While some people have tried to distance themselves from the divisiveness of a connection to President Donald Trump, Netflix’s newest reality show is embracing the connections that tie the show to Mar-a-Lago, using it as the ultimate status symbol.
Members Only: Palm Beach, which premiered on Monday, focuses on a group of women navigating social hierarchies and private clubs in Florida’s wealthiest suburb. Few clubs have more exclusivity and fame than Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, which has become synonymous with the state’s high-end social scene.
In the first episode, viewers are introduced to Maria Cozamanis, who also goes by DJ Tumbles. Cozamanis tells some of the other women that she’s going to be DJing at Mar-a-Lago the upcoming weekend for the “Wine, Women & Shoes” event. The annual event is a benefit for Big Dog Ranch Rescue and features a celebrity dog fashion show.
In a confessional interview, Cozamanis noted there are several ways people are introduced to Palm Beach society. Hers, she said, was by way of “the back door of Mar-a-Lago being a DJ.”
“Her name is Tumbles and that worked in my favor. Sometimes people will look down on me because I’m the DJ but the funny thing is when they find out that b**** has money, they’re looking at me completely different,” Cozamanis said.
Cozamanis doesn’t just work at Mar-a-Lago, though. She posted on Instagram in June that she attended a birthday celebration for Rosalyn Yellin at Trump’s club. Yellin also recently helped host the America First Gala holiday celebration at Mar-a-Lago, which she serves as a sponsorship chair for.
Yellin makes frequent appearances at Mar-a-Lago and even posts photos with the president.
“It was a beautiful and elegant Halloween in Palm Beach. What an honor to spend Halloween @themaralagoclub [with] President of the United States of America,” Yellin posted on Instagram.
Fellow cast member Romina Ustayev knew Yellin from their days in Pennsylvania when Ustayev’s cousin took Zumba classes from Yellin.
“She went from Zumba to Mar-a-Lago,” Ustayev says on the show.
Ustayev kicks her time off on the show reflecting on how far she’s come since childhood. She relates her looks to Kim Kardashian, but said she didn’t “grow up being hot” and was made fun of for having bushy eyebrows.
“Thank God I look like Kim Kardashian now because I could not roll into Mar-a-Lago with those eyebrows,” Ustayev said during a confessional interview.
Viewers got a glimpse of Mar-a-Lago from cast member Hilary Musser’s house, but those hoping to get a view of the inside of Trump’s exclusive club will be left disappointed because the show wasn’t allowed to film inside. However, Trump’s club is a source of drama on the show.
Ustyev’s fashion style comes under scrutiny for being inappropriate for the Mar-a-Lago social scene. When Yellin took Ustayev to the Red, White and Vogue event at Mar-a-Lago she said Ustayev wore a dress she advised her not to.
“The picture of us with the Marine went viral. People said what you were wearing was disrespectful to Marines and the charity got in so much trouble,” Yellin says on the show.
The first episode sets the show up to follow Ustayev’s attempts to break into the Palm Beach social scene and Mar-a-Lago is being used as the ultimate status symbol. After playing pickle ball, Cozamanis tells Ustayev that it’s not enough to “show up at night at Mar-a-Lago,” and says Yellin cares most about her social standing at Mar-a-Lago.
“Have you ever been invited to Mar-a-Lago by Rosalyn on a regular day when she can invite you as a guest?” Cozamanis asks. “Those lunches, she invites her ‘real friends,’ she invites you when there’s a ticket to be bought and you’re buying your place at the table.”
Taja Abitbol, a principal cast member on the show, has spent years going to Mar-a-Lago. Although not a member herself, she previously rang in the New Year there, has attended events and weddings, and her husband—former Yankees pitcher David Cone—has played in Trump’s golf tournaments.
Abitbol, whose son attended the same school as Barron Trump, the president’s son, previously told Newsweek that politics hasn’t hurt Mar-a-Lago’s popularity in Palm Beach. It’s still one of the most exclusive places and she said that “everybody wants to be there.”
“I think that ever since he became president, there is such a higher demand for the membership of Mar-a-Lago,” Abitbol said. “[The Trumps] definitely added to the panache of the whole Palm Beach and what I call Fantasy Islands lifestyle.”