Trump’s Doral Golf Resort Turns Quiet as Venezuelan Community Shifts Focus
Donald Trump visited the popular El Arepazo restaurant in Doral, but the author later found the area around his golf resort largely empty.
In Doral, Florida, the El Arepazo restaurant acts as a cultural hub for a community that makes up about 40 percent of the city’s residents, hosting celebrations for President Joe Biden’s 2021 Temporary Protected Status grant and President Donald Trump’s 2024 electoral surge. The community also rejoiced when a U.S. operation in January seized Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, prompting another gathering at the restaurant.
Trump, fresh from his “Shield of the Americas” summit at the Trump National Doral Miami resort, made a brief four-minute appearance at El Arepazo, where he embraced owner Maximo Alvarez, a Republican who once spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention. Alvarez praised Trump as the best president he’d known, and Trump called him a longtime friend. When the author visited Doral weeks later, the area surrounding the Trump resort was largely empty, indicating that the once-busy political and social center has become a ghost town.
Why it matters
The piece shows how Trump’s political rallies affect Doral’s Venezuelan community and signals the decline of his once-busy golf resort hub.
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