On October 13, 1776, Benedict Arnold ran his remaining ships aground on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain, set them on fire, and led his surviving men into the woods. By any conventional measure it was a defeat. He had lost most of his fleet over two days of fighting against a British force that outgunned him completely. What he had actually accomplished was something the history books take a while to explain properly.

The British had spent most of that summer building a fleet powerful enough to control Lake Champlain and advance south toward Fort Ticonderoga. Arnold understood that he couldn’t beat them in a straight fight, so he didn’t try to. He positioned his ships behind Valcour Island to force the British into restricted waters where their superior firepower mattered less, fought them hard enough to damage both sides, then slipped most of his fleet past them in the dark and made them chase him south for two more days before the end came. By the time it was over, the campaigning season was effectively finished. The British commander Guy Carleton looked at his situation, looked at the calendar, and decided not to advance against Ticonderoga before winter.

That decision gave the Americans a year.

In 1777, when the British tried again under Burgoyne, they ran into an American army that had spent the winter recovering and reorganizing. Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga in October. France, which had been secretly supplying the Americans for months while waiting to see whether the rebellion could actually survive, signed a formal military alliance in February 1778. That alliance brought the naval power that would eventually make British defeat possible.

The chain runs directly back to Arnold running his ships aground in a bay that would eventually carry his name. He didn’t win at Valcour Island. He bought time. And the time turned out to be worth everything.

Then at Saratoga itself, he was there again.

By that point Arnold and his commanding general Horatio Gates genuinely hated each other. Arnold believed his leadership at the first battle of Saratoga on September 19 had been decisive and that Gates had deliberately left his name out of the official report. He wasn’t entirely wrong about either thing. Gates relieved him of command. Arnold stayed in camp without a formal role while the campaign continued around him.

On October 7, during the second battle, Arnold rode onto the field anyway. Nobody had authorized it. He didn’t have a command. He just showed up and started directing troops, helping overwhelm critical British positions before taking a musket ball in the same left leg that had been wounded at Quebec two years earlier. He spent the rest of the battle lying in the dirt while the fighting finished around him.

Ten days later Burgoyne surrendered.

There is a monument at Saratoga National Historical Park that commemorates the leg of an American general wounded during the battle. It doesn’t say his name.

To understand how Arnold got from October 1776 to September 1780, when he agreed to hand West Point to the British, you have to take the grievances seriously without excusing what he did with them.

He was passed over for promotion to major general in February 1777 while five officers with less distinguished records were elevated above him. For an eighteenth century officer this wasn’t a bureaucratic irritation. Rank was how the world measured your worth and your honour, and Arnold took the slight as a personal declaration that Congress didn’t respect what he had done. Washington eventually got him the rank, but the damage to how Arnold understood his relationship with the cause he was fighting for had already been done.

After Saratoga he was given command of Philadelphia, which was a political minefield. The city was full of Loyalists, returning Patriots, commercial disputes, and accusations flying in every direction. Arnold lived expensively, got involved in some commercial activities that attracted serious scrutiny, and accumulated enemies faster than he accumulated money. Some of the accusations against him were politically motivated. Some weren’t. A court-martial in 1779 found him guilty on two relatively minor charges and Washington issued a formal reprimand, carefully worded to acknowledge his earlier service while making clear the conduct had been unacceptable.

For Arnold it was one more entry in a growing ledger of humiliations. He had nearly died twice for the Revolution. He had helped save it at moments when it genuinely needed saving. And the country he had bled for was nickel-and-diming him in front of a court-martial while men who had done far less collected their promotions and their reputations.

He had also by this point married Peggy Shippen, whose family had Loyalist connections and whose social circle included Major John André, the British officer who would become Arnold’s contact in the conspiracy.

By May 1779 Arnold was already secretly communicating with the British. The treason wasn’t a sudden decision made in anger after the court-martial. It developed over more than a year while he was still serving as an American commander, still accepting Washington’s trust, still being given more responsibility. In 1780, Washington gave him command of West Point.

Arnold had already agreed to hand it over.

