The Mar-a-Lago facility was originally built by Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the Post Cereal company, later General Foods.  When she died in 1973, she bequeathed it to the National Park Service.  Due to costs, they returned it to the Post Foundation, from which Trump acquired it.

It is interesting that the Spanish term “mar-a-lago” indicates a bridge between the sea and a lake.  As Ukrainian president Zelensky arrives there this weekend, just such a bridge may be an instructive symbol for the diplomatic and business sensibility necessary to end the Russian-Ukrainian war.  Difficult as it may be, some kind of bridge will have to be built with Russia.  Trump understands that because he understands the odds: Russia has too big a hand, and the upside to peace is too promising. 

Mar-a-Lago has other instructive history.  Marjorie Post was the wife and business partner to Edward Francis Hutton, of E.F. Hutton fame.  Their marketing slogan as a successful Wall Street financial firm was “when E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.”  When Post divorced in 1937, she married Washington lawyer Joseph E. Davies, who became the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union.  He later wrote a book about his experience called Mission to Moscow, later commissioned into a film at FDR’s request, when Russia and the U.S. were allies. 

Ukrainian president Zelensky, and his supporters, might keep all this in mind as he meets with President Trump: Listen carefully to Trump’s insights, his natural instincts for successful business, and follow his advice.  It also comes within the rich diplomatic and business-deal history of Mar-a-Lago.  This may be the surest path to end the war on constructive terms. 

The E.F. Hutton saying also provides one other inspiration, from the Old Testament: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites.  You must listen to him.”

Image via Flickr, public domain.