It was 6.05am in October last year when Sterling Hamill was awoken by the unmistakable screech of a plane flying low over his home.

The 86-year-old retired businessman had moved 11 years earlier from a home near Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s luxury club in Palm Beach, Florida, to avoid the noise of aircraft.

At first, Mr Hamill dismissed the shuddering vibrations as a one-off.

Mr Trump has spent around a month at Mar-a-Lago, known as the Winter White House, each year since he made the Florida resort his official residence in 2019.

It is everyone’s business when the president is in town: roads in Palm Beach close, the highway is cut off, and the occasional helicopter skirts across the island to deliver the president to the club.

But then another plane flew over Mr Hamill’s house. And then another. Over the course of the day, aircraft flew over the property every three minutes.

And then reality dawned.

“Trump has spent 30 years trying to change the flight path [over Mar-a-Lago], and now he’s succeeded,” Mr Hamill told The Telegraph from his home on El Brillo Way, an exclusive road in Palm Beach that once counted Jeffrey Epstein among its inhabitants.

“I bought this property because the one I had before was close to Mar-a-Lago, and the aircraft noise bothered me. Now it’s come home to roost.”

A busy flight path that scores the airspace to and from Palm Beach International Airport – soon to be renamed the President Donald J Trump International Airport – had blighted Mr Trump’s resort since he bought it on the cheap in 1985.

Property deeds show Mr Trump paid around $5m (£3.76m) for the 17-acre estate that hugs a roadside between the Lake Worth Lagoon and the Atlantic Ocean. It was a snip. The initial asking price was $20m.

Residents claim Mr Trump bought the property so cheaply because of the huge costs for the upkeep of the property, which was built in the 1920s for a cereal heiress, as well as the deafening flights overhead. Subsequent litigation suggests they were right.

Mr Trump has sued Palm Beach County three times in as many decades to try to change the flight path.

Mr Hamill is one of many wealthy Palm Beach residents who believe that Mr Trump has used his presidential powers to make his wish come true.

In October 2025, the Secret Service announced it was rerouting all flights to avoid the airspace above Mar-a-Lago for “national security reasons” for a year.

Instead, the 200 or so flights a day now jerk northwards before they hit Mar-a-Lago to carve the skies above the residences of Palm Beach, where property prices can reach up to $150m, as well as the nearby neighbourhoods of West Palm Beach and Flamingo Park.

For retirees like Mr Hamill, a former partner in the international yacht brokers Camper & Nicholson, it means the breezy corner of Florida is no longer the oasis he once knew.

“I first came to Palm Beach in ‘62, I couldn’t believe it. I said, ‘This is the world-famous Palm Beach.’

“You know, we crossed the bridge. It’s a bit like going into Harrods, where it says, ‘Enter a different world’,” he said from his interior courtyard, which is dotted with jungle plants and statues.

When The Telegraph visited on May 21, 14 flights flew over his house in a 90-minute period. Several were so loud that Mr Hamill’s voice was barely audible.

Residents have come to refer to the phenomenon as the “Palm Beach Pause” because they are forced to suspend their conversations while aeroplanes pass overhead.

Some flights continue until 2am or 3am, and the wealthy residents have said it has led to sleepless nights, damage to their property and an overall erosion of the opulence and relaxation Palm Beach is known for.

“We spend more time inside now. You can’t entertain. I mean, you could not have a dinner party … but that’s not why people retire to Palm Beach,” said Mr Hamill. “The sense of peace, tranquillity. It’s gone.”

In December, Palm Beach County filed a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which controls US air travel, arguing that its decision to reroute flights to avoid Mar-a-Lago was arbitrary and capricious.

Local politicians believe their case was strengthened as Mar-a-Lago shuttered for the season in early May, and yet the new flight path remained.

Gregg Weiss, a Palm Beach County commissioner, told The Telegraph: “While everyone understands that we need to protect the president when he is in residence, we do not think it is fair to keep TFRs [temporary flight restrictions] in place when the president is out of town.”

Residents have launched their own grassroots push to fight back against the changes.

Palm Beach, an exclusive 18-mile barrier island where the median age is 70, is home to some of the world’s richest people, including many athletes and movie stars.