The plot unraveled on September 23 when André was captured returning to British lines with documents hidden in his boot. When Arnold learned the conspiracy had been discovered two days later, he fled to the British warship sitting in the Hudson and left his wife and infant son behind. He wrote to Washington asking him to take care of Peggy. Washington did.

André was hanged as a spy. Arnold was commissioned as a British general and spent the rest of the war leading raids against Americans, including a campaign through Connecticut that burned his own hometown of New London.

The question his story keeps forcing is what to do with the first part when you know how it ends. The boot monument at Saratoga is one answer: honor the leg without naming the man. It’s awkward and a little strange and also probably the most honest the historical record can get about someone whose best moments and worst moments are equally real and equally consequential.

Arnold didn’t betray the Revolution because he was secretly a coward or always a villain. He betrayed it because he was a man with extraordinary pride who became convinced that the cause he had nearly died for multiple times had decided he didn’t matter. Whether that’s true in any meaningful sense, whether Congress and Gates and the court-martial actually wronged him badly enough to justify what he did, is a question the evidence doesn’t answer cleanly.

What the evidence does answer is that without him, the Revolution’s most important year looks very different. The delay at Valcour Island, the relief of Fort Stanwix, the fighting at Freeman’s Farm, the assault on the Breymann Redoubt. Remove Arnold from 1776 and 1777 and Saratoga becomes less certain. Make Saratoga less certain and the French alliance becomes less certain. Make the French alliance less certain and you’re in genuinely different territory about how this ends.

America’s most notorious traitor was also one of the people most responsible for the fact that there was an America to betray.

You can talk directly to Benedict Arnold on Virtual Wayback and hear how he understood his own choices, both the ones that helped save the Revolution and the one that didn’t. https://virtualwayback.com/blog/benedict-arnold-and-his-impact

The cups had 'AuH2O' on them.

The ad was paid for by Johnson's Mississippi campaign chairman Doug Wynn, (A personal friend of Johnson's wife) who also blocked the Mississippi freedom Dems from the National Dem convention that year.

In 1885 Harvard archaeologist Frederic Ward Putnam visited the Midwest and found plowing and development destroying many of its ancient mounds.

So in 1886 he raised the money with wealthy Boston women led by Alice Fletcher and bought 60 acres at Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio. It also took in three conical mounds and a village site. It became the first privately funded archaeological preserve in the US, and Harvard handed it to Ohio's historical society in 1900.

The serpent is a 1,348 ft earthen snake on a bluff above Ohio Brush Creek. Radiocarbon dates tie it either to the Adena around 300 BC or to the Fort Ancient around AD 1070, and archaeologists have argued over which.

In the lidar the winding ridge is the serpent, with the oval head at its upper left end and the coiled tail at the bottom.

1. Serpent Mound, Adams County, Ohio, in lidar with the trees removed
2. Same lidar view, shaded with elevation colors
3. Recent air photo of the same area

Numbered pins on picture 1:
Pin 1: A bend in the serpent's body
Pin 2: The oval at the head end
Pin 3: The coiled tail

Lidar: USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP), public domain.
Imagery: Ohio DAS / OGRIP - Ohio Statewide Imagery Program (OSIP III/IV), 2017-2026, Public (state program; no restriction statement found).

We shouldn’t erase history. He gets a lot of hate, but he did discover America.

We all know Andrew Johnson was disastrous for Reconstruction.

But here's something I suspect many people on this subreddit don't realize.

In 1876, EIGHT of the nine Supreme Court justices were appointed by Lincoln or Grant.

And look at what that Court did:

• Slaughter-House Cases (1873): Narrowed the Fourteenth Amendment's Privileges or Immunities Clause almost immediately after its ratification.
• United States v. Cruikshank (1876): Overturned federal convictions arising from the Colfax Massacre, where white supremacists murdered scores of Black citizens.
• United States v. Reese (1876): Invalidated important provisions of federal voting-rights enforcement legislation.
• Civil Rights Cases (1883): Struck down the public-accommodations provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

And guess who wrote the 1883 majority opinion?

