{"id":12810,"date":"2026-10-07T13:44:30","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T13:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/12810\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T13:44:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T13:44:30","slug":"now-trump-wants-to-build-a-new-camp-david-at-one-of-his-private-golf-clubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/12810\/","title":{"rendered":"Now Trump wants to build a new Camp David … at one of his private golf clubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Independent<\/p>\n

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President Trump wants to build a Camp David-style presidential retreat at his West Palm Beach golf club, according to reports.<\/p>\n

\u200bThe plan would see a portion of the Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach designated as a U.S. Presidential Golf Course to be used by past, present and future commanders-in-chief. Foreign leaders would also be hosted at the site, The Palm Beach Post revealed. <\/p>\n

\u200b\u201cJust as Camp David, Windsor Castle, or the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace are known worldwide, so too will the Presidential Golf Course in Palm Beach County,\u201d a letter from the golf course\u2019s lawyer Harvey Oyer and obtained by the newspaper said. \u200bThe letter was sent to the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners in September.<\/p>\n

\u200bThe West Palm Beach course opened back in 1999 and was the first golf property operated by Trump. <\/p>\n

\"PresidentPresident Trump has proposed transforming his Trump International Golf Club West Palm beach into a Camp David-style retreat (Getty)<\/p>\n

\u200bOyer\u2019s letter claimed Trump International would pay for the cost of building a lodging facility at the site. The lodging would be designed with the cooperation of the General Services Administration and the Secret Service.<\/p>\n

\u200b\u201cThis is a gift that the president would like to share with his successors, the people of America, and his fellow Palm Beach County residents,\u201d Oyer wrote, noting that Trump will be out of office before the completion of the project.<\/p>\n

\u200bSpeaking to The Washington Post, Oyer said that a name for the proposed golf course had not yet been chosen.<\/p>\n

\u200bCurrently, a president seeking a getaway has access to Camp David – a 125-acre retreat in the Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland. <\/p>\n

The site, which has been used to host both cabinet meetings and meetings with foreign heads of government, is around 60 miles northwest of Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

\"AA lawyer representing the proposed golf course compared it to Britain’s Windsor Castle (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

\u200bThe heavily fortified retreat\u2019s official name is Naval Support Facility Thurmont and it is owned by the Department of Defense.<\/p>\n

A White House source with knowledge of the plan toldThe Washington Post the West Palm Beach site has the security features needed for a presidential retreat.<\/p>\n

\u200b\u201cThe property is minutes away from the Donald J. Trump International Airport, does not have buildings looming, does not have houses along the course, has great security features, is close to law enforcement, and happens to be a highly-rated golf course,\u201d the official said. \u201cThese are features necessary for any presidential retreat.\u201d<\/p>\n

A proposed ownership scheme is set out in Oyer\u2019s letter, in which Trump \u201cgrants\u201d to the county the \u201clegal right to the specified land necessary,\u201d according to The Palm Beach Post. After that, the county would \u201center into a lease agreement with the appropriate federal government agency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PresidentsPresidents have long used Camp David as a retreat, often hosting foreign leaders at the site. During his tenure as commander-in-chief, President George W. Bush hosted then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

\u200bJoseph Abruzzo, the Palm Beach County Administrator, told The Palm Beach Post the county wants to know more about the proposal but that it is under consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to working under the direction of our Board of County Commissioners as we explore this historic opportunity, and to working with President Trump and his team, our professional staff and the appropriate federal agencies on what it could mean for Palm Beach County,\u201d Abruzzo said in a statement to the outlet. <\/p>\n

\u200bTrump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago estate, which once belonged to Marjorie Merriweather Post, was willedto the National Park Service in the 1970s in the hope it would be used for state visits.<\/p>\n

But the property was later returned to her foundation due to the cost of maintaining and securing the property. \u200bTrump acquired the site in the 1980s, transforming it into his famous beach club.<\/p>\n

\u200bThe Independent has contacted Palm Beach County and the Trump Organization for comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_volume":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7464,2185,7463,2199,786,2186,787,2197,2184,7462,7461,2189,237,5570,938,153],"class_list":["post-12810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-7464","tag-color-image","tag-convoy","tag-donald-trump-us-president","tag-florida","tag-florida-us-state","tag-florida-golf","tag-gulf-coast-states","tag-horizontal","tag-mode-of-transport","tag-no-people","tag-photography","tag-politics","tag-politics-and-government","tag-trump-international-golf-club","tag-usa","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@fogolf\/117399929757738076","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}