Recent distinguished visitors include Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, Hungary’s Victor Orban and Mark Rutter the Secretary General of Nato.

Tech giants Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos have also paid homage to the new president among the marble halls and chandeliers. The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, is a regular at the illustrious location.

Therefore, it’s safe to assume that an invitation to Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Palm Beach mansion, is not just a popular ticket in town but possibly one of the most sought-after in the world.

Only a few have managed to surpass the extensive security measures surrounding the vast Florida estate, and even fewer have had the opportunity to catch a glimpse inside Trump’s private living areas.

Which is why the rest of us could do worse than tune in to a long-forgotten daytime television show for a rare and surprisingly intimate glimpse.

Hosted by the late British presenter David Frost and American broadcaster Lloyd Grossman, Through The Keyhole was famous for teasing viewers with footage of celebrity homes before asking ‘who lives in a house like this?’

In a 1999 episode, the celebrity in question was Donald Trump, then famous as a real-estate mogul.

The result is a tour of Mar-a-Lago with highlights that go far beyond the brief, flag-filled glimpses on television news. 

Instead, Through The Keyhole  treats us to lashings of extravagant, sometimes gaudy decoration, bizarre animal carvings and grandeur. There’s even a fairytale-themed bedroom.

Bought by Trump for an estimated $10million in 1985, Mar-a-Lago was first built in the 1920s by cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post at at cost equivalent to some $120 million today. 

In 1973, Merriweather Post, who went on to become the richest woman in America, donated the property to the US government, asking that it be used a Winter White House.

But the US government returned Mar-a-Lago to the Post Foundation in 1981, citing its high annual maintenance cost of $1 million.

Then, in 1985 and with the property market in a slump, Trump snapped it up for the bargain price of $5 million, paying an additional $3 million for Post’s antiques and furniture.

Mainly Spanish, or Hispano-Moresque, in its inspiration, the house is described by Through The Keyhole as ‘a tossed salad of architectural styles’ mixing classical lines with traditional glazed wall-tiles and bits of gothic fantasy.

The camera sweeps round a vast baronial hall decorated with coats of arms in the style of a French chateau. It turns out that Trump calls this his ‘living room’.

Renaissance copies of classical Roman busts stare down at the visitors and ‘add a bit of imperial splendor’, says presenter Grossman. They hint that the owner might have ‘a powerful personality’.

We visit an ornate children’s bedroom with squirrel-shaped doorknobs, porcelain figurines from Alice in Wonderland and life-like rambling roses in branches of sculpted plaster on the walls. 

All in all, says Grossman, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago is ‘an incredible piece of fantasy architecture.’

Today, it has a very different reputation. Mar-a-Lago could be considered one of the most consequential and closely guarded properties in the world – the handful of guests allowed into the inner sanctum are banned from taking photographs.

Since Trump’s re-election, the estate has become something of a MAGA-Mecca. It is the seat of his presidential court and birthplace of many of the edicts now flowing from his Sharpie pen.

In the days following his dramatic election victory, Trump is even said to have installed a makeshift ‘situation room’ at the property as he prepared his new administration.

Now, one month into the presidency, Trump’s announcements seem as likely to to be made in Palm Beach as Washington – making Mar-a-Lago the Winter White House for which the original owner, Marjorie Merriweather Post, had always hoped.