One of Donald Trump’s first major fundraisers of the 2020 campaign season — rather than simply a rally for his base, who don’t pose nearly the financial threat to his potential opponents simply due to the nature of their primary educational demographic — was a classic bust, according to the Daily Beast. Trump Victory, the onetime solo PAC that merged with the Republican National Committee in an unprecedented move to lock out primary challengers by giving them no serious financial base to count on, hosted the event in Beverly Hills, and turnout was… Let’s just say it was not good.
Tickets for the fundraising dinner ranged from $15,000 for dinner only to $50,000 to get a photo op with the President — all the way up to $150,000 to sit in on Trump’s “roundtable discussion,” which one assumes went much like a Cabinet meeting in the Oval Office: An hour of everyone at the table telling Trump what a brilliant, magnanimous genius he is, followed by an hour of Trump regaling the table with tales of how much more money he could have secured for the already-wealthy through lopsided tax cuts and how many more brown foreigners he could have ejected from the country if only he weren’t impeded by pesky Democrats.
But the only details that matter in the short term is the ones surrounding what must have been the President’s sincere dismay at the attendance.
Because of the joint partnership with the RNC, technically the host of the event was Ronna Romney McDaniel, head of that organization. But the Trump Victory panel, according to the last listing available, is still staffed by the owner of the New York Jets, a shopping mall developer, the former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, and among a few others, Elliott Broidy — the former deputy finance chair of the RNC (along with Michael Cohen) until he resigned following his affair with a Playboy Playmate, who contracted herpes from him and who he reportedly forced to obtain an abortion.
But the biggest news wasn’t who was there, but rather who wasn’t: Not even one celebrity attended the event, according to literally everyone who was there that would talk to the Daily Beast. Two valets driving golf carts at the Italian villa told the Beast‘s reporter that there were no stars in attendance, and even Rabbi Marvin Hier, who gave the prayer at Trump’s inauguration, confirmed:
Celebrities? No celebrities.”
Although reports from Trump’s circle put the turnout at around 400 people, the Washington Post reported that only 170 people attended.
According to a member of the RNC, Trump actually told the gathered crowd he expected to win California in the upcoming election, which is somehow even funnier to me than the whole “no celebrities” thing. Sure, it’s hilarious that even TV Superman and Chachi skipped out on the event, but win California? That’s hysterical.
Featured image via screen capture
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