The late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was a member of President Trump's Mar-a-Lago club despite the White House's denials. A new b...
The late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was a member of President Trump's Mar-a-Lago club despite the White House's denials.
A new book called The Grifter's Club: Trump, Mar-a-Lago and the Selling of the Presidency, opens the lid on Donald Trump's exclusive Palm Beach, Florida, resort where the authors claim those seeking access to the president are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on memberships to further their agenda.
The question of Epstein's membership has been an issue for Trump ever since the pedophile was arrested last year and charged with trafficking children for sex before his death.
Membership logs seen by the book's authors, who are investigative journalists from the Miami Herald, reveal Epstein's account at the golf club was closed in October 2007.
The reason was that another member complained that the pedophile had 'made an advance on her teenage daughter'.
The authors of a new book claim that Jeffrey Epstein was a member at Mar-a-Lago 'for a time', despite the White House's denials. Trump and Epstein are pictured at Mar-a-Lago in 1997
New book The Grifter's Club makes shocking claims about what goes on at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida
Epstein's alleged chief recruiter Ghislaine Maxwell is said to have picked up one of his victims when she was just 16 and working as a locker room attendant at Mar-a-Lago.
The Trump Organization has said that Epstein spent time at the club but was not a member.
The Grifter's Club disputes this and says that Epstein was a member 'for a time' before membership logs show his account to be closed in 2007.
Trump has admitted knowing Epstein and in a 2002 interview with New York magazine and called him a 'terrific guy'.
He said: 'He's a lot of fun to be with.
'It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it - Jeffrey enjoys his social life'.
Last year the president said they hadn't spoken to each other for 15 years after a falling-out which some reports said was over a real estate deal.
A video of Trump and Epstein partying together at Mar-a-Lago in 1992 resurfaced last year, just days after the president claimed he was never friends with the pedophile who was arrested for sex trafficking
Membership logs shows Epstein's account was closed in October 2007 because he reportedly made an advance on a member's daughter. Donald Trump is seen with then-girlfriend Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell pose together at Mar-a-Lago on February 12, 2000
Trump reportedly told a lounge singer to stay at his table at Mar-a-Lago even though a North Korean nuclear crisis had just erupted, telling the woman: 'It's just nukes. Sing us a song'.
The president told Dawn Basham to entertain him even though Pyongyang had launched a nuclear missile test in the direction of Japan.
The fact that Japan's Prime Minister was sitting next to Trump at his Palm Beach estate that night in 2017 didn't change his mind either.
Moments earlier Trump had told Basham to 'do a twirl' for him and Abe - and she obliged.
The extraordinary anecdote is just one of many featured in 'The Grifter's Club'. They reveal that security at the estate is so lax that Mike Tyson got in by simply walking along the beach from a friend's house next door.
The president told lounge singer Dawn Basham to entertain him even though Pyongyang had launched a nuclear missile test in the direction of Japan
Among the other revelations is that Trump once complained 'I don't want any n******' working on music for his Atlantic City casinos at some point in the 1990s.
'The Grifters Club' says that since Trump became President Mar-a-Lago has become a not-so-secret back door to achieving influence in his administration.
Authors Sarah Blaskey, Nicholas Nehamas and Jay Weaver and former Herald journalist Caitlin Ostroff say that the club is 'invitingly porous'.
Meanwhile the Secret Service is left 'tearing their hair out' because they are unable to stop intruders and pranksters getting in - by January 2020 there were 141 suspicious incidents.
Safety may be the number one priority at the White House but 'money is number one at Trump's Mar-a-Lago', the book says.
'Money is also numbers two and three', it adds.
'The Grifters Club' says: 'With dollar signs in his eyes, the President is all but holding the door open for would-be intruders'.
One senior federal law enforcement official said it was a 'mad, mad world' in Mar-a-Lago, not least for the bizarre collision of entertainment and politics that happens.
Nowhere was this more the case than Abe's February 2017 summit at Mar-a-Lago to discuss the threat of North Korea.
On the Saturday night there was a stately dinner with Trump and Abe dining at a long table with Robert Kraft, the New England Patriots owner and longtime Mar-a-Lago member.
Basham, who was one of Trump's favorite lounge singers, was the entertainment for the evening and the President was intent on 'showing off' to the Japanese President.
Trump asked his aides to bring Basham over and, as Abe listened, requested four songs and told her 'what a great job she was doing'.
The book says: 'Then the president asked Basham to twirl around for the men, according to someone who witnessed the exchange.
'Asking her to twirl for a foreign head of state probably wasn't the most embarrassing thing Trump had ever done to her either.
'A few years earlier Trump sang 'Happy Birthday' to Basham in front of a full house at the club. Before he began, Trump declared to the crowd that singing was something he wouldn't even do for his wife'.
Basham began to twirl but as she did so the news came through that North Korea had fired a test nuclear missile in the direction of Japan, a dramatic escalation of tensions in the region.
Singer Dawn Basham posted about the night at Mar-a-Lago to Facebook where she spoke about meeting Trump and the Japanese Prime Minister
Trump and Prime Minister Abe are pictured dining at Mar-a-Lago in February 2017 accompanies by Patriots owner Robert Kraft and the First Lady
The room immediately became tense, aides swooped in and even Basham realized things had changed.
She said: 'Mr President, I shouldn't know this'.
But Trump shrugged and said: 'It's just nukes. Sing us a song'.
The President's aides overruled him and whisked him away.
