Joel EngelhardtPacked Forum Club tunes in as Trump riffs on the audience, the island and world affairs.
Anyone who’s seen President Donald Trump speak knows he doesn’t follow typical patterns but instead offers a stream of consciousness unique among politicians.
While his words don’t always ring true, he comes across without pretense. For millions, he gives the impression that he’s talking directly to you, not over you.
After a 90-minute speech to fans Friday in The Villages, Trump made good on his promise to his West Palm Beach attorney, Harvey Oyer, to speak at a hastily organized $225-per-plate dinner gathering of the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches.
Early in the hour-and-15-minute talk, Trump mentioned that he didn’t have to come but said he couldn’t snub a hometown audience where he would know so many of the diners.
“Can you imagine, this is a crowd where I know so many, many killers,” he said, falling into his familiar, at times inappropriate, unfiltered patter. “Very successful people, some are nice, some are horrendous people. But I like the nice ones and the horrendous ones also.”
And he couldn’t help but single out his favorites in the audience, lavishing praise on the Palm Beach Town Council, where he said he was working with Mayor Danielle Moore on a desalinization plant to replace the town’s reliance on city of West Palm Beach water.
“I said, ‘Danielle, why can’t we be like a submarine? We have the best desalinization. We’re the best submarines in the world. We can go for years underwater … And one of the things we have is great water on the submarines, desalinization. So I’m saying, how does that sound for Palm Beach?’
“From the standpoint of unbelievably clean, pure water, it would be great. So we’re working with Danielle, and we’re working with the council, and I think something’s going to come up, whether it’s filtering or desalinization.
“Desalinization is a little bit better and a little bit more expensive — like a lot,” he said to laughter.
Shoutouts to locals in the audience
Trump had no trouble drawing laughter and applause from the audience of about 580 who without complaint endured up to an hour in line to walk from the Kravis Center parking garage to the single security screening point at the entrance to the Cohen Pavilion.
Heavily armed Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies lined the walkway interspersed with equally heavily armed West Palm Beach police officers. Shortly before Trump appeared at about 7:50 pm, a phalanx of White House photographers and correspondents filed in.
Aside from Mayor Moore, Trump’s familiar shoutouts singled out state Rep. Meg Weinberger, who led the renaming of Southern Boulevard and Palm Beach International Airport for Trump; County Administrator Joe Abruzzo, whom Trump referred to as a “diamond”; Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, “A friend of mine, even though he’s a Democrat”; West Palm Beach mayoral candidate Christina Lambert; and County Commissioner Maria Marino.
A reference to West Palm Beach architect Rick Gonzalez’ “beautiful, Hispanic flair,” led to an aside about taking over Cuba. Florida’s former Chief Financial Officer and onetime state Senate President Jeff Atwater also heard his name called.
Among prominent Republicans in attendance, Trump made no mention of County Mayor Sara Baxter, who tried to move the county mayors’ ball to Mar-a-Lago and received Trump’s endorsement in January for a second term.
Trump called out billionaire sugar baron Jose “Pepe” Fanjul, praising him for being an early supporter, and compared him to his son, Pepe Jr., who he said, drawing laughter, “Looks like him, sounds like him. He might even be more vicious, if that’s possible.”
Others from his current or past administration in the audience: Wilbur Ross, former commerce secretary; Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets and Trump’s first-term ambassador to the United Kingdom; Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency; and Robin Bernstein, first-term ambassador to the Dominican Republic.
He admitted to considering renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of Trump and described the reaction of the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum when he declared it the Gulf of America, bringing on a riff about talking to beautiful women.
“She’s a beautiful woman. I never like to talk about beauty because it’s usually the end of a political career. If you say somebody’s a beautiful woman, they say, ‘What a terrible, terrible thing,’” he said. “Everybody hates it, except the woman that you’re talking about.”
The comment drew howls of laughter.
‘Bigger and better’ airport
He praised the growth of West Palm Beach, saying the city is “really hot,” before returning to the airport’s name change and sharing that he’s working with the county in Washington on airport improvements.
“I know that lots of tremendous elements are going to be added to the airport, making it bigger and better. And it’s really going to be. I don’t think there’ll be anything as good as your airport will be anywhere in the country,” he said to loud applause.
“That’s the way I feel, and that’s very important. In Washington, they say (feigning official voice): ‘Sir, which airport would you like most to fix up?’ I said, ‘How about Palm Beach?’ So you’ll be all very happy.”
Expansion of the in-town airport that grew out of an Army base has long been a third rail in local politics, as coastal residents resist actions that add to the noise levels they already endure.
Trump went on a long riff about Mar-a-Lago that led to a discussion of the level of security his presence brings to the island. Even rich and powerful friends don’t mind taking orders from the Secret Service, he said.
“They get thrown around like pinatas by the Secret Service. … Nobody’s ever spoken to them (that way). They don’t mind. It’s crazy.
“And it also gives you a lot of additional security. You get a lot of free security. Mayor, I have to tell you, you probably have the safest community in the history of the world. Nobody’s coming into Palm Beach to do any robberies.”
Politicians are tougher than businessmen
He sounded familiar themes on a litany of national issues, including the war in Iran, border policies and drug prices. He also spoke of the murder rate in Washington, his admiration for auto racing legend Roger Penske and elimination of fish-catch limits.
In response to a question from Oyer, he said he used to think businessmen were tougher than politicians — until he spent a month in Washington.
“Now I say it’s not even close. These politicians are ruthless, vicious. They are liars,” he said, before adding, “I will say this. There is nothing more beautiful than a really good politician who’s honorable.”
He pivoted to his experiences with prosecutors, saying of his own recent courtroom experiences, “I was able to beat a system that was brutal” and making light of the federal government’s recent indictment of former FBI chief James Comey, saying “Comey, how’s he doing?”
“You have some of these prosecutors, they’re dirty cops, and you have others that are very fair. And I think the world of the prosecutors is a very important world. You want fair, you have to have fair prosecutors, and some of them aren’t fair.
“The prosecutors are very powerful, and they can destroy people unfairly, and they can also do a good job. But having smart and fair prosecutors is a very important part of the world in which we live. I think that makes sense, but I feel very strongly about that.”
Trump’s shoutouts also included former Congressman Dan Mica, who spoke earlier in the evening as the Forum Club honored him for founding the club 50 years ago. Mica, a Democrat, praised the club for making good on its stated objective of delivering bipartisan discourse, starting with the club’s first speaker, then-presidential candidate Jimmy Carter.
With Trump’s appearance, the club came to the final days of its 50th season by hosting its first president.
Watch the video of President Trump’s Forum Club speech here.
Editor’s note: Joel Engelhardt is a Forum Club member.
