Do as I say, not as I do: Don foreign labor plea

Fix it, don’t repeal it

AMERICA FIRST — except at Mar-a-Lago.

President Trump’s private Palm Beach club, along with one of his Florida golf courses, requested 76 visas to hire foreign nationals — in the middle of his administration’s “Made in America Week.”

The filings came after federal officials approved an additional 15,000 of the temporary, seasonal H-2B work visas for the upcoming budget year.

Seventy of the requested visas were for Mar-a-Lago, where the Trump property wants to hire 35 waiters, 20 cooks and 15 maids.

There was an additional request for a half-dozen cooks to work at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla. If approved, the workers at both spots would fill the jobs between this October and May 2018.

The unemployment rate in Florida last month was 4.1%. Under the Trump property requests, the workers would earn anywhere from $10.33 to $20.01 an hour.

Mar-a-Lago has doubled as a substitute White House, with Trump spending 25 days at the private club since his inauguration. He’s also visited the Jupiter golf course once.

Federal officials insisted the President’s properties will get no breaks in awarding the visas. And both Mar-a-Lago and the golf club must first try to recruit U.S. workers before getting the OK to hire foreign employees.

The decision announced by the Homeland Security Department seemingly runs counter to the President’s oft-stated call for businesses to find local hires.

“Buy American and hire American” became the Trump mantra during his successful run for the White House. The President even invoked the line in his inaugural address.

But Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, in announcing the additional visas, said, “There are not enough qualified and willing U.S. workers available to perform temporary . . . labor to satisfy the needs of some American businesses.”