FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he wants to develop one of his Florida golf courses into a presidential retreat where his successors can spend quiet weekends on the greens, describing it as “sort of a Camp David ” that he says would already have many of the security features needed to host presidents and world leaders.
The proposal for the retreat on Trump’s private golf course in West Palm Beach would comingle the presidency with Trump's business ventures beyond his time in office, and is the the latest example of Trump seeking ways to leave his imprint on the presidency.
“It’s a great idea, and it’ll be used a lot,” Trump said, claiming it was suggested by the United States Secret Service. “It seems that all presidents play golf.”
The plan has already been submitted to local officials. Trump, an avid golfer, rattled off the benefits of the property a short drive from his Mar-a-Lago home during an unrelated event in the Oval Office, noting that it’s close to an airport and has some distance from residential homes and tall buildings, which pose security risks.
He did not mention that the golf course was the site of an unsuccessful attempt on his life in 2024. Trump was playing at the Trump International Golf Club during a break from the campaign trail when a Secret Service agent spotted an armed man in the trees lining the club’s perimeter fence. The man was arrested after a chase and later convicted of trying to kill Trump, and was sentenced to life in prison.
Past presidents have used Camp David, a rustic compound in Maryland, as a weekend retreat and a place to host presidential meetings. Trump has spent less time there, often opting for his own properties, including golf clubs in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia.
Trump's proposal follows other projects by the lifelong real estate developer to build a White House ballroom, gild the Oval Office, erect a triumphal arch, renovate the Kennedy Center, refurbish the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and rebuild a golf course in East Potomac Park. He has also begun planning a future presidential library in a Miami skyscraper.
In a letter to Palm Beach County commissioners last month, first reported by the Palm Beach Post, an attorney who represents the golf course said Trump is offering to designate it as a “U.S. Presidential Golf Course.”
“Just as Camp David, Windsor Castle, or the Elysée Palace are known worldwide, so too will the Presidential Golf Course in Palm Beach County,” Harvey Oyer said in the letter.
Palm Beach County Administrator Joseph Abruzzo said in a statement that local officials are eager to explore what this “historic opportunity” could mean to the community. “This likely would further cement Palm Beach County’s place on the national and international stage for generations to come,” Abruzzo said.
Oyer's letter said the West Palm Beach golf course could be used by current and former presidents, along with visiting foreign heads of state. The Trump Organization owns the golf club but leases the land from the county, which would need to approve any changes.
Under the proposal, the club would pay to build a new presidential lodging and then work with the Secret Service and other agencies to provide free access to the federal government. The retreat would have a separate entrance from the private club, which earned Trump nearly $37 million during his first year back in office, according to his financial disclosure.
“This is a gift that the President would like to share with his successors, the people of America, and his fellow Palm Beach County residents," Oyer wrote. "It should be noted that President Trump will be out of office before this proposed project could be completed so this is a gift to his successors.”
Oyer highlighted past U.S. presidents who turned over land for public use. Dwight Eisenhower donated his Gettysburg Farm in Pennsylvania to the National Park Service, and Franklin D. Roosevelt donated part of his estate in Hyde Park, New York.
Years before it was bought by Trump, Mar-a-Lago itself was proposed as a “Winter White House.”
Businesswoman and socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post left the home to the National Park Service when she died in 1973, but the agency returned the home to her estate in 1980 because of high maintenance costs. Trump bought the property in 1985, and it later became his primary residence.
Binkley reported from Washington.
FILE - The motorcade for President Donald Trump arrives at Trump International Golf Club, Jan. 2, 2026, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Tropical Storm Isaias formed Wednesday in the warm waters off eastern Mexico and forecasters predicted it will quickly strengthen into the first hurricane of the Atlantic season before striking the U.S. Gulf Coast later in the week.
Communities in Isaias' potential path moved quickly to prepare with landfall forecast as soon as Friday evening. Some Gulf oil wells paused production and an Alabama beach city canceled a weekend festival known to draw thousands of tourists. Governors in Florida and Alabama declared a state of emergency for dozens of counties.
As it moves inland, Isaias might also disrupt Saturday's college football showdown between rivals Georgia and Alabama — a game President Donald Trump has planned to attend.
Isaias could become a major Category 3 hurricane, with winds of 111 mph (178 kph) or stronger, before it strikes land, said Michael Brennan, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
“We’re expecting multiple dangerous, life-threatening impacts along portions of the northern Gulf Coast beginning Friday and continuing into the weekend," Brennan said in a video briefing Wednesday.
