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Inside the opulent Trump inaugural dinner designed as a glittery overture to foreign diplomats
Politics
Inside the opulent Trump inaugural dinner designed as a glittery overture to foreign diplomats
By Michael Kranish, Rosalind S. Helderman, Mary Jordan and Tom Hamburger
March 15 at 7:00 AM
Three days before Donald Trump was inaugurated president in January 2017, he arrived at a remarkable scene inside an auditorium in downtown Washington designed in the style of a Neoclassical temple. ... About 550 guests — diplomats, wealthy megadonors, members of Congress and Cabinet nominees — dined on filet mignon and black cod as they watched a performance by the country music band Alabama and a straight-from-Las Vegas musical extravaganza. Mounds of red roses were arranged on tables and a calligrapher was on site to inscribe the names of last-minute guests on seating cards.
The gathering, which cost the inaugural committee roughly $8,000 a person, was one of the most opulent events of the five-day inaugural celebration— yet it was not designed to showcase the new president, who decided to attend at the last minute, according to internal documents and people familiar with the planning.
Dubbed the Chairman’s Global Dinner, it was the brainchild of billionaire Thomas J. Barrack Jr., Trump’s close friend and his inaugural committee chairman, who conceived of the night as a glittery overture to a diplomatic corps anxious about the change in Washington. ... Paid for by donors to the inaugural committee, the event put Barrack’s style of global networking on display and gave foreign guests an unparalleled chance to mingle with the incoming vice president, other members of the new administration and lawmakers.
The dinner serves as an extravagant symbol of Trump’s inaugural festivities, which involved record fundraising, lavish spending and a large concentration of foreign guests. Now, state, federal and congressional investigators are scrutinizing those issues as part of five inquiries of activities related to the inaugural committee.
....
The costs are 'way too high'
The ultimate cost of the dinner: at least $4.3 million, according to people familiar with the budget.
....
Alice Crites, Ellen Nakashima and Anne Gearan contributed to this report.
Michael Kranish is a national political investigative reporter for The Washington Post. He is the co-author of The Post’s biography "Trump Revealed," as well as biographies of John F. Kerry and Mitt Romney. He previously was the deputy chief of the Washington Bureau of the Boston Globe. Follow https://twitter.com/PostKranish
Rosalind Helderman is a political enterprise and investigations reporter for The Washington Post. She joined The Post in 2001. Follow https://twitter.com/PostRoz
Mary Jordan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent currently writing about politics. She spent 14 years as a Washington Post foreign correspondent based in Tokyo, Mexico City and London. Follow https://twitter.com/marycjordan
Tom Hamburger is an investigative reporter on the national desk of The Washington Post. He has covered the White House, Congress and regulatory agencies, with a focus on money and politics. Follow https://twitter.com/thamburger
Inside the opulent Trump inaugural dinner designed as a glittery overture to foreign diplomats
By Michael Kranish, Rosalind S. Helderman, Mary Jordan and Tom Hamburger
March 15 at 7:00 AM
Three days before Donald Trump was inaugurated president in January 2017, he arrived at a remarkable scene inside an auditorium in downtown Washington designed in the style of a Neoclassical temple. ... About 550 guests — diplomats, wealthy megadonors, members of Congress and Cabinet nominees — dined on filet mignon and black cod as they watched a performance by the country music band Alabama and a straight-from-Las Vegas musical extravaganza. Mounds of red roses were arranged on tables and a calligrapher was on site to inscribe the names of last-minute guests on seating cards.
The gathering, which cost the inaugural committee roughly $8,000 a person, was one of the most opulent events of the five-day inaugural celebration— yet it was not designed to showcase the new president, who decided to attend at the last minute, according to internal documents and people familiar with the planning.
Dubbed the Chairman’s Global Dinner, it was the brainchild of billionaire Thomas J. Barrack Jr., Trump’s close friend and his inaugural committee chairman, who conceived of the night as a glittery overture to a diplomatic corps anxious about the change in Washington. ... Paid for by donors to the inaugural committee, the event put Barrack’s style of global networking on display and gave foreign guests an unparalleled chance to mingle with the incoming vice president, other members of the new administration and lawmakers.
The dinner serves as an extravagant symbol of Trump’s inaugural festivities, which involved record fundraising, lavish spending and a large concentration of foreign guests. Now, state, federal and congressional investigators are scrutinizing those issues as part of five inquiries of activities related to the inaugural committee.
....
The costs are 'way too high'
The ultimate cost of the dinner: at least $4.3 million, according to people familiar with the budget.
....
Alice Crites, Ellen Nakashima and Anne Gearan contributed to this report.
Michael Kranish is a national political investigative reporter for The Washington Post. He is the co-author of The Post’s biography "Trump Revealed," as well as biographies of John F. Kerry and Mitt Romney. He previously was the deputy chief of the Washington Bureau of the Boston Globe. Follow https://twitter.com/PostKranish
Rosalind Helderman is a political enterprise and investigations reporter for The Washington Post. She joined The Post in 2001. Follow https://twitter.com/PostRoz
Mary Jordan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent currently writing about politics. She spent 14 years as a Washington Post foreign correspondent based in Tokyo, Mexico City and London. Follow https://twitter.com/marycjordan
Tom Hamburger is an investigative reporter on the national desk of The Washington Post. He has covered the White House, Congress and regulatory agencies, with a focus on money and politics. Follow https://twitter.com/thamburger
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