Mar-A-Lago

Where Trump Learned to Rule

To know Donald J. Trump it is best to start in his natural habitat: Palm Beach, Florida. It is here he learned the techniques that took him all the way to the White House. Painstakingly, over decades, he has created a world in this exclusive tropical enclave and favorite haunt of billionaires where he is not just president but a king. The vehicle for his triumph is Mar-A-Lago, one of the greatest mansions ever built in the United States. The inside story of how he became King of Palm Beach-and how Palm Beach continues to be his spiritual home even as president-is rollicking, troubling, and told with unrivaled access and understanding by Laurence Leamer.

In Mar-A-Lago, the reader will learn:

* How Donald Trump bought a property now valued by some at as much as $500,000,000 for less than three thousand dollars of his own money.

* Why Trump was blackballed by the WASP grandees of the island and how he got his revenge.

* How Trump joined forces with the National Enquirer, which was headquartered nearby, and engineered his own divorce.

* How by turning Mar-A-Lago into a private club, Trump was the unlikely man to integrate Palm Beach''s restricted country club scene, and what his real motives were.

* What transpires behind the gates of today''s Mar-A-Lago during "the season," when President Trump and assorted D.C. power players fly down each weekend.

In addition to copious interviews and reporting from inside Mar-A-Lago, Laurence Leamer brings an acute and unparalleled understanding of the society of Palm Beach, where he has lived for twenty-five years. He has written an essential book for understanding Donald Trump''s inner character.