Donald Trump gathered his social and political clan around him at his opulent Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to welcome in the New Year in classic Trumpian style.

“It will be a fantastic 2018,” a tuxedoed Trump said, as he entered the gilded ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, accompanied by first lady Melania Trump and son Barron, and predicted the stock market would continue to rise and businesses would come to the US at “a rapid clip”.

The US president cited what he considered to be signal accomplishments, including opening the Arctic national wildlife refuge to oil drilling, tax reform and scrapping individual health insurance requirements.

Asked for his reaction to North Korea leader Kim Jong-un’s remarks about having a nuclear button on his desk, Trump responded by saying: “We’ll see.”

His comments followed the release of a self-congratulatory three-and-a-half minute video earlier in the day that offered a summary of what Trump felt were the high points of his first year in office.

Trump’s new year video

“We gave birth to the modern world and we will shape tomorrow’s world with the strength and skill of American hands,” he proclaimed.

Trump followed that with a Twitter post extending new year wishes to some of his familiar foes. “As our Country rapidly grows stronger and smarter, I want to wish all of my friends, supporters, enemies, haters, and even the very dishonest Fake News Media, a Happy and Healthy New Year. 2018 will be a great year for America!”

But the self-congratulatory mood came as ethics experts called out Trump’s New Year bash for crossing boundaries between the president’s public responsibilities and his private interests. Tickets for the event cost $600 for Mar-a-Lago members and $750 for their guests.

Richard Painter, the former top ethics lawyer in the George W Bush administration, told the Guardian on New Year’s Eve that he felt that the party – as with Trump’s continued use of Mar-a-Lago generally – offered presidential access to anyone that can afford its $200,000 initiation fee.

“Trump continues to combine his personal business with his official work,” said Painter. The real problem, he said, was that Trump was at his so-called “Winter White House” so often that he was in effect conducting official business while promoting his own property.

“He can easily be contacted by members of Mar-a-Lago, so people who pay him or pay his company money are getting preferential access. If you go to the bar, you run into prominent government officials. So it’s lobbying, but it’s not lobbying that’s going to be disclosed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act.”

The treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and his wife Louise Linton arrive for the New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago club. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Since taking office, Trump has made frequent visits to his for-profit properties while continuing to refuse to divest from his real estate and hotel empire. Over the past year, problems with several properties, including the Trump SoHo hotel, have surfaced.

But on Sunday night none of that was on display. Trump was joined by senior White House advisers Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Trump’s sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr and the treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and wife Louise Linton.

Attendees included dozens of members of Palm Beach society. “Food was great,” posted Dr Eric Kaplan on Twitter, together with images of the menu, the guests, the Trump family, and the gilded grandiosity of their surroundings.

Donald Trump, Melania Trump and their son Barron arrive at Mar-a-Lago resort. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

Trump kicked off the new year at one of his Florida golf clubs, where he hosted two professional golfers, Fred Funk and his son Taylor Funk.



Before leaving for Washington, Trump took the time to tweet out his opinion on international affairs. In one, he said Iran is “failing at every level”, and voiced his support for the protesters there, saying it was “TIME FOR CHANGE”.

In a second, he lit into Pakistan, saying the US “has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools”.

With both messages, Trump signaled the new year would be much like the old.

