Whatever else you want to say about Donald Trump, you’d have to say he’s willing to think outside the box…
Perhaps that’s the result of his experience as a real estate developer and investor. I can tell you from experience that it can require some creative thinking – and tenacity – to come out ahead.
Donald Trump certainly possesses those qualities. It was perhaps most apparent with his purchase of the Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.
The ornate mansion had been built in the 1920s by Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the Post Consumer Brands fortune. But by the 1990s, the property was owned by the Post Foundation. And that’s where Donald Trump entered the story.
Trump received a unanimous “no” from the town council when he pleaded his case for the purchase in April 1992. Most people would have dropped the matter then and there. Donald Trump refused.
As the story goes, he then offered $2 million for a beachfront lot directly in front of Mar-a-Lago. He threatened, as The Washington Post reported at the time, “to put up a hideous home to block Mar-a-Lago’s ocean view.”
Without access to the ocean, the value of Mar-a-Lago would plummet. And so, the Post Foundation caved… and sold the property to Trump for about $8 million.
But, soon after, he would face another problem.
As you might imagine, a property of that size can be expensive – taxes, insurance, and even maintenance. All of it added up. This was at a time when Trump’s casino business was struggling. He was going through a messy, and expensive, divorce.
His bankers advised him to dump the Florida property. Most people would have probably would have.
Trump had another idea. He would find a way to monetize the asset.
His first move was to attempt to subdivide the property to build “mini mansions.” If successful, Trump probably would have come out ahead on that deal. But the town council shot it down unanimously.
So, again, he got creative. He began the process of converting Mar-a-Lago into a private club. To give himself some leverage, he also threatened a multimillion-dollar lawsuit over the council’s decision on the subdivision proposal.
With the lawsuit hanging in the air – and faced with a man who clearly wasn’t going away – the Palm Beach council finally relented and gave Donald Trump what he wanted. The Mar-a-Lago Club was born.
To become a member, applicants must pay an initiation fee as well as yearly dues. As of 2024, those fees are $1 million and $20,000, respectively. And people are more than willing to pay it.
Somehow, against all odds, Donald Trump had taken a stately, but money-consuming, property and transformed it into a cashflow-generating asset.
Were Donald Trump’s tactics with Mar-a-Lago hard-nosed? I think you could say so.
But I can tell you from personal experience that real estate is a tough game. At the highest level, it’s downright vicious.
As somebody who has been in real estate for a long time, I can’t help but respect Trump’s maneuvers. He called his opponents’ bluff, and he played his hand well.
Why does any of this matter?
It matters because Donald Trump is no longer just a real estate developer. He is – of course – the sitting president of the United States of America.
The U.S. is not a stately Florida mansion. But as I review the recent policies of the Trump administration, I see the exact same strategy unfolding. Trump is taking assets that are otherwise just “sitting there” and monetizing them for the benefit of the U.S. economy.
Executive Order 14318
I understand Donald Trump elicits strong emotions. His supporters love him. His critics love to hate him. But no matter how you feel about the man, it’s worth understanding one of the over-looked policies of the Trump administration. I believe it could have a meaningful impact on one corner of the market we follow closely.
In July 2025, the White House released Executive Order 14318 – Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure.
It reads (emphasis added):
We will pursue bold, large-scale industrial plans to vault the United States further into the lead on critical manufacturing processes and technologies that are essential to national security, economic prosperity, and scientific leadership. These plans include artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and infrastructure that powers them, including high voltage transmission lines and other equipment. It will be a priority of my Administration to facilitate the rapid and efficient buildout of this infrastructure by easing Federal regulatory burdens.
In addition, my Administration will utilize federally owned land and resources for the expeditious and orderly development of data centers. This usage will be done in a manner consistent with the land’s intended purpose – to be used in service of the prosperity and security of the American people.
As we’ve covered numerous times in these pages, artificial intelligence is only made possible by a vast network of data centers, AI hardware, and the power to make it all run. And while the large hyperscalers are throwing hundreds of billions of dollars at the AI build-out, the executive branch is also putting its weight behind the initiative.
This is more than just talk.
RFLP
The same month the executive order was announced, the Department of Energy (“DOE”) selected four federal land sites to host private data-center build-outs and the associated power project. Those would be:
-
Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho
-
Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee
-
Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky
-
Savannah River Site in South Carolina
These types of requests are known as a request for lease proposal (“RFLP”). In essence, the DOE announced its willingness to receive solicitation from private companies to enter into a lease agreement to build, operate, and maintain AI data-center projects on federal land.
Within the press release, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright described the initiative as “a bold step to accelerate the next Manhattan Project – ensuring U.S. AI and energy leadership.”
Yes, the federal government considers these initiatives to be that important. And it’s willing to enter into leasing agreements for federal land to achieve it. And these are not small parcels.
As the DOE reported (emphasis added):
DOE’s Idaho Operations Office is now seeking proposals from U.S. companies to potentially enter into one or more long-term leasing agreements at the site that would be solely funded by the applicants.
The DOE site office previously identified approximately 44,000 acres of land for AI infrastructure projects and will prioritize applications that integrate innovative energy generation and storage projects with AI data centers, which could include advanced nuclear reactors, enhanced geothermal systems, and cold underground thermal energy storage.
Around the same time, the Department of the Air Force released its own RFLP. It amounts to the same thing as the DOE proposals – an agency of the federal government requesting private companies to enter into leasing agreements for data-center projects on federal land.
The available developable Air Force lands include:
-
Arnold Air Force Base in Tennessee – approximately 274 acres
-
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona – approximately 300 acres
-
Edwards Air Force Base in California – approximately 2,115 acres
-
Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey – approximately 193 acres
-
Robins Air Force Base in Georgia – approximately 219 acres
As you can see, the administration is leveraging the considerable power of the executive branch – as well as the nation’s vast resources – to ensure American dominance in this burgeoning technology.
As a general rule, when the industry and the federal government are rowing in the same direction, it can make for a very profitable investment trend.
I believe the combined force of private industry and the federal government is setting up a major opportunity with a handful of investments we track closely. What those stocks are and why they’re set to benefit in a big way – is revealed right here.
Regards,
Brad Thomas
Editor, The Wide Moat Letter
|