Joseph P. Bradley.

APPOINTED BY ULYSSES S. GRANT.

The only dissenter was John Marshall Harlan, appointed by Rutherford B. Hayes.

Yes, that's right. Federal courts helped narrow its constitutional foundations.

The Union won the Civil War. Republicans in Congress enacted three constitutional amendments. Lincoln and Grant filled nearly the entire Supreme Court.

And yet here we are.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughter-House_Cases

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Cruikshank

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Reese

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Cases

On This Day, October 14, 1968, American sprinter Jim Hines became the first man to officially run the 100 meters in under 10 seconds using fully automatic timing, clocking an astonishing 9.95 seconds at the Mexico City Olympic Games.

For decades, the 10-second barrier had stood as one of athletics’ most challenging milestones. Hines shattered it on the Olympic stage, winning the gold medal and setting a world record.

But his journey to greatness was unexpected.

Known by his full name, James Ray Hines, he had played baseball during his younger years. His extraordinary running talent was spotted by track coach Jim Coleman, who encouraged him to pursue sprinting.

That discovery helped launch a remarkable athletic career.

At the Mexico City Olympics, Hines defeated Jamaica’s Lennox Miller and fellow American Charlie Greene to claim the 100-metre title. His performance made him the first athlete to break the 10-second barrier in the event with automatic timing and a legal wind reading.

And he wasn’t finished.

Hines later helped the United States win gold in the 4 × 100-meter relay, setting another world record with his teammates.

His individual 100-meter world record stood for nearly 15 years before fellow American Calvin Smith ran 9.93 seconds on July 3, 1983.

After retiring from athletics, Hines pursued professional American football, playing for the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs.

Jim Hines transformed himself from a young baseball player into an Olympic champion who changed the history of sprinting.

In 1931, nine African American boys in Scottsboro, Alabama, were falsely accused of raping two White women, but were found guilty by an all-White jury. In overturning their convictions in Norris v. Alabama, the US Supreme Court ruled that excluding Black people from the jury violated the 14th Amendment. Despite this ruling, the practice of excluding Black people from juries continued as prosecutors used their peremptory challenges to deliberately strike Black jurors.

James Batson, a Black man who was convicted by an all-White jury, had his conviction overturned by the Supreme Court in 1986 when it ruled that prosecutors could no longer use their peremptory challenges to remove jurors on the basis of race. Yet even after Batson, all-White juries still exist. Because jury pools are often drawn from voter registration lists, anti-Black voter suppression tactics have the effect of reducing the number of Black people available for juries. However, it’s essentially impossible to study this since 39 of 50 states do not provide public access to jury pool data. Additionally, courts have rendered Batson meaningless by allowing prosecutors to strike jurors for ridiculous reasons such as the way they dress. In North Carolina, prosecutors have struck Black jurors twice as often as White jurors; in Louisiana and South Carolina, it’s three times as often.

A study in Alabama found that the only juries that delivered death penalty sentences were those with at most one Black juror. In Mississippi, Curtis Flowers was tried six times for a 1996 murder case and over the course of the trials the prosecutor struck 41 of the 42 potential Black jurors. The Supreme Court overturned the case in 2019, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh ruling the White prosecutor waged a “relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of Black individuals” in order to have an all-White jury, which was “unconstitutional.” It’s easy to see why prosecutors, 95% of whom are White, prefer White jurors: Whites are almost twice as likely to support the death penalty, and studies show that all-White juries discuss the facts of the case less, make more errors, and are more likely to convict Black defendants. In 2021, Mississippi agreed to pay Mr. Flowers $500,000 for wrongful imprisonment. He was 56 when he died at home in October 2026.

Recommended reading: Race and the Jury: Illegal Discrimination in Jury Selection (Equal Justice Initiative, 2021)

All-White Juries Deny Justice to Black Defendants

Historical Documents - Office of the Historian

In the year 1320 AD, while Scotland was fighting a war of existence against England, the nobles of Scotland stood before Pope John XXII, carrying a document known as the “Declaration of Arbroath.” The declaration was not merely a demand for independence, but a defense of a nation seeking the legitimacy of its existence in the depths of history. For these nobles realized that a people who can prove that they have an ancient past can demand that they have an independent future.

