Andres Serrano has been quietly stockpiling buttons, baked goods, liquor bottles, slot machines, sports memorabilia, menswear and magazine covers.

For almost a year, his tremendous collection effort has taken him to the front row of high-end auctions and to the far reaches of eBay. The artist best known for his 1987 “Immersion (Piss Christ),” an amber-hued image of a crucifix submerged in a glass container of his own urine, has spent more than $100,000 amassing a treasure trove of more than 1,000 objects.

Each item bears some relationship to President Donald Trump. They include souvenirs from his hotels and casinos, as well as merchandise from his 2016 presidential campaign. They include Trump Vodka, Trump Steaks and remnants of Trump Shuttle. They include a Trump University diploma and a fake dollar bill depicting Hillary Clinton behind bars, to which Trump affixed his signature at a Florida rally.

“Trump everything,” the divisive New York-based artist, whose creations have been vandalized at museums across the world and reviled in Congress, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “I wanted to paint a portrait of Donald Trump using his own brushes.”

The untraditional presidential portrait is set to be revealed April 11 at a still-undisclosed location in Manhattan.

The installation, titled “The Game: All Things Trump,” is an image of the president rendered in his varied acts of salesmanship and self-promotion. It is a Trump readymade, in the model of Marcel Duchamp, the 20th-century pioneer of avant-garde art.

By carefully cataloguing the artifacts as if in a natural-history museum, the exhibition is also a study of the United States as a competitive, acquisitive and fame-obsessed society. Intentionally or not, “The Game: All Things Trump” helps answer the question that stumped pundits and defied polls: How did Trump become president?

“I’ve always said I don’t make art about art” said Serrano, whose work aims to fuse the sacred and the profane, in his first public remarks about the exhibit. “I make art about things that everyone knows about. It’s only natural that it’s now Trump.”

The show’s title is drawn from “Trump: The Game,” a 1989 board game released by Milton Bradley Co., with the tagline, “It’s not whether you win or lose, but whether you win!”

“That has been the Donald Trump attitude all his life,” said Serrano, 68, who was born in New York – four years after the president – to an immigrant father from Honduras and a mother of Afro-Cuban descent.

The boom-or-bust mentality espoused by the president, the artist said, has been central to the pursuit of the American Dream, which Trump declared “dead” at his presidential launch in June 2015. Before it died, a dreamlike sense of possibility guided Serrano’s own path. He dropped out of high school when he was 15, entered the Brooklyn Museum Art School when he was 17, spent his later teen years and much of his 20s addicted to drugs and then “came out of it and became the artist that I thought I was supposed to be.”

The president’s life, too, embodies an American ideal – in a different sense. “When I was in my 20s, I was a drug addict,” Serrano said. “When he was in his 20s, he already owned a lot of things.”

The Trump-branded commodities, the artist believes, are an index of the president’s beliefs and aspirations. In Serrano’s eyes, they reveal how Trump’s quest to identify himself with the country – to cast himself as an American hero – began long before he undertook a bid to lead it.

“Ever since the ’80s, Donald Trump has been associating himself with a particular vision of American success and making products that paint him as all-American,” Serrano said.

The first object that the artist acquired for the installation was a red-and-white-striped Donald J. Trump Signature Collection tie. The second and third were buttons from the 2016 campaign. All together, the collection documents the president’s vast commercial empire – among the many features distinguishing the 45th president from his predecessors. One of them, Jimmy Carter, famously placed his peanut farm in a blind trust during his presidency to avoid possible conflicts of interest.

When it emerged in February that Serrano had purchased a chocolate truffle cake, handed out as a souvenir at Trump’s 2005 wedding, the art world buzzed with speculation about what the artist, whose photographs often feature violence and desecration, had in store for the confectionery delight.

Cedric Barberet, formerly the executive pastry chef at Mar-a-Lago, was curious, too.

“I’m worried about what will happen with what I created,” he said in an interview with The Post at the time.