The storm was on track to tie or break a 121-year-old record as the latest arriving initial hurricane of the Atlantic season. According to the National Weather Service, the record dates to 1905, when the year’s first Atlantic hurricane formed on Oct. 8.
The Atlantic hurricane season has been unusually quiet this year because of a strong El Niño, which disrupts storm formation over that ocean. Storm activity has been above average in the Pacific, where Tropical Storm Simon also formed Wednesday off Mexico.
The Miami-based hurricane center issued a hurricane watch Wednesday for the northern Gulf Coast from Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, to Indian Pass on the Florida Panhandle. The watch means hurricane conditions are possible within 48 hours.
Brennan said dangerous storm surge could affect an even wider area, from southeast Louisiana to Florida's Big Bend. Heavy rains of 3 to 7 inches (7 to 18 centimeters) could trigger flash flooding near the coast, with accumulations of 1 to 3 inches (3 to 8 centimeters) as far inland as Tennessee and the western Carolinas.
Isaias was centered about 225 miles (365 kilometers) west-northwest of Progreso, Mexico, and about 500 miles (805 kilometers) south-southwest of the Mississippi River’s mouth, according to the hurricane center. It had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph) and was moving east-northeast at 8 mph (13 kph).
Forecasters predict Isaias (pronounced ees-ah-EE’-ahs, according to the hurricane center) will become a hurricane by Thursday as it turns northward toward the U.S. Gulf Coast. Though its path and timing could shift, the storm is expected to make landfall late Friday or early Saturday.
Isaias is expected to strike along a wide swath of coastline that's no stranger to major hurricanes. One of the 20th century's worst storms, Hurricane Camille, killed more than 250 people after hitting land near Waveland, Mississippi, in 1969. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 razed neighborhoods in Mississippi, flooded New Orleans and killed nearly 1,400 people. And Hurricane Michael leveled homes and buildings near Panama City, Florida, in 2018.
Ahead of the storm, oil and gas producers shut down a significant share of offshore production in the Gulf, which accounts for almost 15% of crude pumped annually in the U.S.
As of Wednesday, producers had temporarily halted about 25% of the oil produced in the region, taking about 511,000 barrels a day off the market, according to the Marine Minerals Administration. It said eight of the Gulf's 371 manned oil platforms had been evacuated.
With oil prices already high, the production cuts are steep enough to affect oil markets, though other Gulf hurricanes have caused larger disruptions, said Jim Burkhard, global head of crude oil market research for S&P Global Energy. More concerning, he said, is whether Isaias strikes as a powerful storm near refineries.
“I would characterize the oil market risk as moderate, but rising,” Burkhard said in an email.
In Gulf Shores, Alabama, the storm threat caused organizers to cancel the National Shrimp Festival that had been scheduled for Thursday through the weekend. The event drew an estimated 325,000 people last year.
Gulf Shores resident Maranie Adams spent Wednesday gathering water and other supplies as her family moved some belongings, including a hot tub motor, to higher ground.
Adams said she, her husband and two adult sons plan to ride out the storm at home, roughly a half-mile from shore. Sheltering with them indoors will be the family’s flock of chickens, including five roosters.
“We’re having to get crates to bring them into the house so they don’t blow away,” Adams said. “It’s going to be noisy.”
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued a state of emergency for 40 counties, saying in a post on X, “While I hope for minimal impacts, we must take preparations seriously."
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis declared one for 25 counties in the Panhandle and Big Bend regions. The declaration activates the state's emergency management plan for hurricanes, allowing officials to deploy disaster responders and equipment. The state is also planning to deploy a Miami-based urban search and rescue task force.
In Pensacola on the Florida Panhandle, electric utilities were prepositioning crews to quickly repair any power outages. City officials provided sand for residents to fill sandbags to protect their homes against flooding. And Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves urged people to check on elderly neighbors and others who might need help.
“Obviously no need to panic at this point," Reeves told a news conference Wednesday. "This is really about preparation.”
Rico reported from Atlanta and Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut. Associated Press journalists Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, and Julie Walker in New York contributed to this report.
This satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Tropical Storm Isaias off the eastern coast of Mexico on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via AP)
This satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Tropical Depression Nine forming over the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026. (NOAA via AP)