And here begins one of the strangest tales in European history, the tale of an Egyptian princess called “Scota” or “Scotia,” whose Scottish and Irish narratives say that she was the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh, and that she became the symbolic mother of an entire nation; indeed, the name of Scotland itself was derived, according to the legend, from her name.

Before Scota entered Scottish history, she was present in Irish memory for centuries. In the “Book of Invasions of Ireland,” one of the most important Irish texts of the Middle Ages, “Scota” appears as the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh and the mother of the legendary ancestor of the Gaelic peoples (and not the Gauls from Gaul).

The narrative did not stop at that, but mixed the Egyptian lineage with the biblical heritage to grant this legendary origin sanctity and solidity, linking Scota to the story of the Egyptian pharaoh who was contemporary with the Prophet Moses, and making her departure from Egypt an extension of the Exodus of the Israelites.

The historian Edward Cowan believes that the first known appearance of Scota in literature dates back to the twelfth century AD. From Ireland the tale moved to Scotland, where its historians adopted it in the fourteenth century, so that it gradually turned from a myth about origins into part of the historical narrative of the Scottish nation.

In the 1440s, the Scottish historian Walter Bower was writing in Inchcolm Abbey, on a small island in the Firth of Forth, his encyclopedia “The Scottish History,” one of the most important historical works in Scotland during the Middle Ages. Bower made Scota the starting point in the history of Scotland; for she, according to his account, was the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh, left Egypt with her husband, then their descendants moved across the Iberian Peninsula to Ireland, before crossing to the west coast of Scotland.

In the “Scotichronicon,” popular legend linked the origin of the Scots to Egypt, where it is said that Scota was the daughter of Pharaoh “Cheneres,” and that her descendants from her husband “Gaythelos” were the ones who carried the name “Scots” in honor of her.

Some narratives see that she has a relationship with Tutankhamun, describing her as his half-sister, as some sources mention that she was the daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, and that she fled Egypt after a disagreement with her family.

Researchers such as David Ellis believe that she is in fact Ankhesenamun, the wife of Tutankhamun and the daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, basing this on texts attributed to the Egyptian historian Manetho. After the death of Tutankhamun, Ankhesenamun married Pharaoh Ay, who is likely to be the father of Tutankhamun, then he was forced into exile with his court due to religious conflicts, so they fled together from Egypt. The narrative indicates that they crossed the Mediterranean with a thousand of their followers, and arrived first in Spain, where their descendants lived for several generations, then later moved to Ireland and from there to Scotland.

Scota was not alone in carrying Egyptian history to Scotland; she also carried with her a mysterious stone known as the “Stone of Destiny” or the “Stone of Scone.” The legend indicates that Scota carried the stone with her from Egypt to Ireland, then it later reached Scotland to become a symbol of the legitimacy of kings. This stone was used in the coronation of Scottish kings, and remained a sacred symbol in Scottish history for long centuries, until it was transferred to England in 1296 by King Edward I, before being returned to Scotland in 1996 after a decision by the British government.

But the symbol most associated with the name of Scotland is the “St. Andrew’s Cross” (Saltire), which is a white diagonal cross in the shape of an X on a blue background.

This flag is linked to the legend of St. Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, who was martyred on a diagonal cross of this shape. The legend says that this cross appeared in the sky before a decisive battle in which the Scots defeated the English, so they took it as their emblem.

The history of this flag goes back to ancient times, as records indicate that the oldest known use of it as a national symbol representing Scotland dates back to 1286, when it appeared on the seal of the “Guardians of Scotland.” It is believed that the Battle of Athelstaneford in 832 AD was the one that witnessed the birth of this symbol, when King Angus Mac Fergus saw a formation of clouds in the shape of a white cross in the blue sky, so he vowed to make St. Andrew the patron saint of Scotland if he won, and he did indeed win.