But all Serrano did to the miniature cake, which he purchased in an auction for $1,880, was build a refrigerated cube for it.

“I’m not doing anything to these products,” he said. “That’s the beauty of them – they speak for themselves.”

The exhibition neither glorifies nor condemns the president. Serrano, who first photographed Trump for his 2004 “America” series, doesn’t pass moral judgment on his subject.

“I’m not interested in pointing figures, because I think it’s boring,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of artwork that’s anti-Trump, and frankly it’s not good, it’s not interesting. I’d rather let the man speak for himself.”

This is a fitting aim for an artist who has never been especially involved in the political process, as he readily admits, despite being “engaged by the circus that we see in American politics now.”

He has only voted twice in his life – for Barack Obama in 2008 and again in 2012 – and he doesn’t plan to vote again.

“He seemed pretty good, and so I felt like just out of loyalty to the race, I had to support this black president,” Serrano said. The possibility of another breakthrough in 2020 – the first female president, the first black female president, the first openly gay president – wouldn’t motivate him in the same way, he said.

Asked whether he thought Trump was a good president, he demurred.

“I think he’s Donald Trump, and that says it all,” Serrano observed. “It says that he’s always been good at selling things, particularly himself. And he’s done it once again.”

If he could speak with the president, all he would ask is that Trump sign his large black bible in gold magic marker. He thinks it would make a good addition to the installation.

As an artist, he said, he keeps his views to himself, letting his audience come to its own interpretation. There is only one piece in the upcoming show that he created – the 2004 portrait of Trump, an imposing close-up slotted in the celebrity section of the series, begun after the Sept. 11 attacks to try to say something about the American spirit.

The rest of the objects were merely assembled by him. Serrano likes the idea that other people, such as the former Mar-a-Lago pastry chef, could go around the exhibit and say, “I did that. I did that.”

Meanwhile, viewers will find in the objects figments of their previous connections to Trump – whether they watched him on “The Apprentice,” gambled at his casinos, bought his vodka or even went to Trump University. They are part of his rise, Serrano said.

He thinks Trump would like the show, too. “It’s all about him,” the artist said. “I couldn’t have done it without him.”

“I wish Donald Trump would see the show and say, ‘Gee, that’s a good show, you know, I did a lot of good things,’ and then maybe feel better about himself, so he can chill,” Serrano said. “In a way, you gotta say, ‘Donald Trump, you won. There’s no sense fighting us. You won.'”

In a bid for the president’s attention, and that of his most avid followers, he hopes to place a 15-second advertisement on some of Trump’s favorite channels, including Fox News.

Serrano said “The Game: All Things Trump” has all the hallmarks of his best work, including simplicity and beauty. Whether he is photographing hooded Klansmen or murder victims, naked bodies or homeless people, firearms or feces, his glossy pictures make his subjects “beautiful and bigger than life,” he said.

Of all the criticism he receives – and he receives his fair share – Serrano said he most resents the notion that his work is sacrilegious. For decades, he has been a bête noire of the religious right, in the United States and around the world. In 2011, Catholic fundamentalists took hammers to “Piss Christ” when it was on display in the French city of Avignon.

“I was born and raised a Catholic, and I did my holy communion and then my confirmation, were I was told I was a soldier of God,” Serrano said. “I’m still that soldier of God.”

Still, he acknowledged, “People see it how they want to see it. I accept it.”

He expects that reactions to his Trump show could be as severe and as various.

“It’s a show for everyone – for people who love Trump, and for people who hate Trump,” he said.

Serrano’s work addresses basic themes, he said, enumerating a few of them: death, religion, sex, poverty. He likes to make things that people can understand on a visceral level.

It was inevitable, then, that he would turn to Trump, perhaps the most capacious theme of all.

He wanted to paint a big picture, and the president offered a broad canvas.

“In a way, Donald Trump has become all things to all people,” Serrano said.</s>For almost a year, his tremendous collection effort has taken him to the front row of high-end auctions and to the far reaches of eBay. The artist best known for his 1987 Immersion (Piss Christ), an amber-hued image of a crucifix submerged in a glass container of his own urine, has spent more than $100,000 (U.S.) amassing a treasure trove of more than 1,000 objects.

