Thousands of President Trump’s supporters are planning to line the streets from Palm Beach International Airport to Mar-a-Lago to cheer on his final presidential motorcade and welcome him to a new life.
Air Force One is expected to land in Florida shortly before Joe Biden is sworn in as his successor on Wednesday.
Preparations are underway to prepare Mar-a-Lago for his arrival. On Monday, a moving van was spotted at the president’s Palm Beach club, which will become his home and political headquarters.
Residents have signaled mixed feelings about their new permanent neighbor. Insiders said the fallout of the attack on the Capitol and the role of the president’s rhetoric on a day of violence was a controversy too far for some locals tired of the never-ending series of scandals.
But loyal Trump voters are planning to mark the end of his presidency with a noisy show of support.
“This could be President Trump’s last hurrah, his last motorcade down Southern Boulevard,” said Willy Guardiola, who has coordinated rallies along the route for the past four years.
The retired college basketball referee said he expected more than 1,000 people to gather at a series of key locations along the street before the bridge on to Palm Beach island, where Mar-a-Lago is located. The aim, he added, was to send a clear message to Trump.
“We all know that he was ripped off. The entire election was a fraud,” he said. “And we want him to know that we will always be here for him and to give him motivation for working on another plan.”
Source inside Mar-a-Lago confirms these trucks spotted at the club are moving trucks and contain Trump’s belongings from the White House.
Trump is expected to arrive Wednesday and live at the club. @CBS12 pic.twitter.com/ZjBOuzGSsv
— Jay O’Brien (@jayobtv) January 18, 2021
Club 45, a group of local Trump loyalists, has sent around emails urging supporters to show the president “the largest welcome home greeting ever.”
Yet, the events of Jan. 6 have already begun to complicate Trump’s relationship with his wealthy neighbors. The brash New Yorker was accepted slowly by the old-money families with villas on the island when he arrived in the 1980s, and a string of legal battles with local authorities exasperated residents of billionaires’ row, whose only demand was for a quiet life.
They gradually got used to the publicity when world leaders traveled to Trump’s “winter White House,” but things have soured again among the Italianate villas and genteel coffee shops on the island.
Billionaire Trump backer Nelson Peltz told CNBC: “I voted for him in this past election. Today, I’m sorry I did that.”
He described the assault on the Capitol as a “disgrace.”
A Trump ally who was quietly lobbying for Trump’s presidential library to be located on the island said the idea was dead. “At least for now,” he added.
The fallout has reportedly led some families to decide against renewing their $16,000-per-year Mar-a-Lago membership.
“I know of two families who plan to drop their memberships,” a source told the Palm Beach Post. “Some people think he’s a traitor, a disaster for democracy.”
The result is a community as divided as the rest of America.
Supporters such as Bob Bennett, whose wife Cathy helped Trump buy Mar-a-Lago, said he hoped even opponents might be able to see the benefits of having a president in town.
“The people who don’t like him may respect the fact that he brought a lot to the town in terms of visibility, in terms of help for the local merchants and the inclusion of world leaders in our community,” he said.
