Raymond J. de Souza: The case for giving Putin permanent residence at Mar-a-Lago - National Post
NP Comment Raymond J. de Souza: The case for giving Putin permanent residence at Mar-a-Lago Join the conversation Share Close Share this article
Copy URL Facebook Linked In X (Twitter) Loading account options Sign In Manage Account Close account menu Sign Out U.S. President Donald Trump greets Russian President Vladimir Putin on the tarmac after they arrived at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 15, 2025. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) By Father Raymond J. de Souza November 1, 2026 at 9:09 a.m. Flávio Bolsanaro, fresh off losing the Brazilian presidential election and ordered to surrender his passport as he is under criminal investigation, has fled his country. The Trump administration issued his family visas, and they sought refuge in Florida.
Apropos of which, perhaps it is time to consider an even more bold asylum play. U.S. President Donald Trump has been determined to lavish American affection upon Russian President Vladimir Putin, receiving him in Alaska last year — red carpet and limo ride — and beseeching him to come to the G20 in Florida in December.
Is it not time for a modest proposal regarding Putin? A grand gesture to end the Russian war against Ukraine? Trump should offer Putin permanent residence at Mar-a-Lago.
It is surely Trump’s dream to inaugurate his billion-dollar ballroom with a gaudy state dinner for Putin, themed as the Saint Petersburg Winter Palace comes to Washington. But until then, Trump has invited Putin to the G20, to be held in December at the president’s golf club in Miami.
Like many of his holdings, it is a money loser — Trump has spent US$380 million (C$530 million) on it, and it was worth about US$300 million in 2021 — but the G20 will surely provide an infusion of cash at elevated rates.
The Trump National Doral Miami club welcomes guests with a 15-foot, three-ton bronze statue — the “Don Colossus” — of Trump, covered in gold leaf. It was installed earlier this year, not to be confused with the monumental Trump statue installed in 2025 at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., which was donated by Anthony Constantino, an obscure businessman of dubious character from upstate New York. Subsequently, he got Trump’s endorsement to run for Congress.
If Putin comes to the Doral club, it could serve as a warm-up for having him at the White House. Yet bolder thinking is needed. Trump has in recent weeks renewed his efforts to obtain a Ukrainian surrender for Putin, launching several schemes to fund lethal Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians — a deal to buy Russian diesel, suspension of new sanctions and lifting of current sanctions.
None of that will induce Putin to lay down arms. Nothing has so far — including Russian war deaths in the hundreds of thousands and over a million casualties. The reason is not so much strategic but survival. Tyrants who fail — and Putin’s war to annex Ukraine is a failure — risk more than prestige. Their lives are at risk.
If Putin needs to be reminded of that, he can consult former Syrian president Bashar Assad. In August, he was sentenced to death in Damascus. Assad fled to Moscow in December 2024, where Putin offers protection.
For Putin to agree to anything that might end his war against Ukraine, he would first have to be confident that he would be safe. Even now, his travels in Russia are accompanied by regional mobile internet suspensions to frustrate potential attacks. Putin is afraid, as all wise tyrants are, that he will not die in his bed. Any end of his war will thus require confidence that he will have a safe place to sleep. Mar-a-Lago is perfect.
It is already secure, protected 24/7 by the American Secret Service. It is already decorated in late-Saddam style, with the gilded megalomaniacal touches that have cross-cultural appeal in the dictator class. Russian oligarchs are already part of the Trump family circle, so friends from Mother Russia would be welcome. Surely a wing at the future Trump presidential library in Miami could celebrate the glories of the Putin era — an actual rogue’s gallery.
And whatever the psychological distress of being in luxury exile, he would have the compensation of being frequently offered the personal, proximate, persistent adulation of the most powerful man in the world. That is heady stuff; no other gangster president has ever gotten that — not Assad, not Ferdinand Marcos, not Idi Amin.
A modest proposal to be sure, but a worthy one. President Trump, don’t just invite Putin to visit Florida. Invite him to stay.
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