WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. \u2014 Last weekend, President Donald Trump greeted guests at a children\u2019s charity gala inside his private Mar-a-Lago club. \u201cHave a good time, everybody,\u201d Trump told the crowd, clad in gowns and tuxedos. \u201cWe gotta go work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, beyond heavy, gold-plated doors and layers of security at the same estate, he watched \u201cOperation Epic Fury\u201d unfold from a separate space converted to a makeshift \u201csituation room.\u201d From there, the president, alongside his top aides and national security officials, observed B-2 bombers striking Iranian military targets and Israeli forces targeting senior Iranian leadership, ultimately killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The White House released photographs of the heavily curtained space, complete with rows of classified phone lines and monitors.<\/p>\n
Then, early Saturday morning, Trump announced a \u201cmassive and ongoing\u201d U.S. military operation in Iran from Mar-a-Lago\u2019s presidential press room.<\/p>\n By the night\u2019s end, Trump moved from war planning to a Republican fundraiser all without leaving the sprawling Palm Beach compound.<\/p>\n The Iran operation marks the sixth major military action Trump has directed from Mar-a-Lago during his second term, underscoring the resort\u2019s evolution from social playground to presidential command center.<\/p>\n While previous presidents have reserved such moments for the White House\u2019s Situation Room \u2014 which recently underwent a $50 million renovation<\/a> \u2014 and Camp David, a country retreat 60 miles from D.C., Trump has repeatedly shown preference for his private club and primary residence, which he purchased from General Foods heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1985.<\/p>\n Instead of Trump, it was Vice President JD Vance in the White House Situation Room during the overnight Iran operation. Seated beneath a \u201cVice President of the United States\u201d seal, Vance was pictured alongside Cabinet members Tulsi Gabbard and Scott Bessent.<\/p>\n Trump has spent the first seven of nine weekends this year at his so-called Winter White House. In January, while at his golf course in West Palm Beach, the president announced a new tariff on European countries opposing U.S. control of Greenland.<\/p>\n The weekend before, Trump watched from Mar-a-Lago as service members launched another round of strikes on targets in Syria belonging to the Islamic State. Earlier that same day, Trump attended a routine dentist appointment in the area.<\/p>\n On Jan. 3, a Saturday, Trump capped off a busy two-week holiday vacation at his Florida home by announcing an unprecedented operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. It was the first time the White House revealed photos of the president\u2019s Palm Beach situation room, as he and top Cabinet officials watched the attack unfold.<\/p>\n That day, Trump welcomed reporters for a last-minute news conference where members of his administration detailed the undertaking. The president monitored Maduro\u2019s transfer to a New York City prison in between rounds of golf and shopping for marble and onyx for his new White House ballroom.<\/p>\n The trend harkens back to Trump\u2019s first term. Just after hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping over a lavish steak dinner at Mar-a-Lago in 2017, Trump, still at the compound, oversaw strikes in Syria in response to the government\u2019s use of chemical weapons. He drew criticism that same year after sitting with then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe out in the open among club diners as they discussed their response to a North Korean missile launch.<\/p>\n And during the tail end of his holiday vacation in 2020, Trump was at Mar-a-Lago when he gave the final order to launch drone strikes that killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. He briefly addressed the nation from the same draped room in Mar-a-Lago, but gave more extensive remarks flanked by top military officials at the White House days later.<\/p>\n Trump is spending even more time at Mar-a-Lago this term. He has made 21 visits to the estate so far in his second term, seven more trips compared to the same point in his first term, NBC News research shows.<\/p>\n Democrats in Congress<\/a> have previously raised security concerns about Trump\u2019s use of Mar-a-Lago for sensitive work and meetings with foreign leaders, and ProPublica reported in May 2017 that its Wi-Fi networks<\/a> were vulnerable. In 2019, a Chinese woman was arrested after attempting to enter the club with a thumb drive containing malicious software<\/a>.<\/p>\n Security at Mar-a-Lago is managed by the U.S. Secret Service in coordination with local partners, a White House official told NBC News. \u201cThe U.S.S.S. and military partners ensure that the President can direct operations through a sophisticated and fully secure array of communication systems from anywhere in the world,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n Outside of security concerns, some are critical of the president\u2019s unconventional use of his Palm Beach mansion.