President Donald Trump's latest getaway is bringing more protesters, airport security hassles and police overtime _ but now it's New Jersey getting the Palm Beach treatment.
With Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club closed for the summer, the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., is the new presidential weekend escape destination.
After seven trips to Palm Beach since taking office, Trump made his second post-inauguration visit to his exclusive New Jersey club this past weekend.
Now, Bedminster is trying to learn from Palm Beach's sometimes rocky relationship with the president.
New Jersey leaders are already following Palm Beach County's lead and angling for federal reimbursement of increased police security costs.
"We were really concerned about the impact on local taxpayers," Bedminster Mayor Steve Parker said. "We still don't know how many visits we are going to get."
Small airports near Bedminster _ where aviation businesses have been grounded by presidential security rules during Trump visits _ are joining the push from Palm Beach County's Lantana Airport to try to get the Secret Service to ease flight limits.
"We are completely shut down when he's in Bedminster," said Suzanne Nagle, one of the owners of Solberg Airport. "It's too early to tell what's going to happen because we don't know how often he is going to come."
Also, New Jersey protest groups have called their South Florida counterparts for tips on how to overcome difficulties demonstrating near the president _ made difficult because he spends most of his time behind the gates at Trump properties.
New Jersey demonstrators driving decorated cars have been holding weekly protest parades _ called The People's Motorcade _ outside the gates to the golf club since his last visit in early May.
"We honk our horns. People ride their bikes," said Analilia Mejia, of the group New Jersey Working Families. "It's been growing. ... We are not content to allow business as usual."
Palm Beach and Bedminster are both affluent towns with similar populations around 8,000, though in Palm Beach that number can swell by about 20,000 seasonal residents during the fall and winter.
While Palm Beach has oceanfront luxury and ritzy shopping, Bedminster's upscale neighborhoods are spread over central New Jersey horse-farm country, about 50 miles from Manhattan.
During Palm Beach visits, Trump's motorcade typically shuttles him between Mar-a-Lago and his golf courses in West Palm Beach and Jupiter. But in New Jersey, the president can stay put at his Bedminster club, where he has two golf courses and a residence.
"He remained on the golf course. It was pretty quiet," Parker said about Trump's visit in May. "It's not like he was going downtown to have a pizza."
The Bedminster club is the town's second-biggest property taxpayer.
Even if the president stays at the club during his Bedminster trips, the small community police department with 18 officers faces a growing overtime expense, the mayor said.
That translates to about $42,000 in overtime costs per presidential visit, Parker said. That would add up to nearly $300,000 if the president makes seven trips to Bedminster, like he did to Palm Beach.
In, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office estimates that Trump's visits to Palm Beach since the election _ which included Trump hosting the leaders of Japan and China _ already have cost local governments more than $4 million in increased security costs.
Both Bedminster and Palm Beach County are counting on about $61 million included in a congressional budget deal reimbursing those and future presidential security costs.
That federal money doesn't include help for aviation businesses that have to temporarily close during presidential visits in Palm Beach County and near Bedminster.
Flight training, airplane rentals and sightseeing companies at the Lantana airport in Palm Beach County have had to turn away customers during Trump's visits because of rules against flying near Mar-a-Lago.
Now businesses at Somerset Airport and Solberg Airport near Trump's Bedminster club face similar restrictions, at a time when Nagle said they are usually their busiest.
"Sixty percent of our business is on the weekend, and most of our business is during the summer months," Nagle said. "They are taking away our business."
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