But the relationship between Scota and the Scottish flag is deeper than just the legend of St. Andrew. The name “Scota” itself was linked to the Scottish people, who were known as “Scots,” and from it the name “Scotland” was derived.

In the mid-nineteenth century, the United States of America was on the brink of a destructive civil war. In 1861, eleven southern states declared their secession from the federal Union, and formed what was known as the “Confederate States of America,” in rejection of the attempts of the central federal government to abolish the system of slavery, which was the backbone of the agricultural economy of the South, in addition to other reasons.

The Confederacy needed symbols to unite its ranks, so several flags appeared during the war years, but the flag that became associated with it in the collective memory is the “Confederate Battle Flag,” also known as the “Southern Cross,” which is a red flag centered by a blue diagonal cross studded with white stars. It was approved by the President of the Southern Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, and was designed by William Porcher Miles, one of the aides of the Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard, after the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run), in which similar flags almost caused a military disaster because of the confusion between the Union flag and the Confederate flag.

And here begins the exciting intersection between Scotland and the Confederate flag. The blue diagonal cross that centers the Confederate flag is not just a random design, but is directly inspired by the “Scottish Saltire.”

Arthur L. Rogers, the designer of the final version of the Confederate flag, stated that the flag was based on the Scottish Saltire, indicating that it symbolizes the “basic origins of the Confederate people,” with the diagonal cross of the Scottish flag and the red stripe from the flag of France. Perhaps this indicates that the sons of the southern states were fighting the northern states whose colonies were called New England, that is, New England!

It is said that this design found its way to America through Nova Scotia, one of the Canadian provinces located on the eastern coast, where the Scots emigrated to the southern American states carrying with them their veneration for Princess Scota and for St. Andrew.

The Confederate flag, with its diagonal cross and white stars, reflected the Scottish origin of many of the inhabitants of the American South, whose ancestors had emigrated from Scotland and Ireland to the United States in previous centuries.

The End..

By the way, yes, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich was one of the men involved in the organised assassination of Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin. The Duke joined Felix Yusupov, Vladimir Purishkevich, Dr. Stanislaus de Lazovert and Lieutenant Sergei Mikhailovich Sukhotin to assasinate Rasputin to end his influence over the Russian royal family.

A few years after Ilyinsky had been elected a Councilman of Palm Beach in 1989, communist Russia fell in 1991 and a delegation of Russian royalists approached him and asked him to assume the title of Tsar, which he declined. Ilyinsky then continued to be a Councilman (1989 to 2000) and the Mayor (1993 to 2000) of Palm Beach, Florida.

[https://worth-avenue.com/information/legacy\](https://worth-avenue.com/information/legacy)

Visitors of Palm Beach

·         Duke and Duchess of Windsor Edward VIII and his American wife Wallis Simpson.

·         Princess Diana

Residents of Palm Beach

·         Romanian Prince Monyo Mihailescu-Nasturel

·         French Prince Sybil de Bourbon Parme, a descendent of the Bourbons who reigned over France until Louis XVI claimed the throne and whose maternal grandmother was the Princess of Denmark.

·         Russian Prince Paul Ilyinsky, was a Romanov and former Mayor and Council of Palm Beach

·         Bavarian Baron Frederick von der Trenck

[https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/palmbeachpost/name/paul-ilyinsky-obituary\](https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/palmbeachpost/name/paul-ilyinsky-obituary)

Paul Ilyinsky Obituary by Sonja Isger, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer. Published by The Palm Beach Post on February 10, 2004.

The one man who could honestly brag that he was the "only Romanov ever democratically elected to office." The former Palm Beach Mayor Paul Ilyinsky had a rare claim to the Russian throne because his father was Czar Nicholas II's nephew, but most of his life was dedicated to a much smaller scale of government: the town of Palm Beach. From his seat he battled former West Palm Beach's Mayor Nancy Graham over the price of water, entrepreneur Donald Trump over plans to convert Mar-a-Largo from expansive home to exclusive club and mourned when his insulated enclave was pried open by a growing element of crime.