The untraditional presidential portrait is set to be revealed April 11 at a still-undisclosed location in Manhattan.

“Trump everything,” the divisive New York-based artist, whose creations have been vandalized at museums across the world and reviled in Congress, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “I wanted to paint a portrait of Donald Trump using his own brushes.”

Each item bears some relationship to U.S. President Donald Trump. They include souvenirs from his hotels and casinos, as well as merchandise from his 2016 presidential campaign. They include Trump Vodka, Trump Steaks and remnants of Trump Shuttle. They include a Trump University diploma and a fake dollar bill depicting Hillary Clinton behind bars, to which Trump affixed his signature at a Florida rally.

The installation, titled The Game: All Things Trump, is an image of the president rendered in his varied acts of salesmanship and self-promotion. It is a Trump ready-made, in the model of Marcel Duchamp, the 20th-century pioneer of avant-garde art.

“I’ve always said I don’t make art about art” said Serrano, whose work aims to fuse the sacred and the profane, in his first public remarks about the exhibit. “I make art about things that everyone knows about. It’s only natural that it’s now Trump.”

By carefully cataloguing the artifacts as if in a natural-history museum, the exhibition is also a study of the United States as a competitive, acquisitive and fame-obsessed society. Intentionally or not, The Game: All Things Trump helps answer the question that stumped pundits and defied polls: How did Trump become president?

The show’s title is drawn from Trump: The Game, a 1989 board game released by Milton Bradley Co., with the tag line, “It’s not whether you win or lose, but whether you win!”

“That has been the Donald Trump attitude all his life,” said Serrano, 68, who was born in New York — four years after the president — to an immigrant father from Honduras and a mother of Afro-Cuban descent.

The boom-or-bust mentality espoused by the president, the artist said, has been central to the pursuit of the American Dream, which Trump declared “dead” at his presidential launch in June 2015. Before it died, a dreamlike sense of possibility guided Serrano’s own path. He dropped out of high school when he was 15, entered the Brooklyn Museum Art School when he was 17, spent his later teen years and much of his 20s addicted to drugs and then “came out of it and became the artist that I thought I was supposed to be.”

The president’s life, too, embodies an American ideal — in a different sense. “When I was in my 20s, I was a drug addict,” Serrano said. “When he was in his 20s, he already owned a lot of things.”

The Trump-branded commodities, the artist believes, are an index of the president’s beliefs and aspirations. In Serrano’s eyes, they reveal how Trump’s quest to identify himself with the country — to cast himself as an American hero — began long before he undertook a bid to lead it.

“Ever since the ‘80s, Donald Trump has been associating himself with a particular vision of American success and making products that paint him as all-American,” Serrano said.

The first object that the artist acquired for the installation was a red-and-white-striped Donald J. Trump Signature Collection tie. The second and third were buttons from the 2016 campaign. All together, the collection documents the president’s vast commercial empire — among the many features distinguishing the 45th president from his predecessors. One of them, Jimmy Carter, famously placed his peanut farm in a blind trust during his presidency to avoid possible conflicts of interest.

When it emerged in February that Serrano had purchased a chocolate truffle cake, handed out as a souvenir at Trump’s 2005 wedding, the art world buzzed with speculation about what the artist, whose photographs often feature violence and desecration, had in store for the confectionery delight.

Cedric Barberet, formerly the executive pastry chef at Mar-a-Lago, was curious, too.

“I’m worried about what will happen with what I created,” he said in an interview with The Post at the time.

But all Serrano did to the miniature cake, which he purchased in an auction for $1,880, was build a refrigerated cube for it.

“I’m not doing anything to these products,” he said. “That’s the beauty of them — they speak for themselves.”

The exhibition neither glorifies nor condemns the president. Serrano, who first photographed Trump for his 2004 America series, doesn’t pass moral judgment on his subject.

