President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he wants to turn one of his Florida golf courses into an official presidential retreat, a plan that would create a new weekend destination for future commanders in chief while further intertwining the office of the presidency with his private business empire.
Speaking at an unrelated event in the Oval Office, Trump described the project as being "sort of a Camp David," the secluded Maryland compound that has served presidents since the Eisenhower administration as a place for rest, informal diplomacy and strategic planning. Unlike Camp David, which sits on federal land inside a military installation, Trump's proposed retreat would be built on property he personally owns in West Palm Beach.
The president said he envisions the site as a place where his successors could spend quiet weekends on the greens, and he argued that the property already possesses many of the security characteristics required to host presidents and visiting world leaders. "It's a great idea, and it'll be used a lot," Trump said, adding that the concept had been suggested to him by the United States Secret Service. He also offered a simple rationale for the location: "It seems that all presidents play golf."
Trump, an avid golfer who has spent a significant portion of his presidency on his own courses, rattled off a list of the property's practical advantages during his Oval Office remarks. The site is a short drive from Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence, is located near an airport, and sits at a distance from nearby residential neighborhoods and tall buildings — features he said reduce the security risks that come with moving a sitting president through populated areas.
According to the president, the plan has already been submitted to local officials for consideration, suggesting the proposal is further along than a passing remark. Details about the funding, timeline and scope of the project were not disclosed, and it remains unclear what role, if any, Trump or his business interests would play in the retreat once it became operational.
The proposal would effectively commingle the presidency with Trump's business ventures well beyond his time in office. Because a retreat on his private land would require ongoing government spending, security infrastructure and official use for decades, critics are likely to argue that the arrangement could enrich the Trump organization and cement a financial relationship between the federal government and a family business long after the 45th and 47th president has left the White House.
Ethics experts have repeatedly warned that presidents profiting from official action — a concern at the center of lawsuits and congressional scrutiny during Trump's earlier terms — become more acute when the arrangement outlasts the president himself. A permanent, taxpayer-supported presence on personally owned land would give future administrations a standing obligation to a private property holder, a dynamic with no real parallel in the modern presidency.
Supporters, meanwhile, are likely to frame the retreat as a sensible use of existing infrastructure, arguing that the site's proximity to Mar-a-Lago, an airport and open space would simplify the logistical burden that accompanies presidential travel. Trump himself leaned in that direction, presenting the plan as a practical improvement rather than a personal perk.
The proposal is the latest example of Trump seeking ways to leave his physical imprint on the presidency, following his publicized construction ambitions in Washington, D.C. Those have included a new White House ballroom and projects touching the Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and the freshly gold-leafed Arts of War statues, as well as a proposed Triumphal Arch — efforts that have often been characterized as bulldozing long-standing norms.
One detail went unmentioned during Trump's remarks on Wednesday. The West Palm Beach golf club he identified as the future retreat's home was also the site of an unsuccessful attempt on his life in 2024, when a gunman was apprehended near the course. The omission underscored how quickly the property has shifted in the public mind from the scene of a security failure to the centerpiece of a proposed presidential legacy project.
For now, the plan faces the ordinary gatekeepers of local land use, but the broader questions it raises — about presidential ethics, the boundaries between public office and private profit, and how future occupants of the Oval Office should spend their weekends — are unlikely to be settled by a zoning board. Whether Trump's vision becomes a fixture of the presidency or a footnote to it will depend on those decisions, and on whether his successors want their quiet weekends on a golf course that bears his name.
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