[https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/palm-beach-town-council-donald-trump-maralago/\](https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/palm-beach-town-council-donald-trump-maralago/)

Palm Beach Town Council To Decide Whether Donald Trump Can Stay At Mar-a-Lago

February 9, 2021 / 12:27 PM EST / CBS Miami

[https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2016/12/how-donald-trump-beat-palm-beach-society-and-won-the-fight-for-mar-a-lago\](https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2016/12/how-donald-trump-beat-palm-beach-society-and-won-the-fight-for-mar-a-lago)

December 27, 2016 by Mark Seal. February 2017 Issue.

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/trump-made-florida-his-official-residence-he-may-have-also-made-a-legal-mess/2020/05/07/17d53fb2-849c-11ea-878a-86477a724bdb\\_story.html\](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/trump-made-florida-his-official-residence-he-may-have-also-made-a-legal-mess/2020/05/07/17d53fb2-849c-11ea-878a-86477a724bdb_story.html)

Trump made Florida his official residence. He may have also made a legal mess.

May 8, 2020 by Manuel Roig-Franzia with contributions by Alice Crites and David Fahrenthold

**1920s:** Marjorie Merriweather Post founded Genaral Foods in 1929 as a successor to Postum Cereal Company, which was founded in 1895, after inheriting it from her father. She built the Mar-a-Lago property.

**1973:** After Marjorie Merriweather Post’s death, she left Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach’s largest home (55,695 square feet or 110,000 square feet on 17 acres of grounds), to the U.S. government as a possible presidential vacation home.

**1981:** The U.S. government returned it to the Post Foundation because President Nixon and President Carter were uninterested, and the residency had $1,000,000 in annual taxes and maintenance costs.

Post’s three daughters Dina Merrill, Adelaide Breevort Close and Eleanor Post Close, put the property on the market.

**1981-1985:** Trump offered $25 million to Post’s daughters for the property. Trump offered $2 million to a beachfront property owner for a lot of land in front of Mar-a-Lago that the Post foundation had sold earlier for $346,000. Once Trump had this beachfront property, Trump threatened to build a huge hideous home to block Mar-a-Lago’s ocean view. This drove down the property value and price.

**1985/6:** Trump purchased the 126-room Mar-a-Lago mansion for $7 from the estate of Marjorie Merriweather Post, the owner of General Foods. ($5 million for the residence and $2 million for the furnishings). Palm Beach was appreciative of Trump’s renovation of a historic landmark.

(\*) Trump’s portrait was painted by Palm Beach artist Ralph Wolfe Cowan.

**1990-1993:** During the 1990-91 recession and 1990–91 Gulf War, Trump filed for bankruptcy protection for four of his ventures: Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, the Trump Castle Hotel and Casino, and the Plaza Hotel in New York. He was $975,000,000 in debt in addition to being sued for $2 billion by Ivana in a divorce settlement, and told Palm Beach that he could not afford the $3 million annual upkeep of Mara-a-Lago. Trump claimed he could afford the upkeep but quipped to the Miami Herald that “I just feel foolish doing it. You know, for $3 million you can buy the nicest house in Miami.” He proposed building mansions from subdivisions of the property. The Palm Beach Preservation Society was appalled. Palm Beach first rejected the proposal with the unanimous “No” vote of the town council when Trump appeared before it, in April 1992. Trump was resented as a showy New Yorker who was unacquainted with Palm Beach protocol. Trump sued Palm Beach for $50,000,000. Trump finally got his club in August 1993, signing a use agreement.

(\*) The idea for subdividing the mansion came up at a bank meeting for his bankruptcy when Trump mentioned he was going to Mar-a-Lago on his Boeing 727. “Fellows, I’m going to subdivide the 17 acres of Mar-a-Lago rather than sell the house . . . \[and\] build mansions on the ground. I’ll call the project the Mansions at Mar-a-Lago. I’ll turn it into a moneymaker.”

**1993:** Trump and the Palm Beach agreed he could turn the estate into a private club. Trump would be prohibited from living at Mar-a-Lago if Palm Beach town council allowed him to convert it from a residence to a club.