“I’m not interested in pointing figures, because I think it’s boring,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of artwork that’s anti-Trump, and frankly it’s not good, it’s not interesting. I’d rather let the man speak for himself.”

This is a fitting aim for an artist who has never been especially involved in the political process, as he readily admits, despite being “engaged by the circus that we see in American politics now.”

He has only voted twice in his life — for Barack Obama in 2008 and again in 2012 — and he doesn’t plan to vote again.

“He seemed pretty good, and so I felt like just out of loyalty to the race, I had to support this black president,” Serrano said. The possibility of another breakthrough in 2020 — the first female president, the first black female president, the first openly gay president — wouldn’t motivate him in the same way, he said.

Asked whether he thought Trump was a good president, he demurred.

“I think he’s Donald Trump, and that says it all,” Serrano observed. “It says that he’s always been good at selling things, particularly himself. And he’s done it once again.”

If he could speak with the president, all he would ask is that Trump sign his large black bible in gold magic marker. He thinks it would make a good addition to the installation.

As an artist, he said, he keeps his views to himself, letting his audience come to its own interpretation. There is only one piece in the upcoming show that he created — the 2004 portrait of Trump, an imposing close-up slotted in the celebrity section of the series, begun after the Sept. 11 attacks to try to say something about the American spirit.

The rest of the objects were merely assembled by him. Serrano likes the idea that other people, such as the former Mar-a-Lago pastry chef, could go around the exhibit and say, “I did that. I did that.”

Meanwhile, viewers will find in the objects figments of their previous connections to Trump — whether they watched him on The Apprentice, gambled at his casinos, bought his vodka or even went to Trump University. They are part of his rise, Serrano said.

He thinks Trump would like the show, too. “It’s all about him,” the artist said. “I couldn’t have done it without him.”

“I wish Donald Trump would see the show and say, ‘Gee, that’s a good show, you know, I did a lot of good things,’ and then maybe feel better about himself, so he can chill,” Serrano said. “In a way, you gotta say, ‘Donald Trump, you won. There’s no sense fighting us. You won.’”

In a bid for the president’s attention, and that of his most avid followers, he hopes to place a 15-second advertisement on some of Trump’s favourite channels, including Fox News.

Serrano said The Game: All Things Trump has all the hallmarks of his best work, including simplicity and beauty. Whether he is photographing hooded Klansmen or murder victims, naked bodies or homeless people, firearms or feces, his glossy pictures make his subjects “beautiful and bigger than life,” he said.

Of all the criticism he receives — and he receives his fair share — Serrano said he most resents the notion that his work is sacrilegious. For decades, he has been a bête noire of the religious right, in the United States and around the world. In 2011, Catholic fundamentalists took hammers to Piss Christ when it was on display in the French city of Avignon.

“I was born and raised a Catholic, and I did my holy communion and then my confirmation, where I was told I was a soldier of God,” Serrano said. “I’m still that soldier of God.”

Still, he acknowledged, “People see it how they want to see it. I accept it.”

He expects that reactions to his Trump show could be as severe and as various.

“It’s a show for everyone — for people who love Trump, and for people who hate Trump,” he said.

Serrano’s work addresses basic themes, he said, enumerating a few of them: death, religion, sex, poverty. He likes to make things that people can understand on a visceral level.

It was inevitable, then, that he would turn to Trump, perhaps the most capacious theme of all.

He wanted to paint a big picture, and the president offered a broad canvas.

“In a way, Donald Trump has become all things to all people,” Serrano said.</s>(Reuters) - A Chinese woman who passed security checkpoints at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida carrying a thumb drive coded with “malicious” software was arrested on Saturday for entering a restricted property and making false statements to officials, according to a court filing.

Documents filed by the Secret Service on Monday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida say that shortly after noon on Saturday, Yujing Zhang approached a Secret Service agent screening visitors to Mar-a-Lago seeking entrance to the club.

