Trump Charges Business Leaders $5 Million to Dine with him and Potentially Pockets the Funds

Mar 05, 2025

Donald Trump views bribery and official corruption as a perk of office, which is why he suspended the case against a corrupt mayor and pardoned a corrupt governor. Now he is just openly charging favor-seekers $5 million each for the opportunity to whisper in his ear over dinner.

This was originally reported in Wired, behind a paywall, but see a summary at The Guardian:

Donald Trump is reportedly inviting guests to meet and dine with him at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, for a fee of millions of dollars.
Business leaders can secure a one-on-one meeting with the president at Mar-a-Lago for the price of $5m, sources told Wired. At what is called a candlelight dinner held as recently as this past Saturday, prospective guests of the Florida estate were asked to spend $1m to reserve a seat, according to an invitation obtained by Wired.
“You are invited to a candlelight dinner featuring special guest President Donald J. Trump,” the invitation reportedly reads. “Additional details provided upon RSVP. RSVPs will be accommodated on a first come, first serve basis. Space is very limited. $1,000,000 per person.”

It’s not clear if this should be filed under “Political Corruption” or “Personal Grift,” because it’s not clear if the money is going to Trump’s political fund or straight to his own pocket. It’s probably some of each, but the style of the whole thing screams “Personal Grift.”

While previous presidents have hosted fundraisers, this is not a common practice—and never to pad their own pockets.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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