Florida representative wants Mar-a-Lago shut down following maskless NYE party

Florida state representative Omari Hardy filed a complaint with Palm Beach County to shut down Mar-a-Lago following a New Year’s Eve party filled with maskless attendees.

Hardy, a Democrat from Lake Worth Beach, told the Washington Post that guests violated the county’s mask order, marking at least the second holiday party in which attendees broke local rules. President Trump did not attend the event in Palm Beach, but his attorney Rudy Giuliani and Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., were among those in attendance, according to social media posts. Tickets to the event reportedly cost $1,000, according to the New York Times.

The mask ordinance in Palm Beach County requires facial coverings for people in any business or establishment, but Palm Beach Town Manager Kirk Blouin told the Post that the town’s police can’t enter private businesses without an invitation. The county is reviewing Rep. Hardy’s complaint.

The county’s Covid code enforcement team has shut down 27 businesses, which have all reopened, and issued 86 violations since the mask requirement went into effect in mid-June, according to the Washington Post.

The president is expected to move to Mar-a-Lago after he leaves office Jan. 20. Some Palm Beach residents have demanded that the town council enforce an agreement Trump signed in the early 1990s, which would mean that Trump would not be able to operate Mar-a-Lago as both a private club and a residence.

Trump and First Lady Melania Trump changed their residency to Mar-a-Lago in 2019 and voted in Palm Beach County.

“Trump is going to be a full-time Palm Beach resident in less than 20 days. Either we stand up to Trump when he breaks the law, or we stand down and let him flout the law and walk all over us, [and] endanger the health of our residents,” Hardy told the Post. “We can’t afford to allow him or any other business to have special treatment, because the stakes are too high.”

[Washington Post] – Katherine Kallergis