WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Last weekend, President Donald Trump greeted guests at a children’s charity gala inside his private Mar-a-Lago club. “Have a good time, everybody,” Trump told the crowd, clad in gowns and tuxedos. “We gotta go work.”
Then, beyond heavy, gold-plated doors and layers of security at the same estate, he watched “Operation Epic Fury” unfold from a separate space converted to a makeshift “situation room.” From there, the president, alongside his top aides and national security officials, observed B-2 bombers striking Iranian military targets and Israeli forces targeting senior Iranian leadership, ultimately killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The White House released photographs of the heavily curtained space, complete with rows of classified phone lines and monitors.
Then, early Saturday morning, Trump announced a “massive and ongoing” U.S. military operation in Iran from Mar-a-Lago’s presidential press room.
By the night’s end, Trump moved from war planning to a Republican fundraiser all without leaving the sprawling Palm Beach compound.
The Iran operation marks the sixth major military action Trump has directed from Mar-a-Lago during his second term, underscoring the resort’s evolution from social playground to presidential command center.
While previous presidents have reserved such moments for the White House’s Situation Room — which recently underwent a$50 million renovation— and Camp David, a country retreat 60 miles from D.C., Trump has repeatedly shown preference for his private club and primary residence, which he purchased from General Foods heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1985.
Instead of Trump, it was Vice President JD Vance in the White House Situation Room during the overnight Iran operation. Seated beneath a “Vice President of the United States” seal, Vance was pictured alongside Cabinet members Tulsi Gabbard and Scott Bessent.
Trump has spent the first seven of nine weekends this year at his so-called Winter White House. In January, while at his golf course in West Palm Beach, the president announced a new tariff on European countries opposing U.S. control of Greenland.
The weekend before, Trump watched from Mar-a-Lago as service members launched another round of strikes on targets in Syria belonging to the Islamic State. Earlier that same day, Trump attended a routine dentist appointment in the area.
On Jan. 3, a Saturday, Trump capped off a busy two-week holiday vacation at his Florida home by announcing an unprecedented operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. It was the first time the White House revealed photos of the president’s Palm Beach situation room, as he and top Cabinet officials watched the attack unfold.
Source: Drudge Report
