A tux, a ticket and patience
Getting into Mar-A-Lago when Trump is in town.
It took a $550 ticket and a lot of patience to get into the American Cancer Society fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago — aka the winter White House — last Friday night.
The three-hour event, dubbed Rock Palm Beach, was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. — about two hours after President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived in Palm Beach with their wives. However, it was 10 p.m. before Secret Service had cleared all the party-goers.
“We waited an hour and a half,” said Christina Sagman, a Palm Beacher who had not been to Mar-a-Lago before but did catch a glimpse of President Trump dining in the restaurant. “Hopefully, they will have it better planned out.”
Of the three bridges to the island, the Southern Boulevard bridge provided the only access to the estate on Friday night. South Ocean Boulevard was closed to traffiffic about a half mile north of Mar-a-Lago. By 8 p.m., traffiffic on the Southern Boulevard bridge was already backed up to the drawbridge, about a half mile from Mar-a-Lago.
A group of Trump supporters stood on the south side of the road with signs. Drivers paid no attention. No one honked or shouted support. Television trucks sat idle.
Slowly the cars inched forward toward a tent set up by the Secret Service across the street from Mar- a- Lago. There, drivers were required to provide identifification. If their names were on the guest list, they drove forward to another tent. Inside that tent drivers were asked to pop their trunks and open the hoods of their vehicles.
While agents searched the trunk and engine, another agent circled the car with a bomb-detection K-9. Still another checked the undercarriage with a lighted mirror on a pole. Only then were drivers allowed to drive through the gates of the walled compound.
Although guests of the event were admitted through the stunning main entrance, with exquisitely tiled walls and gilded mirrors, they were quickly whisked offff to the ballroom in a separate building — away from members in the restaurant who had paid $100,000 to join the club.
Secret Service agents with telltale earphones and dark blazers were scattered throughout the buildings and estate. Four large black SUVs with dark tinted windows and Washington, D.C., license plates were parked diagonally, facing a nearby exit.
The 350-plus guests who paid $550 for a ticket grazed on a smorgasbord that included macaroni and cheese, flflatbreads, risotto, spare ribs and desserts at two buffffffffffffet tables. The musical guest was former Foreigner lead singer Lou Gramm.
A “secret guest” was promised but as the evening wore on and the dance flfloor emptied, partygoers realized the president would
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