PALM BEACH, Fla. — Democrats just came up with a catchy-sounding bill to force President Donald Trump to cough up a list of visitors to his private clubs.

But there’s just one problem: There are no lists yet.


On Friday night, guests streamed into Mar-a-Lago, the president’s self-proclaimed “southern White House,” for the annual Palm Beach GOP Lincoln Day Dinner. All they had to do to get into the seaside retreat, where the first lady and the president’s youngest son were vacationing for spring break, was buy a $300 ticket.

They didn’t have to submit to the kinds of rigorous background checks required if they’d been entering the White House in Washington. And there were no weapon screenings or bomb-sniffing dogs checking vehicles of the sort that have long been routine at public restaurants or other places where the president or first lady is present.

Mar-a-Lago also doesn’t keep tabs on the identity of guests who come and go on a routine basis, even while the president is in residence. Club members call the front desk to give the names of their guests, including for parties held in the ballroom. But they don’t have to submit details, like a middle initial or birth date or Social Security number, that are standard for visitor logs or background checks — which neither the club nor the Secret Service do at the resort.

Whether they realize it or not, what the Democratic lawmakers are asking for is a whole new system to be established putting Mar-a-Lago and the other Trump clubs a step closer to being on par with the White House when it comes to disclosure.

Former U.S. Secret Service officials tell POLITICO that the agency isn't equipped — with the time or money — to do the kind of legwork that would be required to produce logs for the president’s clubs. Agents don’t do it when the president goes to a hotel or other events away from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. And they don’t see the benefit in chasing down the names of every person that a member or party host brings in and who they vouch for as a legitimate guest.

“You can posture all day long, but the service can’t produce something that doesn’t exist,” said Jonathan Wackrow, a former Secret Service agent. The premise behind the Democrats’ bill, he added, isn't “realistic.”

“It’s a misapplication of resources,” he said.

White House officials referred questions about security involving the first lady at Mar-a-Lago, as well as the collection of visitor logs at the South Florida club, to the Secret Service, which through a spokesman cited its policy of not publicly commenting “on our protective operations.” The Trump Organization, which has a large security presence at Mar-a-Lago, also did not respond to requests for comment.

Security personnel escort first lady Melania Trump from a VIP reception at the annual Republican Party of Palm Beach County's Lincoln Day Dinner on March 24 at Mar-a-Lago Club. | M.Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

New Mexico Democratic Sen. Tom Udall took the lead Friday introducing legislation calling on the president to begin collecting information for the public release of visitor logs for both the White House and his private properties, including Trump Tower in New York and Mar-a-Lago.

“If the Secret Service can’t keep track of who has access to the president outside the White House then that’s a national security concern,” Udall said in a statement to POLITICO.

“And if it's prohibitively expensive to keep track of who has access to the president when he's conducting official business, then the president should consider the taxpayers and take seriously his own promises to save the taxpayers money,” he added. “The taxpayers already generously provide a very nice home office for the president, as well as security. Should they have to pay millions of dollars more for security so the president can work in luxury clubs and golf courses that his business owns?"

The White House didn’t respond to requests for comment on the Udall bill, which the lawmaker dubbed the “Making Access Records Available to Lead American Government Openness Act,” or “Mar-a-Lago Act.”

Security at Mar-a-Lago remains a mixed bag. Experts have warned that the president’s repeated visits to his South Florida home — another trip is expected early next month with Chinese President Xi Jinping — exposes him and his staff to foreign intelligence agents who now have opportune targets for eavesdropping and building files on their routines and habits.

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When Trump is on the premises, club members and their guests must pass through multiple Secret Service checkpoints, including a vehicle inspection and a magnetometer screening for detecting weapons. But those protections are far less intrusive when the president isn’t in town, even if his family is. The guests who got a chance to briefly mingle and snap photos of the first lady Friday night at Mar-a-Lago during the Lincoln Dinner VIP cocktail reception, for example, weren’t screened for weapons.

The first lady’s security detail changes depending on the particulars of any given situation, Wackrow explained. Although the Secret Service often used metal detectors at restaurants when former first lady Michelle Obama was dining out in public, the agency doesn't always default to that approach, especially if there’s no specific threat against the low-profile first lady in attendance at a semi-private club owned by the president.

“Every asset in the kitchen sink goes to the president, and it steps down from there based on the threat profile,” he said.

There has been one notable security change at Mar-a-Lago since POLITICO revealed earlier this month that the club’s website was accessible to the public with the names, work emails and phone numbers of key staff members, including its top manager and the directors in charge of security and housekeeping. Now, that page is no longer available online.

The president’s repeated visits to Mar-a-Lago have been an increasing sore spot from a security standpoint. In February, during a dinner with the Japanese prime minister, Trump and his top aides were photographed going over their response to a North Korean missile test. The military officer who carries the country’s nuclear weapon codes also posed for photos with at least one Mar-a-Lago guest, and the images made it onto social media.

While first lady Melania Trump was on the property, a Secret Service agent walks the grounds ahead of the annual Republican Party of Palm Beach County's Lincoln Day Dinner on March 24 at Mar-a-Lago Club. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

The White House insisted in the aftermath of that dinner that no classified information was discussed in public that night. “Proper security protocols are adhered to at all times at Mar-a-Lago,” Marc Short, Trump’s legislative affairs director, added in a one-paragraph letter sent earlier this month to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah).

But lawmakers still haven’t gotten all their questions answered. Chaffetz is still awaiting a classified briefing that Short promised to go over security protocols at Mar-a-Lago. And Democrats are looking toward a Government Accountability Office report that’s just getting started on the topic.

Former Secret Service agents say the bureau’s primary role at Mar-a-Lago and the other Trump properties is to focus on assessing and protecting the president from physical threats. Unlike Camp David, the rural Maryland retreat that Trump has yet to visit, they note that the president’s clubs themselves are not government-controlled facilities.

“It’s a significant issue, because we still have a new fledgling administration trying to get their arms around what their role is running this country, and there’s lots of little things they’ve never thought about in their entire life,” said Bill Pickle, a former deputy assistant director of the Secret Service. “The deeper and longer they get into it, the better they’ll get.”