Mar-a-Lago By Linda Stowe
Donald Trump has made Mar-a-Lago just about as infamous as the Tower of London, but he wasn’t the first resident of the sprawling estate. That was socialite and cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, who had the place built in 1927.
Translated from Spanish, the name Mar-a-Lago means “sea to lake,” reflecting the fact that the estate extends from one end of Palm Beach Island to the other, touching the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Lake Worth Lagoon on the west. Post used the estate, which sits on 17 acres and has more than 125 rooms as her winter residence. When she died in 1973, she bequeathed the large property to the National Park Service.
The US Government maintained the property for a while but when the costs of maintaining it became too costly, Congress formally returned the property to the Post family in 1980.
The family put the property up for sale for $20 million. Donald Trump initially offered the Post family $15 million, which was rejected. Trump then purchased land between Mar-a-Lago and the ocean for $2 million, stating he intended to build a home that would block Mar-a-Lago’s beach view. This threat caused competing interest in Mar-a-Lago to decline, and Trump was able to purchase the property in 1985 for $7 million. He converted the estate to a members-only resort in 1994.
One of the features of the famous residence was a family crest that had been affixed to one of the fireplaces by American diplomat Joseph Edward Davies, who had been married to Marjorie Merriweather Post 1935-55. His family crest remained on the fireplace after the marriage ended and it was still there when Trump took ownership thirty years later.
In 2017 the crest made news when then-president Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, was marketing golf properties and related products with a coat of arms that belonged to Davies. Trump used the emblem with one tweak: where the original featured “integritas,” the Latin word for integrity, the president’s version substituted the name “Trump.”
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I thought this was incredibly interesting. I had no idea.
Isn’t it fitting that the coat of arms has the word “integrity” removed? Now, if that isn’t telling, I don’t know what is.
Integrity.
Integrity is the quality of being honest, trustworthy, and consistent in your values and actions. This happens even when no one is watching and even when it’s inconvenient.
It means doing the right thing not for praise or reward, but because it aligns with who you are and what you believe is morally right.
Integrity is the opposite of Trump.
