Trump's West Palm Beach Course Sits on County Land. Now There's a Plan to Make It Permanent.

An attorney representing Trump International Golf Club L.C. has asked Palm Beach County commissioners to designate Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach as a permanent “U.S. Presidential Golf Course,” available to past, current and future presidents and to visiting foreign heads of state. The Trump family owns the club. Palm Beach County owns the land underneath it and leases it out. County Administrator Joseph Abruzzo says the county is examining the idea, and no commissioner has voted on anything.

That last part about the land is where this story actually lives, and almost nobody covering it has followed the money. We'll get to what the county currently collects.

Golf Raw has not seen the letter to Palm Beach County. What follows comes from named reporting by the South Florida Sun Sentinel and local broadcasters, plus county lease and rent figures published in 2020 and 2021, with the year attached to each.

What was actually proposed, and by whom

Headlines say Trump proposed this. The documented fact is narrower.

A letter went to the county from Shutts & Bowen LLP, a law firm representing Trump International Golf Club L.C., according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. It surfaced on a Thursday. Attorney Harvey Oyer III, contacted by the Sun Sentinel the following day, acknowledged sending it.

No statement from President Donald Trump about this proposal has been published anywhere we could find. Some coverage has framed it as Trump offering to “gift” the course. Nothing in the reporting supports that word, and it matters, because you can't gift land you lease from somebody else.

What the letter reportedly asks for: the club and its amenities made available to all past, current and future U.S. presidents regardless of party, plus visiting foreign heads of state at the discretion of the White House, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Reports also describe dedicated presidential lodging.

The mechanism is the part worth reading twice. Oyer suggests an ownership model where the county would enter a lease agreement with a federal government agency, so the county could act as landlord over the property, according to the Sun Sentinel.

In his letter, Oyer wrote that “This proposal is rooted in President's Trump's deep affection for Palm Beach County, which is his home, the home of two of his children, many of his grandchildren…” That construction appears as printed in the Sun Sentinel's report.

What the county has actually said

Abruzzo's language has been warm and non-committal in the same breath.

He told the Sun Sentinel the proposal “has the potential to be a remarkable and historic opportunity for Palm Beach County,” and drew a comparison to something communities fight over. “Communities across America compete for the honor of hosting presidential libraries because of the history, prestige and economic impact that comes with becoming a permanent part of the American presidency,” Abruzzo said.

He also praised the offer itself, calling Trump's willingness to make what he described as a significant private investment “an extraordinary act of generosity and vision.”

His practical arguments are the club's position next to Palm Beach International Airport and its existing security infrastructure.

That second one has a local history. Palm Beach County sought .7 million in reimbursement for extra security costs from presidential visits back in 2017, according to Sun Sentinel reporting at the time, when aircraft within a 30-nautical-mile ring of Mar-a-Lago faced restrictions and Lantana Airport shut down during visits, affecting a facility employing close to 400 people. The security apparatus Abruzzo cites as an asset has been a running cost and a disruption for people who live and work there.

Hoodline, citing filings from the New York Attorney General's office, describes the club as a 27-hole facility with three nine-hole loops designed by Jim Fazio and a 45,000-square-foot clubhouse at 3505 Summit Blvd. The site's security was tested in September 2024, when federal authorities charged Ryan Wesley Routh with firearms offenses following an attempted assassination incident while Trump was golfing there.

Abruzzo says county administration will work under the direction of the Board of County Commissioners to examine the proposal. That's the whole of the county's formal position. No vote, no agenda item, no commissioner on the record.

Who actually owns this golf course

Here's the payoff. The split is unusual and it changes how you read every sentence above.

The Trump family owns the club. Palm Beach County owns the land and leases it to the Trump Organization. That's confirmed across every outlet covering the proposal.

The lease didn't come from a property deal. According to Golf Digest reporting cited by Hoodline, the Trump Organization obtained the long-term lease on the county-owned land in the late 1990s as part of a legal settlement with the county over airport flight-path noise near Mar-a-Lago. A noise lawsuit produced a golf course.

The term is long. The Associated Press reported in 2020 that Trump leased the land under a 99-year agreement, entered roughly two decades earlier.

And the rent is public. As of January 2021, the Trump Organization was paying Palm Beach County ,338 a month for the land, a figure the county confirmed to NBC News. That's more than .06 million a year. We could not find a more recent figure, so treat that as a 2021 number rather than a current one.

Now reread Abruzzo's line about generosity. The county isn't being offered land. It already owns the land, and it collects seven figures a year from the tenant.

The county already tried to get out of this lease

Five years ago, Palm Beach County went looking for an exit and couldn't find one.

In January 2021, chief assistant county attorney Howard Falcon told The Palm Beach Post he had been asked by a county commissioner whether the lease with Trump International Golf Club could be cancelled. His answer was blunt. “My initial reaction is it would be a stretch,” Falcon said. He put it more plainly to NBC News: “I don't think we can do it, frankly.”

A lawyer for the club, who was not identified, told the Post there was no basis for cancelling.

The relationship has been tested from the other direction too. In June 2020, the club asked the county to defer an unspecified amount of its monthly rent, citing pandemic-era closures during what its finance director called the busiest parts of the season, according to Associated Press reporting.

None of that appears in any current coverage of the presidential designation proposal. It's the most relevant context available: a landlord that couldn't terminate, a tenant that has asked for relief, and a 99-year clock.

Eight things nobody has answered

This is the honest state of the story as of 5 September 2026.

1. 1. No dollar figure has been published for the “significant private investment” Abruzzo referenced.
2. 2. No federal agency has been named as the proposed lessee, though the mechanism requires one.
3. 3. No county commissioner has commented publicly, and no vote or workshop has been scheduled.
4. 4. No comment has come from the White House, the Trump Organization or the Secret Service.
5. 5. The current rent is unknown. The ,338 monthly figure dates to January 2021.
6. 6. The lease expiry date has not been published. A 99-year term entered around two decades before 2020 implies a date late this century, but no source states it.
7. 7. No legal pathway has been explained for a county leasing to a federal agency over privately operated land, or whether state or federal approval is needed.
8. 8. Nobody has said whether the club stays private, keeps its members, or opens to anyone else.