Mar-a-Lago helipad’s just a pad

Allowing helicopter commutes for President Donald Trump may not deliver the traffic relief once expected during his Palm Beach visits.

Roadblocks forTrump’smotorcade, driving to and from Palm Beach International Airport, create traffic tie-ups that reach from the coast to Interstate 95 — causing headaches for island drivers as well as mainland commuters.

Flying Trump over the Intracoastal Waterway was proposed as a way to ease traffic woes during his frequent visits, but the president has yet to put the newMar-aLago helipad to use.

While the president routinely uses a helicopter when visiting his NewJersey estate, that hasn’t been the case during his trips to Palm Beach. That isn’t expected to change when his Mar-a-Lago visits likely resume this fall, according to local officials.

The White House and Secret Service wouldn’t commentonwhyTrump is driven between the West Palm Beach airport and Mar-a-Lago instead of flying on Marine One— the large, green helicopter that shuttles the president to and fromAirForceOne when he travels to hisNew Jersey golf club.

The use of the helicopter that transports the president is “tasked by what the White House needs,” Marine Corps spokeswoman Sarah Burns said. “He’s the one who decides,” Burns said. The Town of Palm Beach in January agreed to allow helicopter landings atMara-Lago as a way to reduce the frequency of motorcades and the “local and regional traffic tie ups associated withmovementsof the President,” according to the measure the TownCouncil approved.

Now local officials say the Mar-a-Lago helipad is expected to be primarily used for emergencies and not as an alternative to the parade of limousines and security vehicles in the presidential motorcade.

“If they need to get him out of there in a big hurry, the best option may be the helicopter,” said Kirk Blouin, the town’s director of public safety.

In March, concrete helicopter landing pad, 50 feet in diameter, was built atMar-aLago, the private club that doubles as Trump’s Palm Beach residence.

The landing site is located on the estate’s western lawnalong a service road that links two club parking lots.

Mar-a-Lago paid for the construction, said Rick Gonzalez, the architect who oversaw the helipad project. He has worked for Trump on past renovations of the 1920s-era estate that Trump acquired in 1985.

Gonzalez wouldn’t say how much the helipad cost. The White House and the Trump Organization did not respond to questions about the cost and who paid.

Prior to the Mar-a-Lago helipad construction, emergency trips by the Trauma Hawk air ambulancewere the only helicopter landings allowed in the town of Palm Beach, Blouin said.

Despite concerns from some Palm Beachers about the noise that could come from Trump choppering onto the island, the Town Council agreed to make a presidential exception to allow a Mar-a-Lago landing spot.

A floating landing site on the beach side ofMar-a-Lago could have kept the noise of take-offs and landings farther from Trump’sneighbors. Butweather, waves and other factors made that too risky of an option, Gonzalez said.

The town’s approval limited use of the Mar-a-Lago helipad to flights for the president. It also enables the town to call for the helipad to be removed after Trump leaves office.

So far, the only known use of theMar-aLago helipad came when one of Trump’s private helicopters swooped in for a landing on April 9 during one of the president’s visits to Palm Beach.

The Secret Service saidTrumpwasn’t on that helicopter. The president is flown on Air Force One or Marine One for security reasons, according to the Secret Service.

Blouin said the town doesn’t monitor flights to and fromthe property and doesn’t knowwhy Trump’s private helicopter used the landing spot— or whetherMarine One will begin using it during future Trump visits.

The Marine Corps, which handles the president’s helicopter flights, wouldn’t comment on whether distance is a factor in whether to useMarineOneto transport the president, Burns said.

Mar-a-Lago is just five miles from the airport inWest Palm Beach, while Trump’s New Jersey estate is about 30 miles from the airport where Air Force One lands and takes off.

It’s a nearly 15-mile flight when Marine One takes off from the White House to transport the president to the air force base in Maryland where the president boards Air ForceOne.

Time and security are likely key factors in deciding whether to transport the president by helicopter instead of by motorcade, said Dan Sweet, spokesman for the Helicopters Association International.

For private VIP transportation, short trips by helicopter are not unusual, he said.

“That becomes a matter of economics,” Sweet said. “If someone is willing to pay for the flight, it will happen.”

If the president started commuting to Palm Beach by helicopter, flying to Mar-aLago wouldn’t avoid all of the traffic jams that occur during presidential visits.

The Secret Service closes Ocean Boulevard in front of Mar-a-Lago throughout Trump’s stay. That blocks a vital northsouth route in Palm Beach, forcing some drivers off the island— over one bridge into West Palm Beach and back across another — to get from one end of town to the other.

The Secret Service duringTrump’s visits has also blocked commercial vehicles from using the Southern Boulevard bridge, near Mar-a-Lago.

“Even if he traveled by helicopter, we are still going to have the impacts of the traffic,” Blouin said.

Information from The was used in this report. Associated Press

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