The Grifter's Club: Trump, Mar-a-Lago and the Selling of the Presidency is out now
In a Facebook post on February 10 2017, Basham recounted the episode herself
She wrote: 'Tonight the President invited us to go to his table and meet the Prime Minister of Japan. He told us what a great job we were doing. He asked for four special songs. Our secret service is awesome'.
Among the most high profile security breaches at Mar-a-Lago was Tyson, who turned up in March last year when the President was there.
The only problem was that Tyson wasn't invited and the first sign anyone had was when photos posted on social media showed him smiling with young women wearing bikinis.
'The Grifter's Club' reveals for the first time that Tyson was having lunch with his friend, real estate giant Geff Greene, at his mansion a few doors down when he asked to see the President's estate.
On a whim the two men walked down the beach together and onto the pool deck - with nobody stopping them.
Once inside Tyson was mobbed by fans including a Ukranian American luxury car salesman who posted a photo on Instagram.
Ironically at the time there was another intruder at Mar-a-Lago at the same time who would raise even deeper security concerns.
The authors reveal that security at the estate is so lax that Mike Tyson got in by simply walking along the beach from a friend's house next door
There have been several security breaches at the club, but the most high profile security breaches at Mar-a-Lago was Tyson, who turned up in March last year when the President was there. By January 2020 there were 141 suspicious incidents at the club
Yujing Zhang, a 33-year old financial consultant from Shanghai, was later convicted of trespassing amid reports that she could have been working for the Chinese government.
Zhang was connected to Li Weitian, a Chinese businessman who had links to Cindy Yang, a China-born entrepreneur who worked her way into the inner circle of Mar-a-Lago and set up an agency offering access to the President.
She also ran a network of spas which allegedly provided sexual services to their clients, including Robert Kraft, who was charged with solicitation of prostitution for one of his visits to the women.
Photos posted to Facebook page show her posing with the President, his son Eric and numerous Republican figures.
Yang's company - GY US Investments LLC - called itself a consulting firm that could give people the 'opportunity to interact with the president'.
Yang was just one of a 'cornucopia' of fringe characters who, in normal times, would get nowhere near the President.
But all the rules went out the window at Mar-a-Lago where selling your influence was a 'recreational sport', the book says.
It details the efforts of longtime Mar-a-Lago member Guido Lombardi to get Mongolia to host the first summit with North Korea.
He arranged for a high level Mongolian delegation to meet with the President at Mar-a-Lago.
His efforts appeared to be bearing fruit as former national security adviser John Bolton was later dispatched to its capital Ulaanbaatar to talk about it.
Trump upended the plans by deciding to have the summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the Demilitarized Zone on the border with South Korea, but Lombardi got the access he wanted.
One of the intruders at Mar-a-Lago was connected to Li Weitian, a Chinese businessman who had links to Cindy Yang (pictured with Trump) a China-born entrepreneur who worked her way into the inner circle of Mar-a-Lago and set up an agency offering access to the President
Lu Jing (left ) was initially turned away from Mar-a-Lago in December 2019, but entered through a service entrance and began taking pictures of the property. Yujing Zhang, (right) a 33-year old financial consultant from Shanghai, was later convicted of trespassing at the club amid reports that she could have been working for the Chinese government
Mar-a-Lago wasn't always like this and its previous owner would have been horrified at what Trump did with the place.
He bought it for $10million in 1985 from socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post, who was an heiress to the General Foods cereal company which was later bought by Kraft.
The staid members of Palm Beach society were horrified when Trump began to welcome new money billionaires like him.
Yet part of them was intrigued as instead of boring charity events with the same people each year Trump held raucous frat-like parties with Playboy models.
During the 1990s when Trump's casinos in New Jersey collapsed he decided to turn Mar-a-Lago into a members club with a $50,000 fee to sign up.
He would appeal to what polite society called the 'un-clubbables' - those without social standing - so long as they could pay.
'The Grifter's Club' says: 'Trump's inclusivity did not arise from any particular sense of tolerance but because money, which he equated with prestige, meant more to him than almost any ideology'.
Indeed, several years earlier Trump had walked into a recording studio in New York where he found several black musicians recording music for one of his casinos.
Trump said loudly to composer Fred Weinberg, who was one of the only white people in the room: 'I don't want any n****** on my project'.
When Trump asked about Weinberg's accent he said his parents survived the Holocaust, fled to Colombia where he was born and then the United State.
Trump's response was: 'Oh, so you're a Jew, spic, aren't you'.
During the April 2017 visit to Mar-a-Lago by President Xi of China, the Trump Organization charged $546 per room for each of the 24 US government officials staying there
Trump's critics have repeatedly accused him of using Mar-a-Lago to enrich himself at the expense of the taxypayer.
Since he became President the membership fee for the club has gone up from $100,000 to $200,000 but recently jumped to $250,000 or whatever the person is willing to pay.
Trump is known for 'cutting deals for his friends and gouging the desperate and the unpalatable', the book says.
During the April 2017 visit to Mar-a-Lago by President Xi of China, the Trump Organization charged $546 per room for each of the 24 US government officials staying there.
That works out as $30,000 on its own, all charged to the taxpayer.
Mar-a-Lago charged the government $4,000 for the use of the main ballroom, the main dining room and the Teahouse over Xi's five day visit.
The Secret Service spent more than $471,000 at Trump properties while carrying out its official functions between January 2017 and April 2018.
Mar-a-Lago was one of the top recipients of the money where the club charged up to $650 a room per night.
The next year the club made the Secret Service an honorary member so it got the discounted rate of $396.15.
If Mar-a-Lago is nothing but a Grifters Club as the book claims, it seems that the President is the number one grifter of them all.
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