WEST PALM BEACH — His adopted home county is booming, and President Donald Trump has taken notice and intends to be a player in the further development and growth across the Palm Beaches.
During a one-hour speech at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts on May 1, Trump said “we’re working” with officials in Palm Beach on addressing water issues via either a desalinization facility or filtering system.
He also hinted at a role in upgrades to Palm Beach International Airport, which will soon bear his name. The president also made a vague reference to how “we’re working with you in Washington” in what has “been a great partnership.”
“One of the really great stories is West Palm Beach,” Trump said. “Palm Beach has been incredible. It’s never been run better. We appreciate it. But West Palm Beach is really hot. It’s coming along so fast and so good.”
He joked that the county seat and biggest city in the area code is “semi-Palm Beach.”
The president made the remarks in a speech downtown at the start of his 27th visit to Palm Beach County this White House term.
Trump has collectively made more than 60 trips to the 561 area code in his two nonconsecutive terms, but this appearance was the first time he publicly spoke about his interest in playing a significant role in the county that became his official residence in 2019 but where he first set down roots 40 years ago in purchasing and refurbishing the Mar-a-Lago estate.
Now he is eyeing the airport where has traveled to and from on his private jet and Air Force One.
“We have a lot of things in store. A lot of tremendous elements are going to be added to the airport, making it bigger and better,” Trump said. “I don’t think there’ll be anything as good as your airport will be anywhere in the country.”
He added that “we will work to deserve that name” of Palm Beach Beach International Airport’s impending rebranding as Donald Trump International Airport.
Trump also boasted that the Sunshine State’s economic flourishing in the past decade, including an influx of wealth, companies and its growing identity as Wall Street South, is a global talking point.
“Florida, generally, but this area feels so strongly about it,” Trump said. “We have to help and make it even better. All over the world, they love it, and they talk about it, and we have to make it, and keep it first, last and the best.”
Trump was headliner of Forum Club’s golden anniversary season
Trump was invited to speak at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches, a civic group celebrating its 50th year as a platform for public discussion and engagement.
Through its four decades, the club has hosted talks with political and other luminaries, including Supreme Court justices, prize-winning historians and elected leaders. Its first guest speaker in 1976 was a former Georgia governor, Jimmy Carter, who would go on to win that November’s presidential election.
The Forum Club, however, had never heard directly from a sitting president, so Trump’s presence was unprecedented.
Another first: The appearance was an evening affair rather than the traditional luncheon setting. In another likely first, the Forum Club was only told of the president’s confirmed attendance seven days before, requiring the event attended by about 600 people to be organized within the span of just a week.
The Forum Club touts itself as a nonpartisan group that fosters civil discourse and thoughtful dialogue.
That objective was emphasized during the dinner’s opening remarks by its CEO, Sarah Criser Elwell, followed by chairperson Harvey Oyer III and founder Dan Mica. It was also emphasized by a county proclamation read by Commissioner Maria Merino and in a video presentation marking the storied club’s past.
Mica would serve in Congress as a Democrat after initially leading the creation of the organization five decades ago. He told the crowd that the Forum Club embraced the spirit of bipartisanship at the outset and urged that tolerance remain a guidepost going forward.
“That’s going to be our future,” he said.
There were other Democrats in the audience, including Trump’s new state representative in the Florida House, Emily Gregory.
Considering the organization’s mission statement, the choice of Trump as the golden anniversary season’s headliner was curious. The president’s political brand has been marked by strident partisanship, acidic personal attacks and a grievance-based policy menu.
But during his hour-long remarks, Trump was gracious, entertaining and jovial. He repeatedly drew chuckles and laughs with humorous musings about his governing experiences, exchanges with world leaders and the ironies of his 11 years as the country’s preeminent political figure.
Trump defends Iran conflict but says ‘there’s always danger with war’
The president, nonetheless, did again repeat his so-far baseless claims about how he won the 2020 election. But the bulk of the speech focused on politics — as expected.
He opened by defending his decision to launch, in conjunction with the Israeli military, a war against Iran again saying — to loud cheers — that the Tehran regime cannot be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. He also restated the success of the military campaign, noting, for example, that 85% of the Iranian military’s “missile-making capacity” has been destroyed.
Despite the bullish appraisal, Trump acknowledged the conflict’s difficulties, including the obstacles in determining which Iranian leaders to discuss peace terms with, even as he again dismissed the war as a “detour” and “the little skirmish.”
“But with all of that being said, there’s still danger,” Trump said of the duality of military triumph and Iran’s ability to strike back. “There’s always danger with war. With war, you never know what happens.”
Trump also conceded the consequences the war has had on the American home front. Iran’s ability to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the global energy supply transits, has resulted in a painful surge in energy costs.
Since the conflict began Feb. 28, during a weekend in which the president was sojourning at Mar-a-Lago, U.S. fuel prices have skyrocketed.
The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline stood at $4.43 on May 2, and $4.34 in Florida. In Palm Beach County, which typically records the highest pump prices in the state, the average had soared to $4.50.
The sharp increase in fuel costs is one reason that the public seems to have soured on the president just 16 months into this term, according to polls and special elections since late last year.
Two polls at the end of April showed more erosion in the president’s popularity, with a Reuters/Ipsos survey gauging his approval rating at just 34%. And 52% of those asked by Harvard CAPS/Harris pollsters said the economy is worse under Trump than it was under former President Joe Biden.
Trump defends White House record, states case for midterm elections
Trump, however, insisted once the conflict has passed, oil prices would plummet and promised “everything will snap back.”
The speech had the usual Trump stream of consciousness, which critics call it cognitive-challenged rambling and the president describes as weaving.
In one stretch, the president spotted sugar magnate Pepe Fanjul in the audience and was about to state his preference that Coca-Cola opt for U.S. sugar in its formula.
Instead, Trump abruptly pivoted to how he angered Mexicans by changing the name to the Gulf of America, and to how the North American neighbor’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has an “incredible, beautiful voice” and was once a ballet dancer, before more see-sawing that ended with a joke about Cuba.
The president otherwise lauded what he said were indicators of a strong economy — record stock market highs posted by leading indices and a March labor report citing a strong employment growth.
He also cast attention on the widespread benefits he said Americans would reap from the “One Big Beautiful” legislation that the GOP Congress passed last summer and he signed into law.
“Our tax cuts supported an estimated 408,000 full-time Florida jobs. You know that?” he said. “And we delivered no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security or our seniors.”
Also of particular interest to Florida and Palm Beach County agriculture and small businesses, Trump said the legislation eliminated the so-called death tax, or inheritance tax, when people bequeath farmlands and companies to following generations.
A prescription drug plan called TrumpRX, the president added, will reduce pharmaceutical prices, too.
The president did not delve into one issue of particular interest to South Florida.
The brewing humanitarian crisis in Cuba was a peculiar omission — especially because after leaving Washington for the weekend, Trump signed an executive order imposing sanctions, including financial and travel, for people doing business with and investing in the communist-ruled island.
It was not immediately clear, however, how the president’s action differs from existing U.S. law under the economic embargo first partially applied by the Eisenhower administration and subsequently updated and expanded, including the 1996 Helms-Burton Act.
Trump’s only mention of the plight in Cuba was musing that he could station the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln 100 yards off the island’s coast as a show of force and a veiled threat.
“They’ll say, ‘Thank you very much. We give up,’ ” the president said.
Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump extols Palm Beaches, hints at airport plan in Forum Club speech
Reporting by Antonio Fins, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
