Of all the business entanglements and obvious conflicts of interest Donald Trump brought to the Oval Office, there’s one shining example that stands out from the pack: his for-profit-club Mar-a-Lago, or as he likes to call it, the “Southern White House.” The Palm Beach resort is a commercial enterprise, and the president has used every single one of his trips there, often accompanied by foreign leaders, to advertise its splendor to potential paying customers, for whom the membership fee doubled just before inauguration. Even when he’s not there, Trump is promoting the place, off-handedly mentioning that the dining room happened to serve “the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you’ve ever seen” when he decided to bomb Syria. But according to a new report, baked goods and front-row seats to a dinnertime North Korean strategy session aren’t the only things a Mar-a-Lago membership will afford you. For example, according to reports, three lucky individuals who’ve ponied up the cash have effectively been given free rein to oversee a federal agency.

According to ProPublica, Bruce Moskowitz, a Palm Beach doctor; Ike Perlmutter, the chairman of Marvel Entertainment; and Marc Sherman, an attorney, have essentially been calling the shots at the Department of Veterans Affairs since Trump was inaugurated. What the men lack in any government or U.S. military experience they make up for in being members of the president’s club, which has apparently afforded them the opportunity to “lean on V.A. officials” and “steer policies affecting millions of Americans,” all without “any transparency, accountability, or oversight.” According to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and interviews with former officials, the trio speak with higher-ups at the V.A. on a daily basis, “reviewing all manner of policy and personnel decisions.” When former V.A. chief David Shulkin, whom the troika installed in 2017, was preparing to make a presentation to the president about a research effort on suicide prevention, officials had to get approval from the “Mar-a-Lago Crowd” first. “Everything needs to be run by them,” a former official told ProPublica. “They view themselves as making the decisions.” And if anyone dare resist?

Perlmutter has a powerful ally: the President of the United States. Trump and Perlmutter regularly talk on the phone and dine together when the president visits Mar-a-Lago. “On any veterans issue, the first person the president calls is Ike,” another former official said. Former administration officials say that V.A. leaders who were at odds with the Mar-a-Lago Crowd were pushed out or passed over.

That’s a problem not just from an ethical standpoint, but from a practical one, given that no member of the “Mar-a-Lago Crowd” seems to have the faintest clue how the government works: