The luxury of peace and quiet has been taken from President Donald Trump’s millionaire and billionaire neighbors after the Secret Service requested the Federal Aviation Administration alter flight routes in Palm Beach, a new report claims.
“It’s thundering,” Nancy Pullum, who lives in the El Cid neighborhood of West Palm Beach, told the Washington Post report.
Pullum, who is also chair of the Citizens’ Committee on Airport Noise, was complaining about the planes that have been flying over her home, just a few blocks north of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, following the new flight rules.
“It’s as if they’re accelerating when they’re right over me. You go take your trash out to your garbage can, and you realize there’s a plane right over your head, and you can see the belly of it,” Pullum said.
The Secret Service explained to The Independent that they requested the Federal Aviation Administration to “institute additional temporary flight restrictions over Mar-a-Lago” to “ensure the highest levels of safety and security for the President.”
But the new flight paths will remain in place even when Trump isn’t at his Florida home, which is located just over a 10-minute drive southeast of Palm Beach International Airport. During his first term, planes over Mar-a-Lago were banned just when Trump was in town.
The Secret Service did not explain its rationale for having a no-fly zone when the president is in Washington or elsewhere. Pullum claimed that “literally nobody knew” about the changes before they happened.
“We recognize that these changes could have an impact on the public and appreciate the Palm Beach community’s understanding as we work to keep the President safe,” the Secret Service added.
Most outgoing planes from the Palm Beach airport are now flying north of Trump’s home after the flight rules were changed last month, perThe Post.
Trump has long sought to change the flight patters over his mansion, which have been in place for more than 70 years, according to the report. Before becoming president for the first time in 2017, Trump filed three lawsuits regarding plane noise over his Mar-a-Lago home, which he purchased in 1985 for $8 million, per The Post. All three lawsuits were dropped.
The new flight restrictions will finally do just that. The Secret Service said the new rules will continue at least until next October.
Trump is known to spend a lot of time at his Palm Beach home, which also doubles as a social club from Halloween to Mother’s Day in May. He visited Mar-a-Lago about 145 times in his first presidential term and more than a dozen times in the past ten or so months since taking office for the second time. He just spent Thanksgiving with first lady Melania Trump at the club.
Palm Beach County Commissioner Gregg Weiss has also spoken out about the new flight paths.
“We want to do everything to make sure we protect our president, and we understand that when he’s there, this is what needs to happen,” he said in The Post report. “But when he’s not there, why? What’s the concern at that point?”
One resident said at a citizens’ noise committee meeting earlier this month, “This is an opportunity for [Trump] to seize what he’s really wanted to do for a very long time.”
“This could be stretched for three years. It could be forever,” the resident warned.
