For John Gotti it was the Ravenite Social Club. Al Capone favoured the Green Mill Cocktail lounge. The Krays had the Carpenters Arms. Now Trump has his paved over Rose Garden to host his cronies
Every good gangster has a hangout.
For John Gotti it was the Ravenite Social Club. Al Capone favoured the Green Mill Cocktail lounge. The Krays had the Carpenters Arms in London’s Bethnal Green.
Donald Trump used to love hanging out on the Terrace at his Mar A Lago club in South Beach, Florida. He would throw parties, invite people who wanted to kiss the ring, glad-hand and give rambling speeches to people on the patio. One relatively recent Mar A Lago Party saw one convicted rapist – Mike Tyson – one person accused of sexual assault – Russel Brand – and a Q Anon conspiracy theorist who was convicted of lying to the FBI – Mike Flynn.
In his second Presidency he’s apparently decided not to spend as much time in Florida as he did in his first. Instead, he’s brought his hangout with him to the White House – and it opened last night.
Meanwhile in Trump World:
- Trump is grifting the G20
- The House speaker went full Q-Anon
- It’s WAR
- Trump wants to take over the 9/11 memorial
- He ordered the forced removal of a decades long protest
- And he – again – demanded the release of a MAGA fan who helped a staffer for the MyPillow guy access election databases
Here’s a roundup of everything you need to know.
1. G20 to take place at Trump golf club
In case you weren’t clear about whether Donald Trump is on the grift, he announced last night that he would be hosting next year’s G20 summit…at his Doral golf club in Miami.
He claimed “everyone” wants it to take place there, because it’s “right next to the airport.”
2. The Rose Garden club
Trump’s vision for the newly paved over Rose Garden finally took shape last night – and it looked even more Mar A Lago than ever.
He hosted Republican cronies on the patio last night – the previous night’s planned bash with megabucks tech bros having been rained off.
Menus on the tables – identical to those on the terrace of his Florida resort – bore the name: “The Rose Garden Club – at the White House”, as if it were the breakfast room of a Lake District hotel.
Standing on the steps next to the patio, he held a microphone as he addressed about 100 people, mostly House Republicans along with some GOP senators, thanking them for their support of his legislation.
“We call it the Rose Garden Club. And it’s a club for senators, for congresspeople and for people in Washington, and frankly, people that can bring peace and success to our country,” Trump said.
Trump said he intended for the tech executives he dined with Thursday night, including Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, to be the first ones to enjoy the space.
That dinner was moved indoors due to rain. “I had the high-tech guys here, and they didn’t want to have rain on top of their beautiful heads,” Trump said.
3. Mike Johnson goes full QAnon about Trump and Epstein
Asked about Trump’s continued claim that the Epstein files are a “democrat hoax”, House Speaker Mike Johnson went full QAnon.
“He’s not saying that what Epstein did is a hoax,” he told reporters. “It’s a terrible, unspeakable evil. He’s said that himself. When he first heard the rumour he kicked him out of Mar A Lago.”
Now, that’s not strictly true. According to Trump he kicked Epstein out of Mar A Lago because he kept poaching his staff. By which I obviously mean allegedly sending Ghislaine Maxwell to groom the teenage spa workers at Trump’s spa to be sex trafficked to Epstein.
Then Johnson went further: “He was an FBI informant to try and take this…stuff down.”
Now, that’s not something that’s ever been claimed, other than by QAnon conspiracy theorists. Very weird thing to say.
4. It’s WAR
So Trump is following through on his idea of changing the name of the Department of Defence, which it has been since 1947, to the Department of War.
He’s been teasing this for more than a week, but that didn’t stop Fox News announcing it as an EXCLUSIVE, presumably handed to them by Secretary of WAR Pete Hegseth, a former weekend host on the “news” channel.
Hegseth gave a terrifyingly dark-Dr Seuss, word salad, fridge magnet poetry description of his vision for the department: “Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct. We’re gonna raise up warriors. Not just defenders.”
So they’re going to kill as many people as possible, whether it’s legal or not. Very cool. Not at all against international law.
5. 9/11 memorial takeover
Trump’s administration says it is “exploring” whether it can take control of the 9/11 memorial and museum in New York City.
Trump, who attended a 9/11 memorial event last year with Laura Boomer, a MAGA activist who has claimed the attack was an “inside job”, famously boasted within hours of the attack that the destruction of the twin towers meant his Trump Tower was now the tallest building in Manhattan.
The site features two memorial pools ringed by waterfalls and parapets with the names of the dead, and an underground museum.
Since opening to the public in 2014, the memorial plaza and museum have been run by a public charity, now chaired by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a frequent Trump critic.
The White House confirmed the administration has had “preliminary exploratory discussions” about the idea, but declined to elaborate.
But officials at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum say the federal government, under current laws, can’t unilaterally take over the site, which is located on land owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
6. Trump orders staff to “take down” 44 year protest
Brian Glenn, a “reporter” with conservative outlet Real America’s Voice who is in a relationship with MAGA darling Marjorie Taylor Greene, asked Trump about a standing protest in a blue tent outside the White House, branding it “an eyesore.”
Trump asked where there tent is and said he hadn’t heard of it but said, “Take it down. Today, right now.” He then said “We’re going to look into it right now.”
The tent, which has been up since 1981 calling for peace and world disarmament, was still standing Friday evening.
7. Trump still calling for election tamperer’s release
Tina Peters, a former election official, who last August was convicted of tampering with voting machines in the 2020 election, is serving nine years in prison.
Republican Peters, 68, helped breach the election computer systems in Mesa County, Colorado, and allowed a man affiliated with Mike Lindell, the pillow magnate, election denier and serial conspiracy theorist, to access them.
But despite her being tried by a grand jury, and convicted by a jury of her peers, Trump has repeatedly called for her to be released.
In response to a question in the Oval Office, Trump said she should be set free. “We’re going to do something,” he said, calling Peters a “real patriot.”
The comments came a day after a letter written by Peters was posted on her X account in which she urged Trump to help release her ahead of next year’s midterm elections to ensure its integrity.
One of her attorneys, Peter Ticktin, confirmed the letter had been written by her and posted by someone else.