That Time Trump Got $18.3 Million in Palm Beach

Scrutiny of his business dealings is just the start of a long and possibly harrowing experience for the president and his entourage.

By Timothy L. O'Brien
March 7, 2019, 6:08 AM EST

Timothy L. O’Brien is the executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion. He has been an editor and writer for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, HuffPost and Talk magazine. His books include “TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald.”

A series of hurricanes tore through Florida in 2005, and Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s business and residence in Palm Beach, was apparently very beaten up because Trump collected about $18.3 million in insurance payments from Aon PLC that year.

When my attorney asked Trump during a 2007 deposition if he ever plowed all of those funds back into his club, he pointed out that “under the insurance plan you didn’t have to” even though “the hurricane really did tremendous damage.”

“What kind of damage specifically did you have to the property from these hurricanes?” my lawyer asked.

“I don’t remember that; I really don’t,” Trump replied. “They did appraisals.”

But Trump also said he didn’t review the appraisals or anything, really, pertaining to the insurance claim. Instead, he told my lawyers, he left all of those details to a Trump Organization executive, Matthew Calamari. (Trump was being deposed as part of a libel lawsuit he filed against me for a 2005 biography I wrote, “TrumpNation”; Trump lost the suit in 2011.)

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https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-03-07/nadler-and-others-look-at-trump-s-business-dealings