On January 10 or possibly a week before, a reporter for The New Yorker is given a ride to Palm Beach while doing a story on Donald Trump. Mark Singer (the reporter) and Trump are joined on his private jet by Ghislaine Maxwell, 13-year-old Eric Trump, attorney Eric Javits, and Matthew Calamari, the head of security for the Trump Organization.
The most direct but not exactly most serene way to travel to Mar-a-Lago, I discovered one weekend not long ago, is aboard Trump’s 727, the same aircraft he gave up during the blip and, after an almost decent interval, bought back. My fellow-passengers included Eric Javits, a lawyer and nephew of the late Senator Jacob Javits, bumming a ride; Ghislaine Maxwell, the daughter of the late publishing tycoon and inadequate swimmer Robert Maxwell, also bumming a ride; Matthew Calamari, a telephone-booth-size bodyguard who is the head of security for the entire Trump Organization; and Eric Trump, Donald’s thirteen-year-old son.
Mark Singer, The New Yorker
Later the same day, at Mar-a-Lago, the reporter notices that all of the female staff are exceptionally attractive. Trump admits to choosing female employees based solely on their appearance.
Evidently, Trump’s philosophy of wellness is rooted in a belief that prolonged exposure to exceptionally attractive young female spa attendants will instill in the male clientele a will to live…
Trump introduced me to “our resident physician, Dr. Ginger Lea Southall”—a recent chiropractic-college graduate. As Dr. Ginger, out of earshot, manipulated the sore back of a grateful member, I asked Trump where she had done her training. “I’m not sure,” he said. “Baywatch Medical School? Does that sound right? I’ll tell you the truth. Once I saw Dr. Ginger’s photograph, I didn’t really need to look at her résumé or anyone else’s. Are you asking, ‘Did we hire her because she’d trained at Mount Sinai for fifteen years?’ The answer is no. And I’ll tell you why: because by the time she’s spent fifteen years at Mount Sinai, we don’t want to look at her.”
Mark Singer, New Yorker
Notes
A previous version of this post suggested Donald Trump was not on the jet and that these events took place in April or May. After considering more context within Singer’s feature, Trump File believes trip was likely in early January. Singer writes, “My visit happened to coincide with the coldest weather of the winter, and this gave me a convenient excuse, at frequent intervals, to retreat to my thousand-dollar-a-night suite and huddle under the bedcovers in fetal position.”
The graphic below shows Florida temperatures in 1997.
Singer also writes that his second day in Palm Beach was a Saturday. We believe the flight with Maxwell was either Friday, January 3 or Friday, January 10.
External Sources
Weather Spark – Florida Temperatures 1997
Photograph: Hello! Cover, February 3, 1997