This is one of the paradoxes of this election. Donald Trump has turned himself into a hero of working-class Americans, appealing to nativist sentiments and to those who have lost their jobs. But people like them will never see the inside of the place that The Donald calls home in Florida.
The New York Times has an article today describing the baronial mansion where Donald lives when he is not in his penthouse on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The article quotes the butler, who has worked in the house for many decades.
“You can always tell when the king is here,” Mr. Trump’s longtime butler here, Anthony Senecal, said of the master of the house and Republican presidential candidate.
The king was returning that day to his Versailles, a 118-room snowbird’s paradise that will become a winter White House if he is elected president. Mar-a-Lago is where Mr. Trump comes to escape, entertain and luxuriate in a Mediterranean-style manse, built 90 years ago by the cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post.
Few people here can anticipate Mr. Trump’s demands and desires better than Mr. Senecal, 74, who has worked at the property for nearly 60 years, and for Mr. Trump for nearly 30 of them.
He understands Mr. Trump’s sleeping patterns and how he likes his steak (“It would rock on the plate, it was so well done”), and how Mr. Trump insists — despite the hair salon on the premises — on doing his own hair.
Mr. Senecal knows how to stroke his ego and lift his spirits, like the time years ago he received an urgent warning from Mr. Trump’s soon-to-land plane that the mogul was in a sour mood. Mr. Senecal quickly hired a bugler to play “Hail to the Chief” as Mr. Trump stepped out of his limousine to enter Mar-a-Lago.
Mar-a-Lago seems to have prepared Trump well for the pomp and circumstance at the White House. Actually, the White House may seem small compared to Mar-a-Lago. Let’s hope he stays in Palm Beach.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I remember seeing a TV program about Trump’s private jet. It has gold plated faucets and is the top of luxury.
Like Hillary Clinton is any better? The Clintons paid $1.7 million for their Westchester home in 1999! The working class can’t afford that pittance either. Hypocrisy reigns supreme. TRUMP 2016!
A couple of things: 1.7 million dollars doesn’t buy you much in Westchester these days. And even if I take your point, did I miss a development in logic and philosophy? Do two wrongs make a right now? Does the Clintons’ (of whom I’m no particular fan, incidentally) home in Westchester somehow justify or excuse this monstrosity or its verbal-abuse belching inhabitant? I think not….
So Mark, the working class should identify with Clinton because $1.7 million doesn’t buy you much in Westchester? The hypocrisy is outrageous! Don’t be soft. Trump isn’t a bully or racist. He asks for security to remove trouble makers from his rallies–that’s not being a bully. That’s trying to prevent people from stopping him from participating in his right to free speech. He’s right on immigration…we need to curtail it until we can sort our mess out and make sure the country is safe. The illegal immigrants are straining our schools’ resources…just look at the Hempstead school district in New York. They had to absorb several thousand undocumented kids last year and they’re choking financially. That’s not fair to the kids who are here legally and whose parents pay taxes. Stop believing the picture that the media paints. They can’t stand him because he is an outsider who is not politically correct. Good for him. That political correctness is destroying the country, and the establishment is trying to destroy our schools with their Common Core nonsense and charter school love affair.
Should a Trump supporting working class white American come into a large sum of money, say from a lottery, what do you think the money, or a lot of it, would be spent on?
YES. Oh the irony of watching so many citizens who have been falling to lower and lower levels of poverty under conservative policy now look to a man whose only life goal appears to be ME, ME, ME.
Appalling…
@AndNYTeachersLOVES…$1.7m is awfully titchy. *My own* nothing house is worth that now — admittedly this is not 1999 — but I recall seeing their house depicted upon purchase. It’s in truth quite modest. Not that I think the Clintons are especially modest people, but real estate would not seem to be their mode of ostentation. You might wish to spend a little more time with zillow.
Perhaps, instead of looking at how Trump chooses to live in his own place – a palace, well built by an old school plutocrat – we should look at the quality of the buildings he attaches his own name to (though he now merely licenses his name and doesn’t build or have equity interest in them) and sells to a gullible public.
When Trump himself does the building, the results are both crass and shoddy, with over-the-top bad taste and, more importantly, poor materials and workmanship. And then, as John Oliver showed, there are the projects with his name that never get built, and for which he gets sued for fraud.
If Donnie is elected President, he’ll surely spend some time at Mar-a-Lago, but we will spend dreary years living amid ostentatious dreck that dishonestly boasts about its quality.
That’s class, baby!!
His taste is gaudy and ostentatious. If he’s the king, I say, “Off with his head!”
This guy is done. I’m a Sanders’ supporter, but Hillary will get my support if he drops out of the race. A Democrat in the White House should be our priority.
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I guess Trump wouldn’t be the first American plutocrat to conflate vulgarity and elegance–but ye gods, this place is hideous!
Just imagine what his WALL will look like!
I can empathize with Donald Trump, because I too have to live in, clean, maintain, and pay for my 120,000 square feet home here in NY State, with its army of vintage cars and catering staff of 75.
The tennis courts, the grass fed organic filet mignons, the jewelry collection from Harry Winston, the dinner parties with Anna Wintour and Jamie Dimon, the private Renoir collection discoloring my walls, the private jet landing adjacent to my property . . . It’s all SUCH a drag, but a public school teacher on my salary cannot afford more. With all my hard work, I should have something to show for it, no?
Diane, You are so experienced – how can you be so bought in?! The Times story was so clearly fed by the Trump campaign – do you think a Trump employee would speak on record without Trump’s approval? – why is the paper of record shilling for a demagogue?
The shilling is tipped off by the first quote: “You can always tell when the king is here” – Of course the butler knows that, it’s his job for goodness sake. And quoting an employee who refers to Trump as king, allows The Times to characterize Trump as king. This is repulsive – and The Times knows exactly what it’s doing: laying the groundwork for a connection with someone they think might become president.
By essentially reprinting the article without criticism, you tacitly endorse both a hateful candidate and participate The Times’ complicity with the Trump campaign.
Please, Diane, employ more discernment. Thank you.
JK,
That story about Trump’s pretensions was not flattering. He looked like a vulgar self-centered egotist.
Trump just won Florida and Illinois. Very exciting! Pretty soon all the political correctness is going to go away. It is just wonderful! It was such a flawed ideology. Very inspiring!
Now we just need to send Clinton home. I actually voted today, and feel great about it.
Yes, I too am so relieved that I can finally be open about my bigotry, and not have to worry about what the Blacks, the Women, the Muslims, Mexicans and all those other Losers think!
If Trum became Dictator in Chief, the White House would be a huge step DOWN for him. His need for shiny, gaudy Bling and blinding gold with Rococo dripping off each piece of furniture, all will give the world a confusing image of royalty – King Donald!
His ‘decorating’ may become the style of our Nation with HGTV & DIY teaching us how to get the ‘Look’ in our homes.
Excuse me while I gag!
He probably has decided to move the WH to Trump Towers or to Florida. He could not live in the WH unless it was gold plated, and then only every other weekend.
Please wake me from this nightmare.
Yikes. I didn’t expect the pro-Trump comments on this blog. May I, a resident of Palm Beach County (surrounded by Republicans) suggest that “Make America Great Again” is a euphemism for “Make America White Again.”
He himself is a private property named DrumphTruck. It’s worth 50 million dollars if auctioned.