The Grifter's Club

Trump, Mar-a-Lago, and the Selling of the Presidency

By: Sarah Blaskey, Nicholas Nehamas, Caitlin Ostroff, Jay Weaver

Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan

An astonishing look inside the gilded gates of Mar-a-Lago, the palatial resort where President Trump conducts government business with little regard for ethics, security, or even the law.

Donald Trump's opulent Palm Beach club Mar-a-Lago has thrummed with scandal since the earliest days of his presidency. Long known for its famous and wealthy clientele, the resort's guest list soon started filling with political operatives and power-seekers. Meanwhile, as Trump re-branded Mar-a-Lago "the Winter White House" and began spending weekends there, state business spilled out into full view of the club's members, and vast sums of taxpayer money and political donations began flowing into its coffers, and into the pockets of the president.
The Grifter's Club is a breakthrough account of the impropriety, intrigue, and absurdity that has been on display in the place where the president is at his most relaxed. In these pages, a team of prizewinning Miami Herald journalists reveal the activities and motivations of the strange array of charlatans and tycoons who populate its halls. Some peddle influence, some seek inside information, and some just want to soak up the feeling of unfettered access to the world's most powerful leaders.
With the drama of an expose and the edgy humor of a Carl Hiaasen novel, The Grifter's Club takes you behind the velvet ropes of this exclusive club and into its bizarre world of extravagance and scandal.

Critic reviews

"The Grifter's Club is an illuminating, funny, and often outrageous peek behind the walls of Mar-a-Lago in the time of Trump. The stuffy elite of Palm Beach will merely be mortified, but hard-working taxpayers will be incensed."—Carl Hiaasen

Audio reader is terrible.

It's an interesting read. I enjoyed the author's take on things. But the reader is the worst I have ever heard, with an annoying sing-song delivery. He puts the emphasis in the wrong place, and mispronounces many words. Hard to listen to.

An inside look at the oddities

The Grifter’s Club is a fun and uniquely interesting looking inside the halls of financial and political influence of the Trump administration. It takes you through the odd and all too nefarious tales of how those with zero qualifications and zero good intentions have managed to influence key US policy both domestically and abroad. It’s a fun read.

Trump's circus and his monkeys

There were so many moments in this book that made me do a double take at the crazy that is the "Winter White House." Mar-a-Lago serves as both Trump's permanent residence and a private club for the billionaire class and the "remora" that feed off of them. This book is a glimpse into a world most of us will never have access to or can even imagine. The writing is witty and often comical, even if the content is sometimes alarming. One thing is for sure, being president has provided Trump certain financial advantages that presidents before him didn't have, thanks in large part to Mar-a-Lago. Was it legal? Maybe. Sometimes. Probably not.

Just wow!! :-(

It’s kind of like you know what’s going on but then you hear it like this and it just makes you even more mad. We have got to get these grifters out of the White House. And I mean right now!

Rare book about Trump’s BS that is actually enjoyable.

Great narrator, just the right amount of irony/humor to keep one’s attention. Appreciated the telling!! Good read.