Trump wages Iran war from his own Situation Room at Mar-a-Lago

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Last weekend, President Donald Trump welcomed guests to a children’s charity gala at his private Mar-a-Lago club. “Have a good time, everyone,” Trump told the crowd, dressed in dresses and tuxedos. “We have to go to work.”

Then, beyond the heavy golden doors and layers of security of the same domain, he watched “Operation Epic Fury” unfold from a separate space converted into a makeshift “situation room.” From there, the president, alongside his top aides and national security officials, watched as B-2 bombers struck Iranian military targets and Israeli forces targeted senior Iranian leaders, ultimately killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The White House released photographs of the thickly curtained space, complete with rows of phone lines and classified monitors.

Then, early Saturday morning, Trump announced a “massive and continuing” U.S. military operation in Iran from the presidential press room at Mar-a-Lago.

By the end of the night, Trump moved from war planning to Republican fundraising, all without leaving the sprawling Palm Beach resort.

The Iranian operation marks the sixth major military action Trump has led from Mar-a-Lago during his second term, highlighting the resort’s evolution from a social playground to a presidential command center.

While previous presidents have reserved such moments for the White House Situation Room — which recently underwent a $50 million renovation — and Camp David, a country retreat 60 miles from Washington, D.C., Trump has repeatedly shown his 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 nighttime operation in Iran. Seated as “Vice President of the United States,” Vance was photographed alongside Cabinet members Tulsi Gabbard and Scott Bessent.

Trump spent the first seven of nine weekends this year in his so-called Winter White House. In January, while at his golf course in West Palm Beach, the president announced new tariffs on European countries opposing U.S. control of Greenland.

The previous weekend, Trump watched from Mar-a-Lago as the military launched a new round of strikes on targets in Syria belonging to the Islamic State. Earlier the same day, Trump went to a routine dentist appointment in the area.

On Saturday, January 3, Trump concluded a busy two-week 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 from the president’s Situation Room in Palm Beach, as he and senior Cabinet officials watched the attack unfold.

That day, Trump hosted reporters for a last-minute news conference in which members of his administration detailed the plan. The president oversaw Maduro’s transfer to a New York prison, between rounds of golf and his purchases of marble and onyx for his new White House ballroom.

This trend takes us back to Trump’s first term. Just after hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping over a sumptuous steak dinner at Mar-a-Lago in 2017, Trump, still in the compound, oversaw strikes in Syria in response to the government’s use of chemical weapons. He drew criticism that same year after speaking outdoors with then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe among club diners as they discussed their response to a North Korean missile launch.

And at the end of his 2020 vacation, Trump was at Mar-a-Lago when he gave the final order to launch drone strikes that killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani. He briefly addressed the nation from the same draped room at Mar-a-Lago, but made more detailed remarks in the company of senior military officials at the White House a few days later.

Trump is spending even more time at Mar-a-Lago this quarter. He has made 21 visits to the estate so far in his second term, seven more trips compared to the same time during his first term, according to an NBC News study.

Congressional Democrats have previously raised security concerns over Trump’s use of Mar-a-Lago for sensitive work and meetings with foreign leaders, and ProPublica reported in May 2017 that its Wi-Fi networks were vulnerable. In 2019, a Chinese woman was arrested after trying to enter the club with a USB drive containing malware.

Security at Mar-a-Lago is being handled by the U.S. Secret Service in coordination with local partners, a White House official told NBC News. “The USSS and its military partners ensure that the president can direct operations through a sophisticated and completely secure set of communications systems from anywhere in the world,” the official said.

Security concerns aside, some criticize the president’s unconventional use of his Palm Beach mansion.

“The president should be at the White House during any anticipated crisis, unless it might be irregular and indicate that something is about to happen,” said John Bolton, who served as White House national security adviser for part of Trump’s first term. “As Jack Kennedy said, ‘This is where the seat of government is.’ It’s simply better to have critical meetings in person. In this case, Team B was clearly in the Sit Room,” he added, referring to Vance.

Trump is “the king” in Palm Beach, said another former Trump White House official during his first term. “He goes there and has dinner and they all tell him what a great job he does and give him all kinds of advice on what he should do,” the official added.

“He shouldn’t be there. He should be in the White House. This is his situation room, if you will,” the official said.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle told NBC News: “The United States is fully equipped with the most powerful and capable operational capabilities that allow President Trump to securely communicate and conduct official business from anywhere in the world at any time, much like he did at the White House. Only the uneducated and uninitiated do not understand this.”

The president’s affinity for sunny Palm Beach during Washington’s cold months has made South Florida a key region for official White House business, GOP political politics and the MAGA social scene. Over a weekend in February, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and Alex Bruesewitz, a top Trump ally, both held separate wedding festivities at the club attended by cabinet officials and key advisers.

Not only are White House staffers and conservative operatives hanging around the 20-acre estate, where initial membership costs $1 million, but so are foreign dignitaries. The president has hosted four world leaders at his private club since December. During his Christmas vacation, Trump held back-to-back meetings here with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In January, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said meeting with Trump at “his private residence gave the meeting a strong feeling of informality and openness,” calling the format “a sign of great respect and trust.”

A White House official said while Trump “meets regularly with foreign leaders from around the world, his meetings should not be held solely at the White House – as every other president has done in the past.”

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, both Florida residents who are also the president’s unofficial diplomats, have served as mediators for peace talks in the Sunshine State, recently hosting Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev in nearby Miami as part of ongoing efforts to resolve the war in Ukraine.

On Monday, Palm Beach officials announced an indefinite closure of roads around Mar-a-Lago, amid growing tensions following U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran. In a statement to NBC News, Palm Beach Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Michael Ogrodnick described the move as a “precautionary measure” to “ensure the safety of our community and the president.”

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., defended Trump’s use of his unofficial Situation Room at Mar-a-Lago. “Our intelligence services know how to set up a safe room anywhere in the world,” he said. “If that’s all some people have to complain about, then count their blessings.”

Trump’s use of an alternate situation room is unique. Other times, urgent matters have sent presidents back to the White House. President Joe Biden cut two weeks of vacation short, returning from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, to deal with the rapidly deteriorating withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2021. Although he mostly canceled his planned vacations, Biden still faced scrutiny for appearing to take vacations during the crisis.

The growing list of highly sensitive operations approved by Mar-a-Lago virtually guarantees that the private club will go down in U.S. history as more than just a glitzy and luxurious Palm Beach oasis, but as the site of high-stakes presidential decision-making.

The president’s influence on Palm Beach was solidified earlier this year with the renaming of a 4-mile stretch of Southern Boulevard that leads from Palm Beach International Airport to Mar-a-Lago.

Now, club members and presidential staff arrive at the resort on “President Donald J. Trump Boulevard.”