Christopher Rufo on trump: what the evidence says · JRE #2113
SUBJECT: TRUMP
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
And the Mar-a-Lago property is not worth $18 million. I mean, that's absurd. Isn't it like 18 acres?
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Rufo characterized an $18 million valuation of Mar-a-Lago as absurd on its face. The $18 million to $27.6 million range cited around Judge Arthur Engoron's September 2023 ruling did not come from Engoron or Attorney General Letitia James; it came from the Palm Beach County property appraiser's tax assessments for 2011 to 2021, and Engoron publicly asked the press to stop attributing the figure to him. That county valuation reflects Mar-a-Lago's status as a deed-restricted private club: Trump signed a conservation and preservation easement and a related deed restriction limiting the property to club use, so the appraiser values it based on club income rather than unrestricted residential resale value, consistent with how other deed-restricted private clubs in the county are assessed. James's office argued Trump's own statements of financial condition valued the property at $426 million to $612 million by ignoring the deed restriction, and Trump's own representatives had previously agreed with similar county valuations. Presenting the $18 million figure as a simple absurdity omits that it is a restricted-use tax assessment, not a claim about the property's unrestricted market value, and misattributes the number's origin to the court rather than the county appraiser.