Trump is pushing a Camp David-style presidential retreat at his own golf club in West Palm Beach, and Palm Beach County is already looking at the offer.
He says the idea came from the military and the Secret Service, not from him. On Wednesday he told reporters the club sits about two minutes from the airport, with no tall buildings and no houses lining the course. "About as safe as they could possibly get," he said. Future presidents could spend the weekend there. Visiting heads of state could get off the plane and be on the property in minutes. "This wouldn't be for me. This would be for all future presidents." Asked if it would be called Camp Donald, he said the name stays Trump International.
The paper trail started earlier. On September 3, club attorney Harvey Oyer wrote the county offering to designate Trump International Golf Club a "U.S. Presidential Golf Course" for past, current, and future presidents and visiting foreign leaders. The letter compared it to Camp David, Windsor Castle, and the Élysée Palace. The club would pay to build presidential lodging and call it a gift to Americans and to Palm Beach County. Future presidents would get free memberships. Access would cost the federal government nothing. Oyer said the project would not be finished before Trump leaves office.
The county owns the land. The Trump Organization leases it. The offer asks the county to set aside a parcel, with the retreat built on connected land and a separate entrance, while the club keeps paying the lease. County staff were told to explore it. Administrator Joseph Abruzzo called it a "remarkable and historic opportunity" and said the county is seriously considering it. No site has been picked, there is no cost estimate, and there has been no vote. The White House has confirmed the proposal. Trump endorsed it in the Oval Office on October 7.
Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, the course Trump wants designated a U.S. Presidential Golf Course. (Trump Organization)
WPEC CBS12 reports on Trump's proposal to turn his West Palm Beach golf club into a Camp David-style presidential retreat.
A few facts sit alongside the pitch. This is the same golf course where Trump survived an assassination attempt in September 2024, when a gunman was spotted in the trees along the perimeter fence while Trump was playing. The man was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Trump did not mention it when listing the property's security advantages. The club earned Trump nearly $37 million in his first year back in office, according to his financial disclosure. And there is a precedent just down the road: Mar-a-Lago itself was once gifted to the federal government as a presidential retreat before Washington handed it back over upkeep costs. The airport beside the course now carries his name, Donald J. Trump International Airport.
It is a formal offer, in talks, and publicly backed by the president. It is not approved, and it is not built.