‘I’m known as the anti-aeroplane noise woman’

Alexandra Kauka, 86, an Austrian publishing tycoon and Mr Hamill’s wife, has been posting hundreds of leaflets in the neighbourhood about the disruption over the past few weeks.

“I’m known as the anti-aeroplane noise woman. Normally, I don’t open my mouth so wide because I feel there are other people here, old Palm Beachers who should do something,” she told The Telegraph while sipping a glass of low-calorie sparkling rosé.

“In our case, we bought a tranquil, beautiful, wild place where we can live happily for the rest of our lives.

“And this tranquil idea is now completely disturbed and ruined. And we don’t really understand why.”

Ms Kauka questions the motives behind the flight redirections, given the security standards at Mar-a-Lago. She claims that her bag was not screened before attending a dinner at the Palm Beach resort last year when Mr Trump was sitting in the same room.

“How can you fear for your life and then live your life in a club? A club with members who bring their guests?” she said.

The president has yet to explain the specific risks that aircraft flying over his estate would pose, although the Secret Service said earlier in May that “the current threat level is heightened based on global affairs”. Residents have read this to mean a potential plane hijacking.

In response to questions from The Telegraph, the Secret Service said it was “not accurate that the president requested the TFR – it was actually the Secret Service”.

“Similar to security measures routinely implemented around the White House, the Palm Beach area remains closely associated with the office of the president and is therefore considered a potential target for individuals or groups seeking to conduct acts against the federal government or the United States,” the federal agency said.

The Telegraph has also contacted the White House for comment, but no response was forthcoming.

‘Our lives have been damaged badly’

One Palm Beach millionaire who spoke on the condition of anonymity fears “the security card” will be used to extend the flight ban beyond Mr Trump’s term in office.

“It’s the notion that he’s really abusing this to essentially get a permanent ban. So after he leaves the presidency, we’re stuck with a situation where all our property prices have been devalued [and] our lives have been damaged badly,” he said.

The Palm Beach resident, who bought his waterfront house for an eight-figure sum several years ago, claimed that he would not have purchased the property had he known there would be excessive flight noise.

The aggrieved homeowners have not ruled out teaming up to pursue an “inverse condemnation” claim – a legal remedy used to force the government to pay compensation when it unfairly damages private property.

Real estate agents who attended a recent meeting to discuss the airport noise said they had predicted local property prices could be hit by at least 20 per cent if the flight changes were made permanent.

For an area where house prices easily hit the tens of millions, that could quickly escalate to a $1bn legal claim for damages.

Such legal pursuits would be ironic, since Mr Trump tried to use an inverse condemnation claim when he sued Palm Beach County for $100m over the airport noise in 2015.

Court documents obtained by The Telegraph show that lawyers for Mr Trump claimed the “overflights constitute a continuing, direct and substantial physical invasion of Mar-a-Lago and an interference with the beneficial use, quiet, and enjoyment of the property”.

The lawsuit also claimed the flight disturbances were destroying a “once serene and tranquil ambience” of the property and directly cited the “substantial diminution and decrease in the market value of Mar-a-Lago” in its pursuit of damages. Mr Trump abandoned the claim when he entered the Oval Office the following year.

The current value of Mar-a-Lago is merely a subject of speculation as there seems to be no prospect that Mr Trump would sell it. The US president, known for his hyperbole, has previously said that its standing as the “Mona Lisa” of properties had made it deserving of a $1bn price tag.

He was later accused of inflating that figure to secure favourable loans on the property – a claim he vehemently denied.

‘It’s about fairness’

For some wealthy Palm Beach residents, the flight noise is just another property deal for Mr Trump.

One local millionaire, who also asked not to be named, told The Telegraph: “We all know he’s a developer. He’s quite proud of the fact that he’s a developer. And what do developers do? They increase the value of things for future sale.”

The man claims he has had sleepless nights since the flight reroutes came into effect without warning in October 2025. To counter the noise, he has installed foam insulation on all the bedroom windows at his home in the exclusive area near Royal Palm Way, which has been in his family for several generations.