[https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000015a-99cf-dcd4-a5ff-bdefa9050001\](https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000015a-99cf-dcd4-a5ff-bdefa9050001)

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/mar-a-lago-use-agreement-between-donald-j-trump-and-the-town-of-palm-beach-fl-1993/a2ed5cfd-b4fc-4ffa-b61a-d524de307e42\](https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/mar-a-lago-use-agreement-between-donald-j-trump-and-the-town-of-palm-beach-fl-1993/a2ed5cfd-b4fc-4ffa-b61a-d524de307e42)

RE:        Town of Palm Beach/Mar-a-Lago Club

Declaration of Use Agreement

Our File No. 13156.6

November 15, 1993. John C. Randolph and Robert J. Doney.

Declaration of Use Agreement by The Town of Palm Beach, The Mar-a-Lago Club, Inc. and Donald J. Trump. August 10, 1993.

The property was zoned "large residential," and a private social club is a special exception use within the zoning.

According to regulations, clubs can provide onsite housing to its employees, and Trump is an employee of the corporation, The Trump Organization and Mar-a-Lago Club, Inc., that officially own Mar-a-Lago. The written agreement only bars members of the club from living there: there is no prohibition on employees living there. Trump’s attorney Paul Rampell told the town council that if the agreement were approved, Trump would be treated like any other member. Trump is a member of Mar-a-Lago and is entitled to the use of guest rooms.

The membership quota is capped at 500 members, each paying an initiation fee of $50,000 to $200,000 and annual dues of $14,000. Half the members of the club were required to be Palm Beach residents or business owners.

According to the agreement members can stay in a suite for no more than 7 consecutive days and no more than 21 days per year.

**December 12: 1994:** It was reported that Steven Spielberg, Michael Ovitz, Denzel Washington, Elizabeth Taylor, Lee Iacocca, Norman Mailer, and Henry Kissinger had joined among others.

By the way, Trump and Denzel Washington both attended Fordham University, one of the oldest Jesuit Catholic Universities in the States and the third-oldest university in New York City. Trump was enrolled at Fordham University in 1964 until 1966 when he transferred to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science in economics. The University of Pennsylvania was founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1755 as one of the 9 colonial colleges. He advocated for an educational institution that trained leaders in academia, commerce, and public service. Elon Musk studied at the same Wharton School from 1992 to 1995, with a Bachelor of Arts in physics and a Bachelor of Science in economics being awarded in 1997. This was after Musk had transferred from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada after two years of prior study. Denzel Washington was enrolled at Fordham University (Lincoln Center campus) from 1974 to 1977, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Drama and Journalism. He was then enrolled at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, California for one year, graduating in 1978 before returning to New York. Washington was awarded an honorary Doctorate from his alma mater, Fordham University on May 18, 1991, for having "impressively succeeded in exploring the edge of his multifaceted talent", and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of of Pennsylvania on May 16, 2011. [Washington served on the Board of Trustees at Fordham Univerisity from 1994 to 2000.](https://www.fordham.edu/about/leadership-and-administration/administrative-offices/office-of-the-president/about/hall-of-honor/denzel-washington/)

Of the three institutions that Ilyinsky was educated at, one was the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Sandhurst, Berkshire, United Kingdom. He trained there in the 1940s. He used this experience to fight as a US Marine in the Korean War (1950-1953). The Academy was formed in 1947 on the site of the former Royal Military College (founded in 1801) when it amalgamated with the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich (founded in 1741). It is recognised by the British Crown. For example, the first Sovereign's Banner, known as the "King George V's Banner", was presented by George V on 6 November 1918, the chapel was dedicated by King George VI on 2 May 1937. All British Army officers are trained at the academy. As part of the Sandhurst Group (RMAS Group), the academy also commands the University Officers' Training Corps (UOTC), General Staff Centre (GSC), and the Centre for Army Leadership (CAL).

