Who are Trump’s Neighbours?

Sat Jan 25 2025
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Key points

  • With Trump 2.0 Palm Beach became a focal point of political discourse
  • Trump’s return pushed the average price of single-family homes by 38pc
  • Ken Griffin a billionaire lives in Miami but looms large over Palm Beach
  • Stephen Schwarzman sits on the board of the Palm Beach Civic Association

ISLAMABAD: Mar-a-Lago, a resort and National Historic Landmark in Palm Beach, Florida, was abuzz on election night, with Donald Trump counting his votes from his gilded ballroom, flanked by Tucker Carlson, UFC boss Dana White and Elon Musk.

According to Forbes, partying with Trump were a lot of his neighbours, including Australia’s richest person, mining bigwig Gina Rinehart (net worth: $30 billion), who paid $66 million in 2022 for a mansion just up the road, and Steve Wynn, the casino billionaire ($3.7 billion) who spent $13 million in December for a half-acre property across the water from Mar-a-Lago.

Palm Beach

Palm Beach, Florida, has been a haven for America’s wealthiest since Standard Oil tycoon Henry Flagler built the Florida East Coast Railway in the 1890s and built the iconic Breakers hotel.

Many of the top donors have homes on this ritzy, 16-mile stretch of Florida coast, as well as Trump pals both old (former U.K. ambassador and NY Jets co-owner Woody Johnson, ex-commerce secretary Wilbur Ross) and new. Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump’s nominee to control Medicare and Medicaid, has a house in the area.

So does John Phelan (nominee for Navy secretary) and Todd Blanche (deputy attorney general). Steve Witkoff, co-chair of Trump’s inauguration committee and his pick for Middle East envoy, is developing a house across the lagoon in West Palm Beach with Soviet-born billionaire investor Len Blavatnik.

Fox News host

Also, Fox News host Bret Baier paid $37 million for a 6,700-square-foot Palm Beach mansion in 2023, while Sean Hannity upgraded his $5 million townhouse to a $23.5 million spread in close Manalapan in November.

With Trump expected to jet into town to spend weekends at his “Winter White House,” everyone from administration hopefuls and the U.S. Secret Service to the apolitical rich is flooding the market, helping push the average price of a single-family home up 38% year-over-year, according to The Corcoran Group.

“The day after the election,” says realtor Dana Koch, “it was like someone turned on a faucet.”

“They’re flocking to the president,” says Mar-a-Lago member Hilary Musser, who recently listed a nearby 10,000-square-foot mansion—with a second-story pool and “Ferrari leather” closets—for $36 million.

Sense of euphoria

Adds realtor Christian Angle: “There’s been an absolute sense of euphoria.”

In all, Forbes found around 50 billionaires along with celebrities, worth a combined $500 billion, who keep a home in Trump’s neighbourhood.

Here’s a look at the rock stars, politicians, and business class who are neighbours of the 45th—and 47th—president, with the values of their properties.

Ken Griffin

Appraised value: $768 million

The billionaire hedge fund titan who donated more than $100 million to Republican candidates in the 2024 cycle lives in Miami but looms large over Palm Beach.

grifn
Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin —Photo by AFP

Donald Trump

Estimated value: $375 million (before debt)

Trump scored Mar-a-Lago—built by cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post in the 1920s—for an estimated $10 million in 1985, or about $30 million adjusted for inflation. Now, worth north of $342 million net of debt, it is Trump’s single most valuable real estate holding.

Nelson Peltz

Appraised value: $372 million

The billionaire investor hosted a wedding for the ages at Montsorrel—his historic 25,000-square-foot oceanfront home built by Georgia O’Keeffe’s sister—in 2022 when his daughter Nicola married Brooklyn Beckham, son of soccer superstar David Beckham and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham.

Nelson Peltz
Nelson Peltz (L) and Elon Musk(R) —Photo by AFP

John Paulson

Appraised value: $112 million

Famed for shorting subprime mortgages ahead of the 2007 crash, the billionaire has bet big on Trump, including hosting a $50.5 million fundraiser for him in April 2024 at the ocean-to-lake compound he bought in 2021 for $110 million.

John Paulson
John Paulson on set of “The Claman Countdown” at Fox Business Network Studios on September 17, 2024 in New York City. —Photo by AFP

Jeff Greene

Appraised value:  $100 million

The real estate and investing billionaire—who is a former member of Mar-a-Lago—did not vote for Trump in 2024, but does see a silver lining to the election, telling Forbes: “There’s no question in my mind that having West Palm Beach on everyone’s television screens all over the world is only going to help our brand and our city.”

Jeff Greene
Jeff Greene at the groundbreaking of his project, the two-tower mixed-use development One West Palm, in 2019 —Photo by AFP

Tommy Hilfiger

Appraised value: $96 million

The fashion designer’s oceanfront Coral House is a 21,000-square-foot spread worthy of a picture book—and he is reportedly releasing one, Hilfiger Homes, this year—that he has dressed in floral prints, palm tree sculptures, and works by Warhol and Picasso.

Tommy Hilfiger
US fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger (left) and his wife Dee Ocleppo arrive on May 26, 2022 to attend the annual amfAR Cinema Against AIDS Cannes Gala.—Photo by AFP

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Thomas Peterffy

Appraised value: $96 million

An ardent Trump backer, the digital trading billionaire behind Interactive Brokers has an 11,000-square-foot home on a six-acre lot he purchased for $23 million in 2011. He asked Republicans to look for a different candidate in 2024, however, quickly came back around once the writing was on the wall, attending a Trump fundraiser in Aspen, Colorado, in August and donating some $15 million to GOP efforts.

THOMAS
Thomas Peterffy —Photo by AFP

Stephen Schwarzman

Appraised value: $78 million

The chair of Trump’s short-lived business advisory council in 2017, Schwarzman first said he would not support his longtime friend in 2024, however, backtracked in May. The billionaire Wall Street titan, who cofounded $218 billion (market cap), Blackstone, owns a 15,000-square-foot home with views of the Atlantic and Lake Worth Lagoon and sits on the board of the Palm Beach Civic Association.

Stephen Schwarzman
Stephen Schwarzman —Photo by AFP

Rod Stewart

Appraised value: $66 million

Since 1995, the rock star has kept a sunshine-yellow mansion on South Ocean Boulevard, putting him in Trump’s orbit for years. “I used to go to his Christmas party and the balls he held, but my wife said ‘no,’” Stewart told Scottish Field magazine in 2023.

Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart —Photo by AFP

Sylvester Stallone

Appraised value: $48 million

The MAGA A-lister, who Trump named a “special ambassador to Hollywood” this week, bought an 11,000-square-foot pad for $35 million in 2020 but got off to a rocky start with his neighbors, who opposed his plan to build a floating barrier around his property to fend off seaweed, trash—and prying eyes. He dropped the plan in December.

Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone —Photo by AFP
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