Staff at Mar-a-Lago are being inundated with angry callers venting their rage against Trump 

  • Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida has been getting a lot of angry calls
  • Opponents of Trump and his policies have been lighting up the switchboard
  • One caller said: 'At least one (employee) seemed to be enjoying the **** out of it.' 

By Mail Online Reporter

Published: 04:09 EST, 27 January 2017 | Updated: 04:47 EST, 27 January 2017

Employees at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida are getting inundated with calls from angry people venting their spleen at President Donald Trump, who has owned the members-only club since the 1980s.

Last week, two days before he was inaugurated, Trump officially designated the Mar-a-Lago as his Winter White House and the switchboard has been lit up ever since. 

Pagesix.com reported that callers appeared to be ringing the resort because the White House had recently deactivated a 'comments' phone line which had been in operation during the Obama administration.

The Trump Organization bought the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida (pictured) in 1985 after a protracted battle with the heirs of Marjorie Merriweather Post, who built it in the 1920s 

Angry callers from the length and breadth of the nation have reportedly been ringing the private club in Palm Beach and asking receptionists to 'pass a message to management'.

Most employees are remaining stoic but one caller told Pagesix.com: 'At least one seemed to be enjoying the **** out of it.'

The Mar-a-Lago recently increased its annual membership fee to $200,000 and, as the Winter White House, guests can be expecting to rub shoulders with the President in the next couple of months as he seeks to avoid the harshness of winter in Washington.

The club includes a main mansion with 100 rooms, including private quarters for the president and his family.

The fees were doubled after Trump was elected president and Obama's former ethics czar, Norm Eisen, called the move 'naked profiteering that is more like something out of the era of Louis XVI or a Netflix miniseries about a humid kleptocracy'.

Donald Trump and his wife Melania were at the Mar-a-Lago on New Year's Eve (pictured) for a party for members of the exclusive club 

Mar-a-Lago is a 20-acre resort which includes a beach club, pools, restaurant, tennis courts and a ballroom event space.

It was built in the 1920s by cereal heir Marjorie Merriweather Post, who died in 1973. 

She left the property to the federal government, hoping that it would become an outpost for diplomats. The government did not maintain it properly and, in 1980, decided it had no use for it.

In March last year Trump (pictured, centre) took questions from the press in the ballroom of the Mar-a-Lago on Super Tuesday as it became clear he was heading for the Republican nomination

The Mar-a-Lago was built in the 1920s but has been refurbished by Trump several times since he took it over in the 1980s

The deteriorating property reverted to Post's foundation, which could not find a buyer. It was the jewel of Palm Beach, but no-one wanted to assume the cost of maintaining the mansion—at least $3 million a year, including taxes.

Trump'#s first offer in 1982 - $9 million - was rejected, but three years later, the foundation reconsidered and suggested he could buy the property for $5 million. He accepted and threw in another $3 million for the furnishings.

Ten years after Trump purchased Mar-a-Lago, at the suggestion of his Florida lawyer Paul Rampell he turned the estate into a club that charged a non-refundable $120,000 to join, plus $12,000 a year in fees. 

Those fees have recently gone up. 

The roughly 450 members pay for dining and shows featuring such celebrities as Jay Leno and the singing sensation Jackie Evancho.

Based on sales of other Palm Beach property fronting on both sides of the 3.75-square-mile island, Mar-a-Lago is now estimated to be worth $300 million.

Donald Trump plants a kiss on the face of Miss Universe, Alicia Machado, at the Mar-a-Lago in 1997. Last year Trump was embroiled in a furious row about his treatment of Ms Machado during her time as Miss Universe, including accusations that he called her Miss Piggy when she put on weight

 

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