**1995:** Trump opened Mar-a-Lago as a private club.

The club’s membership director stated, Princess Diana and Prince Charles, then separated, “each filed their own application and paid their own $50,000 initiation fee.” But in March, Trump admitted that he had merely sent the royal couple and the other celebrities unsolicited offers for free honorary membership.

Trump, in an alliance with his neighbours, organized a “Noise Pollution Action Fund” and sued Palm Beach County for $75,000,000 (after 3 failed attempts) because the planes following the flight path from the Palm Beach International Airport were too noisy and too frequent.

**September 16, 1996:**

Trump made an appeal at a Town Council hearing to end certain restrictions that were part of his agreement with the Town Council.

At one point, Mayor Paul Ilyinsky told one of Trump’s attorneys who was working with Rampell — James Green — that “to listen to this trash coming from you and Mr. Rampell, frankly, is going to make me throw up,” according to a transcript included in Trump’s lawsuit.

Trump would hold concerts on his front lawn, eventually constructing the Donald J. Trump Grand Ballroom.

Trump would hold parties throughout the day at Mar-a-Lago until 2 AM, 3 hours after the stipulated time of 11 PM, only receiving small fines.

Trump planned on making a dock but put the idea down until 2018-2020 when he reconsidered it.

**April 1998:** Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs and Jennifer Lopez spent Easter Sunday weekend at Mar-a-Lago. One lunchtime the couple took a stroll on the beach, took a rest on a beach chair and started intercourse beneath the Bath and Tennis Club’s picture windows, where all of the grandmothers having lunch with their grandchildren were.

**1999:** Palm Beach advertised 215 acres of barren scrubland for lease. It was located south of the Palm Beach International Airport near the county jail. Trump offered not only $438,000 per year for a 30 contract, but also that he would end his lawsuit. Palm Beach had already spent $275,000 on a Washington, D.C. law firm against Trump in court, so the county officials accepted the offer. Trump spent $40,000,000 to renovate the land to build the Trump International Golf Club. 3,000,000 cubic yards of earth were transplanted. 1,000 oaks and 700 royal-palm trees were transplanted. An 18-hole, Jim Fazio-designed course, was constructed.

**2006:** Trump was being fined $250 a day for a US flag in front of Mar-a-Lago, a 15 foot by 25 foot flag raised on an 80-foot pole, a flag that not only had no permit but was flown on a pole double the height allowed by the local ordinance. Trump sued the town for $25 million. However, the fines continued to be charged and at a continually increased rate reaching up to $120,000. And so, Trump settled with the council, moved the pole, shortened the pole to 50 feet, but placed the pole upon a mound so that the flag would still be at 80 feet. He also donated $100,000 to veteran charities. The flag incident had been among several of his neighbours’ complaints. These include Ficus hedges walling the property, noise, traffic, photo shoots, concerts, charity events, and even sprinkler systems and fireproofing methods to preserve the 16th century Portuguese tapestries that hung on his walls.

**2019:** Donald Trump and former first lady Melania Trump changed their residency from Trump Tower in New York City to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. The Trump Organization issued a statement saying, "There is no document or agreement in place that prohibits President Trump from using Mar-A-Lago as his residence." Trump owns two other homes near Mar-a-Lago.

[https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/mar-a-lago-members-leaving-trump/\](https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/mar-a-lago-members-leaving-trump/)

Mar-A-Lago Members Leaving Following Trump's Return

February 1, 2021 / 6:00 AM EST / CBS Miami

Sales at the Mar-a-Lago resort increased in 2020 from $21.4 million to $24.2 million, although earnings from other Trump businesses decreased.

[https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/palm-beach-legal-review-trump-maralago-residency\](https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/palm-beach-legal-review-trump-maralago-residency)

Town Of Palm Beach Conducting Legal Review Of Trump's Mar-a-Lago Residency

February 1, 2021 / 10:37 AM EST / CBS Miami

Trumps alleged violations of his user agreement were being reviewed. Palm Beach Town Manager Kirk Blouin says the matter is under legal review by the Town Attorney and it might be discussed at the upcoming town council meeting on February 9, 2021.