Zhang produced two Chinese passports displaying her photo and said she wanted to go to the pool. Secret Service officers could not initially find her name on an access list for the property, according to the Secret Service affidavit filed with the court.

A club manager said that a man named Zhang was a club member, and even though Yujing Zhang did not give a clear answer as to whether the man was her father, the Secret Service affidavit says resort officials allowed her on the property on the assumption she was related to a member.

Resort personnel became suspicious after Zhang appeared to have trouble explaining why she was visiting Mar-a-Lago, according to the affidavit.

Zhang initially said she was there for an event staged by a group called the United Nations Chinese American Association. But resort staff found no such event was scheduled, according to the court filing.

A receptionist then contacted Secret Service personnel who questioned Zhang and concluded she did not have “any legitimate documentation” authorizing her entry to Mar-a-Lago, according to the filing.

After detaining her, investigators found in Zhang’s possession four cellphones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive device and a thumb drive, the Secret Service court filing says. Initial examination of the thumb drive determined it contained “malicious malware,” the Secret Service said.

“While the Secret Service does not determine who is permitted to enter the club, our agents and officers conduct physical screenings to ensure no prohibited items are allowed onto the property,” the Secret Service said in a statement.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., March 22, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

Responding to a question on the case, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular news briefing in Beijing on Wednesday: “I have no understanding of the situation you mention.”

In a court filing on Tuesday, a public defender representing Zhang said she was invoking her right to remain silent.

A Justice Department spokeswoman had no comment on the arrest.</s>A Chinese woman who got through security checkpoints at President Donald Trump`s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida carrying a thumb drive coded with "malicious" software was arrested on Saturday for entering a restricted property and making false statements to officials, according to a court filing.

Documents filed by the Secret Service on Monday in US District Court for the Southern District of Florida say that shortly after noon on Saturday, Yujing Zhang approached a Secret Service agent screening visitors to Mar-a-Lago seeking entrance to the club.

Zhang produced two Chinese passports displaying her photo and said she wanted to go to the pool. Secret Service officers could not initially find her name on an access list for the property, according to the Secret Service affidavit filed with the court.

A club manager said that a man named Zhang was a club member, and even though Yujing Zhang did not give a clear answer as to whether the man was her father, the Secret Service affidavit says resort officials allowed her on the property on the assumption she was related to a member.

Resort personnel became suspicious after Zhang appeared to have trouble explaining why she was visiting Mar-a-Lago, according to the affidavit.

Zhang initially said she was there for an event staged by a group called the United Nations Chinese American Association. But resort staff found no such event was scheduled, according to the court filing.

A receptionist then contacted Secret Service personnel who questioned Zhang and concluded she did not have "any legitimate documentation" authorizing her entry to Mar-a-Lago, according to the filing.

After detaining her, investigators found in Zhang`s possession four cellphones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive device and a thumb drive, the Secret Service court filing says. Initial examination of the thumb drive determined it contained "malicious malware," the Secret Service said.

The White House referred questions on the incident to the Secret Service on Tuesday. The Secret Service declined comment, saying the investigation was still open.

In a court filing on Tuesday, a public defender representing Zhang said she was invoking her right to remain silent.

A Justice Department spokeswoman had no comment on the arrest.</s>A Chinese woman has been charged with making a false statement to the U.S. Secret Service after entering President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on bogus pretenses, while carrying a thumb drive that contained "malicious software," court documents revealed Tuesday.

A criminal complaint says the woman, Chinese national Yujing Zhang, was on the luxury Palm Beach property on Saturday, at around 12:15 p.m., while Trump was playing golf at the Trump International course nearby.

Zhang, after passing by at least five Secret Service agents and arriving in the main reception area of Mar-a-Lago, later claimed to the Secret Service that she was there to attend a "United Nations Friendship Event" between China and the United States, the complaint said.

That event did not exist, according to the complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Southern Florida, and which was written by a Secret agent.

Zhang was found to be carrying four mobile phones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive, and a thumb drive.

