The press pool following Donald Trump as he escorts Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe around Mar-a-Lago were forced to spend hours in a basement suite at a Trump’s Jupiter, Florida golf club, as the two world leaders hit the links, lunched, and even dropped in on a wedding.
Once the media arrived at the clubhouse, they were swiftly escorted into a basement bedroom suite at the resort, where the doors and windows were blocked with black trash bags, to ensure no reporters saw Trump, Abe and pro-golfer Ernie Els as they took in an afternoon of golf. Photographers were instructed not to take pictures of the club or the landscape.
Instead, the press spent hours staring at the Trump club’s eye-watering, Rococo-themed interior design.
Trump's press corps has been placed in a basement suite at Jupiter golf club. Black plastic over windows to give Trump privacy as he golfs. pic.twitter.com/8zbqi5HGSD
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) February 11, 2017
The press pool was, at least, given water.
Late in the afternoon Saturday, the press was released from their gold-tinged prison and they scrambled for an impromptu press conference at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump and Abe appeared together to condemn a North Korean nuclear missile test.
The Palm Beach resort, the Trump Administration says, is serving as the “Winter White House,” but as Trump and Abe gave short remarks condemning Kim Jong Un, it was clear that Mar-a-Lago was still being used as a banquet facility. While the two leaders talked, they were accompanied by a DJ, playing for a wedding taking place in the next hall over.
At least on Sunday, the press was given fresh air.
Trump and Abe hit the links again to finish out the weekend, this time, leaving the press corps to stare at a wall of vegetation while they got the two world leaders got their exercise. According to sources, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, fresh off a weekend of success with the LEGO Batman Movie, was also in attendance. His confirmation vote comes Monday.
