See Inside the 'Winter White House' at Mar-a-Lago

  • Sunlight illuminates part of a coat of arms at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on December 28, 2016.
    Jonathan Ernst—Reuters
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  • The main living room in Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., March 4, 2016. The club was built by the cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, who sold it to Trump in 1985.
    Eric Thayer—The New York Times/Redux
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  • The main living room in Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., March 4, 2016.
    Eric Thayer—The New York Times/Redux
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  • A table setting in the main living room inside Mar-a-Lago on April 11, 2009.
    Chris Salata—The Palm Beach Post/ZUMA PRESS
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  • A 1927 Steinway baby grand piano in the living room of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate on March 4, 2016.
    Eric Thayer—The New York Times/Redux
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  • A portrait of Donald Trump hangs in the bar at the Mar-a-Lago estate on March 4, 2016.
    Eric Thayer—The New York Times/Redux
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  • Lightning flashes in the sky over Mar-a-Lago on July 30, 2015.
    Greg Lovett—The Palm Beach Post/Newscom
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By TIME Photo

When President Trump huddled with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, he was helping fulfill a plan decades in the making.

Built by cereal heiress and philanthropist Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1927, the property was supposed to become a “Winter White House” upon her death. Presidents Nixon and Kennedy even spent time there.

But the upkeep proved too expensive, and the property returned to private hands, eventually ending up as a private club run by Donald Trump.

Now, things have come full circle. See photographs from inside the “Winter White House.”

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