"A preliminary forensive examination of the thumb drive determined it contained malicious software," the complaint said.

The Secret Service declined to comment, citing the "ongoing investigation." A spokesman for Mar-a-Lago did not immediately respond to CNBC when asked for comment.

Zhang was charged with making false statements to a federal officer, and entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds.

According to the criminal complaint, Zhang was admitted to Mar-a-Lago after passing through a Secret Service checkpoint, where she presented an agent with two Republic of China passports carrying her name, and her photograph, the complaint said.

After a Secret Service agent confirmed the identification, Mar-a-Lago security was unable to verify that Zhang was on the access list for the resort. Zhang said she was going to the pool, and a resort manager then told security that "Zhang is the last name of a member at the Mar-a-Lago club," the complaint said.</s>Secret Service agents arrested a woman at President Donald Trump’s Florida resort this past weekend after she was found carrying two Chinese passports and a thumb drive with malicious software on it, according to court documents.

Prosecutors allege the woman, Yujing Zhang, first told security officials at Mar-a-Lago that she was there to go to the swimming pool, and due to an apparent language barrier, staff at the club thought she was a relative of one of the club’s members.

Once inside the grounds, Zhang allegedly told a receptionist that she was there for a United Nations event scheduled for later in the day about Chinese-American relations. No such event was on the schedule, so the receptionist called the Secret Service, according to court papers.

After Zhang was stopped and questioned, a search of her belongings turned up four cell phones, a laptop, a hard drive, and a thumb drive which contained “malicious malware,” according to the criminal complaint. The document says she told Secret Service agents that a Chinese friend instructed her to travel from Shanghai to the president’s Florida resort and make contact with a member of Trump’s family.

Authorities said despite her initial claim to be headed for the pool, she was not carrying a swimsuit.

She is charged with making false statements to a federal law enforcement officer and entering a restricted area.</s>A Chinese woman carrying multiple cellphones and a thumb drive containing malware was arrested on Saturday at US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida while he was staying there, court documents revealed on Tuesday.

[WASHINGTON] A Chinese woman carrying multiple cellphones and a thumb drive containing malware was arrested on Saturday at US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida while he was staying there, court documents revealed on Tuesday.

An arrest document in the federal district court of Palm Beach, Florida said Zhang Yujing tried to gain entry into Mar-a-Lago on Saturday, first presenting herself as a member and saying she was headed to the pool - despite not having a swimsuit. Then, she claimed to be attending a non-existent Chinese-American friendship event.

After she was detained, she offered an additional story: that she was asked by a Chinese friend named Charles to travel from Shanghai to attend the event and attempt to speak to a member of the president's family about US-China economic relations, the document said.

The woman carried two passports from the People's Republic of China, according to the US Secret Service which arrested her. The charge documents mistakenly identified them as being from the "Republic of China," the official name of Taiwan.

Secret Service agents at the scene found four cellphones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive and a thumb drive that "contained malicious software", according to the document.

Zhang was arrested and charged with making false statements to federal officers and knowingly entering a restricted building - which Mar-a-Lago becomes while Mr Trump is in residence.

Mr Trump owns the luxurious beachside club in the wealthy Atlantic coast city of Palm Beach, and travels there frequently on weekends to play golf and meet friends.

He keeps a residence in a private area of the club, but was reportedly golfing at a nearby course around the time Zhang was there.

While Zhang's story of attending an event that was not on the club schedule raised suspicions, the Miami Herald reported that there might have been substance to it.

Two events had been recently advertised at Mar-a-Lago for March 30 by a local Chinese-American businesswoman, Cindy Yang, on Chinese language social media, the Herald said.

Ms Yang is a Mar-a-Lago member who built and later sold a chain of massage parlors in Florida, which were recently raided by police over prostitution. In recent years she has promoted herself as a path of access to the US president, his family, and other decision-makers.

Ms Yang's website featured pictures of her with Mr Trump and other members of his family and senior administration officials.

