“We have undertaken additional and extensive precautionary measures to ensure the health, safety and well-being of everyone at the resort,” she said, adding that hotel staff members have been trained on
Normally, Palm Beach would be preparing for the end of the winter social season, which in recent years has featured an Easter golfing trip by President Trump. This year, there will be no motorcade, no big Passover dinners and no Easter brunches.
Palm Beach County, with its robust population of snowbirds and New York regulars, has recorded at least 64 deaths from Covid-19, more than any other county in Florida, which has more than 14,700 confirmed coronavirus cases. Two people have died in the town of Palm Beach.
Mr. DeSantis announced on Tuesday the opening of a second drive-through testing site operated in conjunction with the Florida National Guard. Testing in Palm Beach lags behind other counties; it is unclear if Citadel Securities traders at the Four Seasons or the hotel staff have been tested.
Mr. Griffin, a 51-year-old Daytona Beach native who grew up in Boca Raton, donated nearly $6 million to Mr. DeSantis’s campaign in 2018. Listed by Forbes as the richest person in Illinois, he was the biggest donor to that state’s former Republican governor, Bruce Rauner, and offered him the free use of his private plane during the campaign.
In the 2016 presidential election, Mr. Griffin backed Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a Republican, and then donated to Mr. Trump’s inauguration. He has had an unofficial relationship advising Vice President Mike Pence on economic and business issues and has appeared in executive White House briefings and calls.
Mr. Griffin’s Four Seasons arrangement inspired Jeff Greene, a billionaire Palm Beach real estate investor who owns the Tideline Ocean Resort & Spa next door to the Four Seasons. He fired off emails to his contacts in the financial industry offering hotel rooms for alternate trading sites of their own.