Recent distinguished visitors include Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, Hungary’s Victor Orban and Mark Rutter the Secretary General of Nato.
Tech giants Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos have been there, too, paying homage to the new president among the marble halls and chandeliers. The world’s richest man, Elon Musk is a regular.
So, it’s fair to say that an invitation to Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Palm Beach mansion, is the hottest ticket not just in town, but perhaps on the planet.
Few ever penetrate beyond the vast security detail that now surrounds the sprawling Florida estate and fewer still have actually seen inside Trump’s private quarters.
Which is why the rest of us could do worse than tune in to a long-forgotten daytime television show for a rare and surprisingly intimate glimpse.
Hosted by the late British presenter David Frost and American broadcaster Lloyd Grossman, Through The Keyhole was famous for teasing viewers with footage of celebrity homes before asking ‘who lives in a house like this?’
In a 1999 episode, the celebrity in question was Donald Trump, then famous as a real-estate mogul.
The result is a tour of Mar-a-Lago with highlights that go far beyond the brief, flag-filled glimpses on television news.
An invitation to Mar-a-Lago (pictured), Donald Trump’s Palm Beach mansion, is the hottest ticket not just in town, but perhaps on the planet.
In a 1999 episode, the celebrity in question was Donald Trump, then famous as a real-estate mogul. (Pictured: Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2025).
The result is a tour of Mar-a-Lago with highlights that go far beyond the brief, flag-filled glimpses on television news. (Pictured: A miniature four-poster in a surprise fairytale-themed bedroom at Mar-a-Lago).
Instead, Through The Keyhole treats us to lashings of extravagant, sometimes gaudy decoration, bizarre animal carvings and grandeur. There’s even a fairytale-themed bedroom.
Bought by Trump for an estimated $10million in 1985, Mar-a-Lago was first built in the 1920s by cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post at at cost equivalent to some $120 million today.
In 1973, Merriweather Post, who went on to become the richest woman in America, donated the property to the US government, asking that it be used a Winter White House.
But the US government returned Mar-a-Lago to the Post Foundation in 1981, citing its high annual maintenance cost of $1 million.
Then, in 1985 and with the property market in a slump, Trump snapped it up for the bargain price of $5 million, paying an additional $3 million for Post’s antiques and furniture.
Mainly Spanish, or Hispano-Moresque, in its inspiration, the house is described by Through The Keyhole as ‘a tossed salad of architectural styles’ mixing classical lines with traditional glazed wall-tiles and bits of gothic fantasy.
The camera sweeps round a vast baronial hall decorated with coats of arms in the style of a French chateau. It turns out that Trump calls this his ‘living room’.
Renaissance copies of classical Roman busts stare down at the visitors and ‘add a bit of imperial splendor’, says presenter Grossman. They hint that the owner might have ‘a powerful personality’.
We visit an ornate children’s bedroom with squirrel-shaped doorknobs, porcelain figurines from Alice in Wonderland and life-like rambling roses in branches of sculpted plaster on the walls.
Even back in 1999, long before President Trump’s first term in office, parts of Mar-a-Lago had a presidential feel. Here, classical busts of Roman figures stare down on the visitors.
Bought by Trump for an estimated $10million in 1985, Mar-a-Lago was first built in the 1920s by cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post at at cost equivalent to some $120 million today. (Pictured: The Mar-a-Lago swimming pool in 1999).
In 1985 and with the property market in a slump, Trump snapped it up for the bargain price of $5 million, paying an additional $3 million for Post’s antiques and furniture. (Pictured: The Mar-a-Lago pool in 2017).
Mainly Spanish, or Hispano-Moresque, in its inspiration, the house is described by Through The Keyhole as ‘a tossed salad of architectural styles’ mixing classical lines with traditional glazed wall-tiles and bits of gothic fantasy.
All in all, says Grossman, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago is ‘an incredible piece of fantasy architecture.’
Today, it has a very different reputation. Mar-a-Lago could be considered one of the most consequential and closely guarded properties in the world – the handful of guests allowed into the inner sanctum are banned from taking photographs.
Since Trump’s re-election, the estate has become something of a MAGA-Mecca. It is the seat of his presidential court and birthplace of many of the edicts now flowing from his Sharpie pen.
In the days following his dramatic election victory, Trump is even said to have installed a makeshift ‘situation room’ at the property as he prepared his new administration.
Now, one month into the presidency, Trump’s announcements seem as likely to to be made in Palm Beach as Washington – making Mar-a-Lago the Winter White House for which the original owner, Marjorie Merriweather Post, had always hoped.