The Herald also said that an event promoter who Ms Yang worked with was named Charles Lee.</s>A Chinese woman carrying computer malware has been arrested after lying her way into Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago retreat.

Yujing Zhang, 32, had two Chinese passports, four mobile phones, a laptop, external hard drive, and a thumb drive containing the computer malware, according to documents.

Mr Trump was holidaying at Mar-a-Lago at the time but had gone to play golf.

The woman was charged with making false statements to federal agents and illegally entering a restricted area.

She remains in custody and will appear in court next week.

According to the court documents she approached a Secret Service agent at a checkpoint outside the club in Florida on Saturday afternoon, saying she was a member who wanted to use the swimming pool.

A club manager then mistook her for the daughter of a member.

She went on to tell a front desk receptionist that she was there to attend an upcoming United Nations Chinese American Association event, and wanted to familiarise herself with the club in advance.

The woman then showed an invitation in Chinese for the non-existent event.

According to the court documents she was taken off the grounds but became argumentative, so she was taken to a Secret Service office for questioning.</s>A Chinese woman carrying multiple cellphones and thumb drives bearing malware was arrested on Saturday at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida while the president was staying there, court documents revealed Tuesday.

An arrest document in the federal district court of Palm Beach, Florida says Zhang Yujing tried to gain entry into Mar-a-Lago on Saturday, first claiming she was a member headed to the pool and then claiming to be attending a non-existent Chinese-American event.

US press accounts said she had "Chinese passports" but the court document stated they were for "Republic of China," the official name of Taiwan, as opposed to "People's Republic of China," the mainland.

Secret Service agents at the scene inspected her found four cellphones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive and a thumb drive that "contained malicious software", according to the document.

She had no swimsuit, the document said, despite her initial claim to be headed for a swim.

Zhang was arrested and charged with making false statements to federal officers and knowingly entering a restricted building -- which Mar-a-Lago is while Trump is in residence.</s>A woman carrying two Chinese passports illegally entered President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, Saturday and lied to a Secret Service agent, according to court documents filed in West Palm Beach.

The suspect, Yujing Zhang, also had four mobile phones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive and a thumb drive found to contain malware, a Secret Service agent said in an affidavit filed in support of the charges against her.

Zhang appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge William Matthewman Monday, according to the court’s electronic docket. He scheduled a bail hearing for April 8 and her arraignment for one week later. She remains in federal custody.

Passing signs informing her that she was entering a Secret Service-restricted area, Zhang told the first agent she met that she was headed to the Mar-a-Lago pool, presenting her passports as proof of identity, according to the affidavit submitted by Secret Service Special Agent Samuel Ivanovich.

Cleared through that checkpoint after a Mar-a-Lago employee said she might be related to a member with the same surname, Zhang was picked up by a golf-cart-driving valet whom she was unable to tell where she wanted to go. The driver brought her to the main reception area where Zhang said she had come for a United Nations Chinese-American Association event, even though none was scheduled.

The receptionist then let Ivanovich know that the woman wasn’t authorized to be on site and she was arrested. Zhang later told agents she had been told by a friend to go to Mar-a-Lago and talk to a member of Trump’s family about U.S.-Chinese economic relations, according to the agent. Ivanovich said Zhang was conversant in English.

“The Secret Service does not determine who is invited or welcome at Mar-a-Lago; this is the responsibility of the host entity,” the agency said in a statement Tuesday night. “This access does not afford an individual proximity to the president or other Secret Service protectees.”

The statement, which did not mention Zhang by name, said that she was allowed onto the property “once Mar-a-Lago staff determined an individual was to be granted access.”

At the next screening checkpoint, the statement added, the reception staff “determined that the individual should not have been authorized access,” and she was arrested.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing didn’t immediately respond Wednesday to a faxed request for comment.
According to a criminal complaint filed in a U.S. District Court, a Chinese woman is arrested and charged with making a false statement to the United States Secret Service after illegally entering U.S. President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on 30 March 2019 while carrying multiple passports, four mobile phones and a thumb drive containing malware.