“I’ve spent a significant amount of money soundproofing the house. But that comes with a cost – the children’s bedrooms, my bedroom: they’re pitch black,” he said.

“The predominant feeling is anger. The biggest thing to note is that we don’t want this to be some type of political persecution of Donald Trump. That’s not what this is. It’s about due process, it’s about property values. It’s kind of about fairness.”

He may still be willing to join an inverse condemnation claim against Mr Trump, he told The Telegraph. The only snag? It would require each resident participating in the claim to make their identities public.

While Florida has been a solidly Republican state in presidential elections since 2016, Palm Beach County is still one of the few districts that voted Democrat in 2024.

The Democrats also flipped the seat in a special election in March to install Emily Gregory in the state’s House of Representatives.

‘My phone doesn’t stop ringing with complaints’

Many residents told The Telegraph they had clients and business partners who were too scared to cross the US president.

Marty Klein, 78, a former lawyer for Mr Trump who now sits on the Citizens’ Committee on Airport Noise in Palm Beach, estimates the number of furious residents in the wider Mar-a-Lago area to be about 25,000. Few of them were prepared to speak on the record yet, he said.

“People have never had noise, and all of a sudden they have noise … My phone doesn’t stop ringing with complaints,” he told The Telegraph while sipping an iced coffee at The Breakers hotel.

The committee has organised a series of emergency meetings about the flight redirections, which have been well attended. But Mr Klein is pessimistic about whether the lawsuit will achieve anything.

“I don’t have much hope, because even if they reconsider, I’m sure the Secret Service is going to come back and say it’s a question of security,” he said. “Noise is like a balloon. You squeeze it, it comes out somewhere.”

On Worth Avenue, a strip of luxury stores where models parade up and down as walking adverts for clothes shops, the political fault lines of the topic quickly become clear.

While walking Smudge, her black Labrador, Theresa Rassas, a 74-year-old resident, said the flights were a necessary price to pay to ensure Mr Trump’s security – especially given the three recent assassination attempts.

“I’m for President Trump. My son worked for President Trump, so I’m all for what has to be done to keep him safe. I know a lot of people don’t like it. I was in one restaurant one night, and it sounded like the plane was landing in the restaurant, but I knew what it was,” she said.

For some of the long-established store owners on the elegant Worth Avenue, the noise is an unwanted reminder of how much Mr Trump has put Palm Beach on the map and encouraged a new clientele to the neighbourhood.

And, unlike many more recent arrivals, they are willing to speak out.

“This has never been a resort place where people came to, you know? It was just where people had their homes. But now there’s sightseers,” said Tatiana Van Zandt, 76, who runs the Trillion clothing store with her husband.

“We’re ashamed that we have him as a president. I’m always apologising to our Canadian customers. We’ve been here 42 years. It’s really a small, elegant community, and unfortunately, he’s added an element that is not elegant.”

Others are resigned to the jet noise. “You can’t sit outside anymore when the planes go overhead,” says Ed Kassatly, 92, who has run his family’s silk and linen business on Worth Avenue alongside his brother since 1956. “No one likes it.”

The lack of a unified backlash has forced some of the wealthiest Palm Beach residents to take matters into their own hands.

Disheartened at a lack of strong data on the impact of the flights, one millionaire whom The Telegraph spoke to has bought a fleet of special microphones and installed them in homes throughout the neighbourhood.

The financier taught himself to code to create a complex website tracking the flight path noise, which he hopes to present as part of the lawsuit.

From the bright office in his waterfront home, he traced a series of dots blinking from green to orange to deep red as flights flew overhead.

Anything above 65 decibels is considered dangerous to the human ear – a fact pointed out in Mr Trump’s own 2015 lawsuit against Palm Beach County.

But until the authorities take notice of his data, a tug of war remains to take back the quiet that retired residents had paid for.

“Frankly, I want peace and quiet,” said Mr Klein, whose own house near the Breakers hotel sits under the flight path.

“I went to see Santa Claus at Christmas time and he said, ‘What do you want?’ He thought I was going to ask for either a boat or a plane or a trophy wife.

“And when I saw him, I said, ‘I want peace and quiet.’ And he said, ‘No chance.’ I said, ‘I need a new Santa Claus.’”