Florida Democrat asks county to increase Mar-a-Lago tax to match Trump claims

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) asked the Palm Beach County appraiser to increase the property tax for former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, after he claimed that it’s worth significantly more than its appraised value.

Moskowitz’s letter, first reported by NBC News, came after a New York judge ruled that Trump and his sons committed business fraud by purposely inflating and deflating the value of their assets to get better loan terms and insurance rates. 

The former president has claimed that the South Florida social club is worth “50 or 100 times” more than its $18 million appraised value, once saying its true worth could be as much as $1.5 billion.

“Mar-a-Lago was listed as worth $490 million in financial documents given to banks,” Moskowitz wrote in the letter. “If the property value of Mar-a-Lago is so much higher than it was appraised, will you be amending the property value in line with the Trump family’s belief that the property is worth well over a billion dollars?”

Moskowitz first floated the appraisal request in a post directed at Trump’s son, Eric Trump, last week, adding with laughing emojis, “Good luck with your new Tax Bill.”

The fraud case is on trial this week in New York to determine damages for Trump and his company’s activity. Prosecutors have requested at least $250 million in financial penalties and to bar Trump and his sons from running businesses in New York.

Trump denounced the decision and filed a motion to appeal it.

“I am worth much more than the numbers shown on my financial statements. I didn’t even include my most valuable asset, my brand,” Trump said. “There were no victims!”

He added that the judge “made up this crazy ‘KILL TRUMP’ decision, assigning insanely low values to properties, despite overwhelming evidence.”

“[The judge’s] anger & hatred is politically motivated & unprecedented by those who watched!” Trump said.