Mar-a-Lago gala happens without Trump
U.S. president postponed trip amid government shutdown — but he’ll still make money
PALM BEACH, FLA.— U.S. President Donald Trump’s posh Mar-a-Lago Club is set to host a high-priced gala Saturday night intended to celebrate Trump’s first year in office and raise money for his re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee.
Tickets start at $100,000 per couple, Bloomberg reported.
The guest of honour, however, will not be there. With the government shut down and Congress in negotiations, Trump postponed his scheduled departure from Washington on Friday afternoon. But he will still make money.
By holding the event at his own club, Trump will be able to collect tens of thousands of dollars in fees for food, ballroom rental and other costs. In effect, he will have transformed his supporters’ political donations into revenue for his business. Again. During the 2016 election cycle, Trump’s campaign spent at least $791,000 to hold events at 12 Trump-branded venues: three hotels, seven golf courses, a condo building and Mar-a-Lago, federal campaign filings show. That was on top of millions more that Trump’s campaign paid his businesses for other expenses such as hotel stays, meals and rent for office space at Trump Tower.
After Inauguration Day, it continued.
Federal election laws bar candidates from the “personal use” of campaign donations — a ban meant to stop candidates from buying things unrelated to their runs for office. If a purchase is a result of campaign activity, the government allows it.
How do those rules apply to an official, like Trump, who’s renting lavish ballrooms from himself, at a forprofit club that is also his home and “Winter White House”?
“The prevailing view among election lawyers is that the law isn’t violated so long as the campaign committee pays fair market value for the goods and services received from Mar-a-Lago,” said Paul S. Ryan, a campaign finance expert at the government watchdog group Common Cause.
It remains unclear how much Mara-Lago will receive from the Republican National Committee for Saturday night’s event. A GOP spokesperson declined to provide any details of the event. A Trump campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.