Politics - News Analysis

Trump’s Billionaire Neighbor Says His Mar-a-Lago ‘Friends’ Aren’t Real Friends at All, ‘It’s All Transactional’

It may seem as if former President Trump has many friends, but according to another billionaire who lives near him in Florida, he doesn’t. Not really. All those folks we see him with are not true friends, according to Real Estate mogul Jeff Greene, who talked to the Financial Times.

Instead, he said the atmosphere at Mar-a-Lago is “all transactional,” per Business Insider.

Greene became a member of the famed golf club in 2010, but it isn’t clear if he’s maintained that membership.

Of course, we’ve seen scores of photos surrounded by allies and admirers at his Palm Beach home, basking in their adulation when he enters the room. Filmmaker Alex Holder revealed that earlier this year. This includes the “Trumpettes” — a gaggle of well-heeled women who lavish praise on the former president.

Even though Greene suggests all of this is fake.

The Times asked him who Trump’s close friends are and he responded “I don’t think he has any friends.”

Greene did say he knows of one person who plays golf with Trump “all the time” even though Trump never invited this person to the White House, more or less implying that the ex-president wasn’t all that fond of this person.

Is it any surprise that all of this is probably just for show? It’s really pretty tricky to earn friendships when you’re really only all about yourself 24/7. Friendships are usually give and take and Trump rarely gives —he only takes.

Greene said he and the former president maintained a cordial relationship, but that changed when Greene decided to run for governor on the Democratic ticket in 2018 and unfortunately lost to a cough-cough to a right-wing idiot. Apparently, Trump was offended by an attack ad Greene ran in 2018, and the cordialness came to a halt.

But the real estate magnate said he thinks Trump was only interested in him because he is a billionaire.

“He would come over to my table, I think, because I was a billionaire,” he told the Times. “He likes billionaires.”

And Greene isn’t the only person to notice Trump’s fondness for other wealthy people.

New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman made a similar observation in her book Confidence Man. In an excerpt published by Insider, Trump viewed his time as president valuable because he gained “so many rich friends and nobody knows who they are.” Haberman notes she found it “jarring,” when he said this.

Greene, in discussing the crowds of fans who make their way to Mar-a-Lago told the publication “They want to be around him because he’s the ex-president.” He added that Trump “likes people to defer to him … and tell him how good he is.”

And apparently, Trump has one notoriously hard-right friend, Nigel Farage, who told the Times he thinks of Trump as a “good friend” who “meant it” when he said in 2016 that he and Farage would be friends for life.

Farage has been racist at times, so perhaps it really is true that “like attracts like.”

meet the author

Megan has lived in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida and she currently lives in Central America. Living in these places has informed her writing on politics, science, and history. She is currently owned by 15 cats and 3 dogs and regularly owns Trump supporters when she has the opportunity. She can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GaiaLibra and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/politicalsaurus

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