President Donald Trump threw a lavish, Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, just hours before more than 40 million Americans were due to be cut off from food assistance.
Footage of the event shows Trump seated at a banquet table speaking to Secretary of State Marco Rubio while political allies, celebrities, and loyal supporters mingle in elaborate costumes among the glitzy décor.
The event, held on Oct. 31 in Palm Beach, occurred just hours before the Nov. 1 cutoff for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
“Trump hosts Gatsby themed Halloween party for his millionaire buddies as Americans across the country go hungry,” Democratic commentator Kaivan Shroff wrote on X. “Very on brand for him.”
The Department of Agriculture said that, due to the ongoing government shutdown, the SNAP program would be suspended owing to lack of funding. Some 40 million of the most vulnerable Americans are expected to be affected.
“Glad that Trump can have a fun night at his Mar-a-Lago country club attending a Gatsby themed party when 40M people are about to loose their food assistance tomorrow,” another popular left-leaning Twitter account wrote in response to the party.
NewsNation’s White House correspondent confirmed that the theme for the Mar-a-Lago event was “a little party never killed nobody.”
The name is a reference to a song in the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film, The Great Gatsby.
Based on the novel of the same name by Jazz Age American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby explores the emptiness of wealth and status-seeking in an era of hedonism and loose morality.
The event comes as the Trump administration was ordered by a judge in Rhode Island to continue SNAP funding. Trump took to social media to say that he wasn’t sure he had the “legal authority” to do so.
On the same day, Trump revealed the marble-and-gold makeover he had given the bathroom in the historic White House Lincoln bedroom. The revamp is in keeping with the ongoing gaudy redesign of the historic seat of power in Washington, D.C, including the installation of a vast ballroom in place of the East Wing.
In response to the bathroom redecoration, California Governor Gavin Newsom likened Trump to Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France before the 1789 revolution. She flaunted her lavish lifestyle as millions of people starved.
