Donald Trump’s neighbors are fuming over a new no-fly zone over the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate that has indefinitely re-routed noisy planes above their homes.
For most of the year, residents of Palm Beach, Florida, only experienced street closures and restrictions on boat and air travel when the president in town.
But last month the Secret Service suddenly issued new flight restrictions that divert planes away from Mar-a-Lago—which is normally in the Palm Beach Airport’s flight path—and over homes that were previously not affected by the planes’ noise and pollution, The Washington Post reported.
Now the planes are “thundering” over residents’ homes from 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., making sleep impossible, Trump’s neighbors told the Post.
Homes in the flight path are worth up to 20 percent less, and people who buy outside the flight path pay more money for a reason, local real estate agents told the paper.
During a meeting earlier this month of the Citizens Committee on Airport Noise, residents worried that the temporary changes—which the Secret Service says will remain in effect until at least October of next year—could become permanent.
Trump has tried for decades to re-route the planes flying over Mar-a-Lago, which he bought in 1985 for $8 million, suing the county and airport three times between 1995 and 2015, according to the Post.
The first suit was dropped after the county agreed to widen the flight path and lease Trump 200 acres of land, where he built his Trump International Golf Club. The second, filed in 2010, was dismissed.
Trump filed the third suit in 2015 but dropped it when he was elected president the next year, because the planes no longer flew over Mar-a-Lago while he was there.
“This is an opportunity for him to seize what he’s really wanted to do for a very long time,” a resident pointed out earlier this month during a meeting of the Citizens Committee on Airport Noise. “This could be stretched for three years. It could be forever.”
The island is home to millionaires and billionaires, 68 percent of whom voted for Trump in 2024. Even the president’s supporters, however, are reportedly getting angry.
Local officials were blindsided by the changes, and both the White House and the Secret Service have declined to provide a rationale.
“In order to ensure the highest levels of safety and security for the President, the U.S. Secret Service requested the FAA institute additional temporary flight restrictions over Mar-a-Lago,” a spokesperson told the Post. “We recognize that these changes could have an impact on the public and appreciate the Palm Beach community’s understanding as we work to keep the President safe.”
The Daily Beast has also reached out for comment as well.
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