A road sign about a mile west of the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes warns: “Exercise extreme caution. Keep the ground moving.”
A few blocks away, a sign along Palos Verdes Drive South promotes The Estates at Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles, where prospective residents can “build their dream home.”
The signs represent the promise and the danger of Trump’s clifftop, open-to-the-public golf course, which he purchased from bankrupt developers in 2002, just after the 18th hole. slipped into the oceanThe club also played a role in Trump’s New York fraud trial.
On Friday morning, Trump is scheduled to hold a news conference at his club in the beautiful and troubled city, which has been hit by terrorism. emergency situation The order, issued this month by Governor Gavin Newsom, is due to excessive land movement caused by an ongoing, wet winter.
Hundreds of homes have had their power and gas cut off in recent weeks. A city-issued order remains in effect in areas near the golf course. Evacuation warning, The cracked land shifted about 9 to 12 inches one week And houses are falling apart and sliding off their foundations.
Last month, a small fire broke out in the Portuguese Bend neighborhood, which ignited by power line The danger was revealed by the collapse of buildings due to landslides.
It’s unclear whether Trump will acknowledge the ongoing devastation during his visit. City officials say the club is about a half-mile from the active slide area. In an email, his campaign said they were “monitoring” conditions in the city.
Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor John Cruikshank said he’s working hard to get on Trump’s radar.
“My hope is that when he’s in town, I’ll be able to get on his schedule and talk to him,” Cruickshank said. “It would be great to get the attention, no matter who it is.”
By Thursday afternoon Cruickshank still had nothing ready.
Trump is set to attend two big fundraising events in California this week, including a Thursday night event for which tickets were priced at $250,000 each. He’s also scheduled to attend a Bay Area fundraiser on Friday afternoon — which is being hosted, notably, by the . Relatives of Newsom’s wife. Cost: Up to $500,000 per couple.
This week, there was a stark dissonance between Trump’s club — where the smoothly paved parking lot was filled with Porsches, Teslas and BMWs — and the disaster unfolding just outside it.
On Palos Verdes Drive South, the only way to reach the club by car, traffic was slowed by orange cones, lane closures and the lights of utility trucks.
This two-lane road has long been a bumpy, often patched asphalt roller coaster. Parallel to this above ground sewage line The road is designed with flexible pipes so it moves along the ground – but the movement of the ground has left cracks, waves and deep ruts in the road.
Just off Palos Verdes Drive South, a sign for The Estates at Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles invites potential future residents to build luxury homes. Two newly built cul-de-sacs lead to vacant, graded lots where Trump’s company is actively working on plans to build 23 homes, said Amy Cerati, a senior city planner.
He said the Trump Organization is working on a detailed list of requirements — such as working with a city geologist to ensure irrigation doesn’t lead to land displacement — before it can sell and develop the plots.
“They’re working on meeting them,” he said of the requirements. “I don’t have an exact date, but they’re getting close.”
In 2002, Trump paid $27 million for this extremely undervalued property, then called Ocean Trails Golf Club. The original developers went bankrupt after the 18th hole collapsed into the Pacific Ocean during a landslide in 1999 while the course was still under construction.
In 2015, Trump announced he would abandon his plan to build homes on 16 additional plots of land, instead granting an 11.5-acre conservation easement to the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy. At a news conference at the time, Trump told officials With preservation: “It is a great honor for me, and I think I will enjoy it for eternity.”
Trump still owns the land, and golfers still use it as a driving range. But the move was praised by community leaders, who are happy to preserve open space on the shoreline.
Trump said the donated land was worth “far more than $25 million.” Although he characterized the donation as a charity, it was in his best interest to keep the land’s value as high as possible because that would affect the size of the tax exemption he could claim.
In 2022, New York State Attorney General Suing Trumpaccusing his three children and his company of He fraudulently exaggerated The value of the Rancho Palos Verdes Club and conservation easement, as well as the value of Trump’s other properties across the country, is also included.
The attorney general alleged the purpose was to obtain favorable loans and other economic benefits. In February, A judge ordered Trump to pay The civil fraud case resulted in a penalty of more than $450 million. Trump has appealed.
At Rancho Palos Verdes, Trump has repeatedly feuded with locals who planted a row of ficus trees without permission to block the view of homes they found ugly, and fought for a decade with the California Coastal Commission and the city over a 70-foot flagpole. he stood up Without a permit.
His son Eric Trump during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this summer told hundreds of California delegates and told his guests that the club had “the most beautiful views, the most perfect weather.”
“Every time I go there I think, ‘Man, if there weren’t taxes, if there weren’t taxes and all the craziness, I’d probably live here.'”
On Wednesday, the day after Trump’s debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, the formal dining room at the club’s Café Pacific was mostly empty. There, dolphins and seashells are painted on the ceiling, the $25 Trump Burger comes with Thousand Island dressing on a Trump-branded brioche bun, and picture windows offer stunning views of the Pacific Ocean.
Inside the Clubhouse store, visitors posed for photos with $50 red MAGA hats. Framed in the Clubhouse foyer Playboy magazine’s sexiest cover from 1990 It features Trump and his playmate Brandi Brandt, who has Trump’s tuxedo jacket wrapped around her naked body.
He also showed a 2007 resolution — signed by then-Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti — congratulating him Getting a star On the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Meanwhile, Mayor Cruikshank It is done A man even richer than Trump has sought help for his struggling city: tech billionaire Elon Musk.
“While our community is resilient, this situation presents a unique opportunity to turn an obstacle into a demonstration of sustainable lifestyles,” Cruickshank said. written in a letter On August 8, the Tesla founder and posted on XWhose owner is Musk too. He asked if Tesla could work with the city to provide electricity to the affected houses through solar panels and batteries?
Cruickshank said Musk’s company responded within three days and quickly arranged a meeting. He said city officials are now evaluating proposals for solar-powered batteries and other off-the-grid options to power homes.
As for Palos Verdes Drive South, there’s another sign alongside the signs warning of landslides and encouraging people to build their dream homes:
“Emergency sewer repairs. Delays expected.”
Times researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report.
