'Nobody tells Donald Trump where he can and cannot go' at Mar-a-Lago — or what interviews he can do

President Trump on the phone at the Mar-a-Lago

(Image credit: Nicholas Kamm/Getty Images)

published 30 December 2017

When President Trump gave an interview to The New York Times on Thursday, no one on his staff knew it was happening. That's because the president is at the "Winter White House," his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where The Washington Post reports aides cannot maintain the structured schedule and information flow they have created for Trump in Washington.

"Nobody tells Donald Trump where he can and cannot go" at Mar-a-Lago, former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone told the Post. "The president is able to get a lot of information that is normally blocked from getting to him," Stone continued. "You don't have the minders. There is no doubt that he makes more calls."

He interacts more freely with members of the public, too — well, members of the public who are also members of the Mar-a-Lago:

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"At Mar-a-Lago, anyone who can get within eyesight changes the game," said a former White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss a sensitive subject, and referring to club members and guests who sometimes try the influence the president on policy, share an opinion on his administration or simply say hello. "Everyone who is angling for something knows to be there." [The Washington Post]

Read the Post's full report on Trump's Florida freedom here.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.