<\/p>\n \u201cThe president should be at the White House during any anticipated crisis, unless so doing might be irregular and provide a tipoff that something was about to happen,\u201d said John Bolton, who was White House national security adviser for part of Trump\u2019s first term. \u201cAs Jack Kennedy put it, \u2018That is where the seat of government is.\u2019 It\u2019s just better to have critical meetings in person. In this case, the B-team was clearly in the Sit Room,\u201d he added, referring to Vance.<\/p>\n Trump is \u201cking\u201d in Palm Beach, said another former Trump White House official from his first term. \u201cHe goes down there and has dinner and they all tell him what a great job he\u2019s doing and give him all sorts of advice on what he should do,\u201d the official added.<\/p>\n \u201cHe should not be down there. He should be at the White House. That\u2019s his war room, if you will,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told NBC News: \u201cThe United States is fully equipped with the most powerful and capable operational abilities that allows President Trump to securely communicate and conduct official business from anywhere in the world at any time, no different than he has at the White House. Only the uneducated and uninitiated fail to understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n The president\u2019s affinity for sunny Palm Beach during the chilly months in Washington has established southern Florida as a key region for official White House business, GOP politicking and MAGA\u2019s social scene. Over one February weekend, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and Alex Bruesewitz, a top Trump ally, both held separate wedding festivities at the club with Cabinet officials and key advisers in attendance.<\/p>\n Not only are White House staffers and conservative operatives hanging around the 20-acre estate, where initial memberships cost $1 million, but foreign dignitaries are as well. The president has hosted four world leaders at his private club since December. Over his Christmas vacation, Trump held back-to-back meetings here with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukraine\u2019s Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In January, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico said<\/a> meeting with Trump at \u201chis private residence gave the meeting a strong sense of informality and openness,\u201d calling the format \u201ca sign of great respect and trust.\u201d<\/p>\n A White House official said Trump \u201cregularly meets with foreign leaders all around the world, his meetings are not subject to only being conducted at the White House \u2014 just like every other president has done in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump\u2019s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, both Florida residents who also serve as the president\u2019s unofficial diplomats, have mediated peace talks in the Sunshine State, most recently hosting Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev in nearby Miami as part of ongoing efforts to resolve the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n On Monday, Palm Beach officials announced the indefinite closure of roads around Mar-a-Lago amid rising tensions over the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran. In a statement to NBC News, Palm Beach Police Department spokesman Sgt. Michael Ogrodnick described the move as a \u201cprecautionary measure\u201d in order to \u201ckeep our community and the president safe.\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., defended Trump\u2019s use of his unofficial situation room in Mar-a-Lago. \u201cOur intelligence people know how to set up a room anywhere in the world that is secure,\u201d he said. \u201cIf that\u2019s all some people have to complain about, then count their blessings.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s use of an alternative situation room is unique. Other times, urgent matters have sent presidents racing back to the White House. President Joe Biden cut a two-week vacation short, returning from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, to address the rapidly deteriorating withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2021. Despite mostly scrapping his planned vacation<\/a>, Biden still faced intense scrutiny for appearing to vacation during the crisis.<\/p>\n The growing list of highly sensitive operations green-lit from Mar-a-Lago all but guarantees the private club will go down in U.S. history as more than just a glitzy, top-dollar Palm Beach oasis, but the site of high-stakes presidential decision-making.<\/p>\n The president\u2019s influence on Palm Beach was cemented earlier this year with the renaming of a 4-mile stretch of Southern Boulevard that leads from Palm Beach International Airport to Mar-a-Lago.<\/p>\n Now, club members and presidential personnel alike arrive at the resort on \u201cPresident Donald J. Trump Boulevard.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_focal-760x428,f_auto,q_auto:best\/mpx\/2704722219\/2026_03\/1772323799676_nn_gha_iran_whitehouse_022826_1920x1080-yafige.jpg\")
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