You don’t have the minders. There is no doubt that he makes more calls.”

Trump’s personal quarters are off-limits to most club members — several friends said they have never been inside.

His regular routine is simple and predictable: He wakes, watches television, tweets, makes phone calls, reads the papers and works. He often emerges for golf if the weather allows, then returns to the club, where he sometimes has lunch or meets with White House staffers. He then returns to his living quarters, emerging again for dinner.