Trump wants to add official presidential retreat to his South Florida golf club

For generations, presidents have come to South Florida to escape Washington without leaving the presidency behind.

Now, President Donald Trump wants to make that tradition official.

Trump on Wednesday publicly embraced a proposal to create a Camp David-style presidential retreat on the grounds of his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, saying the Secret Service had approved the idea.

“It’s about as safe as they could possibly get,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “It’s only about two minutes away from the airport ... and they could spend the weekend there, like a retreat, like a sort of Camp David retreat.”

Trump said the compound would not be for him but for presidents who follow him in office.

“They asked if I’d be willing to do it, and I said I would be. This wouldn’t be for me. This would be for all future presidents,” he said.

Asked whether the retreat would be called “Camp Donald,” Trump said it already had a name: Trump International.

The proposal would transform part of his golf club into a permanent presidential retreat where presidents could vacation, meet foreign leaders and conduct high-level diplomacy.

An attorney for Trump International Golf Club, which is owned by Trump’s company, brought the proposal to the Palm Beach County Commission in September, asking local leaders to consider providing a parcel of county-owned land to the federal government to build the retreat, the Washington Post reported.

The proposal would formalize what South Florida has quietly been for much of the modern presidency: an escape from Washington. Trump is proposing that Palm Beach County become home to a permanent presidential institution — a Florida version of Camp David.

Camp David, 65 miles from Washington in the wooded hills of Maryland, is best known for its role in the 1978 peace accord meetings with the leaders of Israel and Egypt, brokered by President Jimmy Carter.

Decades later in South Florida, Trump has used his Palm Beach mansion, Mar-a-Lago, for presidential meetings, including summits with world leaders. And in December, Trump will host the G20 summit of world leaders at his golf resort in Doral in Miami-Dade.

But there is a big difference between what Trump is proposing for his West Palm Beach golf course: A federally designated permanent retreat on what is now public property would sit next to a private business owned by the president.

Under the proposal, Trump International would pay for construction of a presidential residence and related facilities. The existing 27-hole Trump International Golf Club would remain privately operated, with Trump’s company continuing to make lease payments to the county. The proposed presidential compound would have a separate entrance from the golf club.

Palm Beach County officials are considering the idea and consulting with the General Services Administration, which oversees federal property.

Trump’s lawyer, Harvey Oyer, has described the project as a “lasting contribution to future presidents and the county.”

Truman’s Little White House

The modern history of South Florida as a presidential retreat began with Harry Truman, who spent 175 days of his presidency at his Little White House in Key West during 11 visits.

In November 1946, Truman traveled to Key West after Navy officials recommended the Southernmost City as a place where the president could rest and work. The naval station, originally constructed in 1890, had been used as housing for naval officers.

For Truman, it provided privacy, security and enough infrastructure to allow the presidency to continue functioning. According to the Truman Little White House Museum in Key West, Truman read, held meetings, received visitors and conducted presidential business under the palm trees by the sea.

Truman’s staff, Secret Service agents and reporters accompanied him, turning the modest Key West residence into a temporary White House.

Truman even created a fashion sensation during his visits, sporting Hawaiian and loud summer shirts that caught on in the rest of the country.

Truman’s successor, Dwight Eisenhower, also used Key West.

Eisenhower visited the island in late 1955 and early 1956 while recovering from a heart attack. He even held a presidential news conference there in January 1956.

Up next was President John F. Kennedy, who had deep ties to Palm Beach and was a frequent visitor during his presidency, often staying at his family’s waterfront compound. In fact, JFK was at the compound spending time with his ailing father just days before his assassination on Nov. 22, 1963.

Nixon and Key Biscayne

South Florida’s role as a presidential retreat evolved during Richard Nixon’s presidency.

Nixon didn’t merely visit a government facility. He established a personal compound on Key Biscayne, where he was introduced to the island’s political and social world by his friend Bebe Rebozo, the son of Cuban immigrants who was an early resident of the exclusive enclave.

The Key Biscayne waterfront compound became one of the most recognizable presidential retreats of the era. Nixon’s official records identify it as a “Presidential Residence,” and his daily diary documents him conducting presidential business there.

It was close enough to Washington to remain politically useful but far enough away to provide a different environment — ocean, sunshine and relative seclusion.

Key Biscayne became Nixon’s Florida White House.

And that history is particularly relevant to Trump.

Nixon’s retreat, like Trump’s proposed retreat, blurred the line between the president’s private world and the machinery of the presidency.

There is a geographic logic to all of this. South Florida offers something that Camp David cannot: a tropical environment, major airports, an established military and federal presence and proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America.

The White House has pointed to the Palm Beach County site’s security characteristics, its proximity to the airport and law enforcement and the relative lack of buildings surrounding the golf course as reasons it would work as a presidential retreat. The course also was the scene of an assassination attempt in 2024, when a suspect was found hiding in the shrubbery with a rifle about 500 yards away from where Trump was playing golf.

Marjorie Merriweather Post had hoped that her Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago, now owned by Trump, would become a presidential retreat after her death. She willed the property to the federal government with that intention. The government ultimately returned it to her estate because of the cost of maintaining it. Trump later purchased the property.

Now, more than five decades later, a president is proposing to create a permanent federal presidential retreat only a few miles away.

The key difference between Truman’s Key West and Trump’s Palm Beach proposal is not simply technological or architectural — it’s ownership. Trump’s proposal would put a federally designated presidential facility directly alongside a private club owned by the president’s family.

Trump’s representatives say the golf course would remain private and continue paying its lease. But the club could also benefit from the traffic and prestige that would come with being next door to an official presidential retreat.

Under the proposal, future presidents would also receive complimentary memberships at the Trump club.

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