President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he wants to transform one of his Florida golf courses into an official presidential retreat, a plan that would blend the machinery of the office with his private business empire and add to his efforts to leave a lasting physical mark on the presidency.
Speaking during an unrelated event in the Oval Office, Trump described the proposal as "sort of a Camp David," evoking the wooded Maryland compound that has served as a quiet escape for commanders in chief since Franklin D. Roosevelt's era, when it was known as Shangri-La. Trump said the retreat would give him and his successors a place to spend quiet weekends on the greens, and he argued that the property already possesses much of the security infrastructure required to host presidents and foreign leaders.
"It's a great idea, and it'll be used a lot," Trump said, crediting the United States Secret Service with suggesting the concept. "It seems that all presidents play golf," he added, framing the project as a practical answer to a hobby that has followed the modern presidency from Dwight Eisenhower onward.
The site in question is part of Trump's private golf course in West Palm Beach, a short drive from his Mar-a-Lago home in Fort Lauderdale's broader South Florida corridor. Trump, an avid golfer, rattled off the property's advantages: it sits close to an airport, and it enjoys some separation from residential neighborhoods and tall buildings, both of which he described as security risks for a presidential location.
According to the president, the plan has already been submitted to local officials, suggesting that zoning, permitting or land-use reviews could be the next hurdle before any construction begins. Trump did not offer a timeline, cost estimate or design details for the project during his remarks.
The proposal would commingle the presidency with Trump's business ventures well beyond his time in office, since a retreat built on a commercially operated club would remain part of a private enterprise owned by the Trump family. Any future president who used the facility would be doing so on property that continues to generate revenue for the family brand, an arrangement that raises questions about the boundaries between public office and private profit.
Those questions are not new. Trump's decision to spend frequent weekends at Mar-a-Lago during his presidency, and his continued ownership of the property, drew scrutiny from ethics watchdogs who argued that official business conducted at a private club effectively advertised the business. A permanent, government-supported retreat on the same grounds would deepen that intersection, potentially embedding it in the institutional habits of the presidency itself.
The project is also the latest example of Trump seeking ways to leave his imprint on the presidency in tangible, built form. He has previously pursued a series of construction ambitions in Washington, D.C., from a White House ballroom to work at the Kennedy Center and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, as well as gold-leaf restoration of the Arts of War statues and a proposed Triumphal Arch. In each case, the goal appears to be a physical legacy that outlasts a single term in office.
Supporters of the idea, as Trump presented it, would likely emphasize convenience and safety. A fully vetted retreat with existing security features could reduce the logistical burden of presidential travel, and South Florida's climate offers year-round golfing weather that the mountainous Camp David site cannot match. The proximity to an airport would also simplify movements for a president and any visiting heads of state.
Critics, however, may see a different dynamic: the extension of a sitting president's commercial holdings into the permanent infrastructure of the executive branch. Unlike Camp David, which sits on federal land within a national park, a retreat at Trump's West Palm Beach club would sit on ground the Trump Organization continues to own and operate, complicating questions about access, maintenance costs and the appearance of official endorsement.
There is also a detail the president left out of his description. The West Palm Beach golf course was the site of an unsuccessful attempt on his life in 2024, when a gunman was apprehended near the property. Trump did not mention that history while cataloging the site's advantages, even as the episode underscored both the security challenges and the intense public attention that accompanies the location.
Whether the retreat is ultimately built may depend as much on local approval as on presidential enthusiasm. With the plan already in front of local officials, the debate is likely to move from the Oval Office to a South Florida zoning desk, where the practical concerns of neighbors, county regulators and security planners will meet a president's ambition to reshape how future commanders in chief spend their weekends.
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