For $200,000, a chance to whisper in Trump’s ear

Virtually overnight, Mara-Lago, President Donald Trump’s members-only Palm Beach, Fla., club, has been transformed into the part-time capital of U.S. government, a winter White House where Mr. Trump has entertained a foreign head of state, health care industry executives and other presidential guests.

But Mr. Trump’s gatherings at Mar-a-Lago — he arrived there Friday afternoon, his third weekend visit in a row — have also created an arena for potential political influence rarely seen in U.S. history: a kind of Washington steakhouse on steroids, where members and their guests enjoy a level of access that could elude even the best-connected of lobbyists. Members have to pay $200,000 for the privilege — and the few available spots are going fast.

Membership lists reviewed by The New York Times show that the club’s nearly 500 paying members include dozens of real estate developers, Wall Street financiers, energy executives and others whose businesses could be affected by Mr. Trump’s policies. At least three club members are under consideration for an ambassadorship. Most of the 500 have had memberships predating Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, and there are a limited number of memberships still available.

William Koch, who oversees a major mining and fuels company, belongs to Mara-Lago, as does billionaire trader Thomas Peterffy, who spent more than $8 million on political ads in 2012 warning of creeping socialism in the United States.

Another member is George Norcross, an insurance executive and the South Jersey Democratic Party boss, whose friendship with Mr. Trump dates to the president’s Atlantic City years, when Mr. Norcross held insurance contracts with Mr. Trump’s casinos, and Mr. Trump wrangled with the state’s Democratic leaders over tax treatment of the properties. Yet another member is Janet Weiner, part owner and chief financial officer of the Rockstar energy drink company, which has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying federal officials to avoid tighter regulations on its products.

Mr. Trump’s son Eric, in an interview Friday, rejected suggestions that his family was offering access to his father and profiting from it. First, he said, only 20 to 40 new members are admitted per year, and second, the wealthy business executives who frequent the club, among others, have many ways to communicate with the federal government if they want to.

Hope Hicks, a White House spokeswoman, said the president had no conflicts of interest, a reference to the fact that federal law exempts him from provisions prohibiting federal employees from taking actions that could benefit themselves financially.

“But regardless, he has not and will not be discussing policy with club members,” she said in a written statement.

Historically, of course, U.S. presidents have often been rich men with mansions, who sometimes conducted the people’s business in weekend haunts of the wealthy: the Bush compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, for example, or the Kennedy family home in Hyannisport, Mass.

But Mr. Trump’s weekend White House appears to be unprecedented in U.S. history, as it is the first one with customers paying a company owned by the president, several historians said. Additionally, the weekly gatherings at Mar-a-Lago have drawn some scrutiny from Democrats in the Senate.