In many ways, President-elect Donald Trump’s holiday arrival in Palm Beach paralleled the visit of another president in waiting.
Except that when that man arrived in Palm Beach in December 1960 after his surprise win against establishment candidate Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy was headed into a deadly trap.
Along with wife Jackie and their two children Caroline and John Jr., and under tight security, the Kennedys took possession of the family’s property for the end-of-year holidays.
The soon-to-be-president was there to rest before moving into the White House. He was spotted in restaurants with Jackie and at religious services at St. Edward, Palm Beach’s Catholic church.
Trump, too, stayed what’s now the island’s best known property, his private club of Mar-a-Lago. He was joined by his children and their families just weeks before stepping into the job of president.
And if tradition was respected, Trump might’ve left the tony island of $100 million-homes to take in a movie or two with wife Melania at the Muvico Parisian in the nearby West Palm Beach.
But post-election R&R and their breathtaking beachside family estates is where the parallel between the Kennedy and Trump pre-presidency vacations is likely to end.
Prefacing what would happen three years later in Dallas, Kennedy was the target of a first, little-known assassination attempt on Dec. 14, 1960 in Palm Beach.
