Details are beginning to emerge about Donald Trump’s opulent, out-of-touch Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago on Friday night.
Images from the Great Gatsby-themed soirée show the president beaming and speaking with top members of his administration, political allies, celebrities, and loyal MAGA supporters, all decked out in elaborate Jazz Age costumes and surrounded by Prohibition-era decor.
One clip, posted to X by right-wing “monitoring” account PatriotTakes, features burlesque dancers suggestively fluttering feather fans among a sea of guests under the glare of bright neon banners.
Another photo, posted by the same account, features a mouthwatering spread of dessert options, including macaroons and cheesecakes, set against antique wood panelling and under the watchful eye of a painted portrait of a remarkably trim-looking Trump in his younger years.
A further clip, uploaded to X by MeidasTouch, shows the president grinning and chatting happily with fellow diners at his table as waiters dart about under 1920s chandeliers holding trays of exotic cocktails.
Photos captured by professional photographers at the event itself feature female dancers wearing laced flapper dresses and feather headbands, along with what appear to be two giant silver and gold beachballs floating in the resort’s pool.
In photos posted by guests, Trump can be seen taking photos with guests, including Jeanine Pirro, whom Trump appointed United States attorney for the District of Columbia in May.
In photos screenshotted from Instagram stories and reposted to the PatriotTakes X account, one woman dressed in showgirl attire can be seen sitting inside a giant champagne glass.
Critics have been quick to tear into the president for hosting a party themed around an iconic work of 1920s fiction about the excess and moral emptiness of social privilege built on economic inequality.
The party was thrown the night before funding was due to expire for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, due to the ongoing government funding deadlock.
“Donald Trump hosted a Great Gatsby party while SNAP benefits were about to disappear for 42 million Americans,” California Governor Gavin Newsom posted early Saturday morning. “He does not give a damn about you.”
Roughly one in eight people in the U.S. relies on the foot stamp program, which had already been scythed back by $186 million under Trump’s spending measures, introduced in July.
Ahead of Saturday’s lapse in funding, one Republican Congressman suggested that his constituents should “stop smoking crack” if they wanted to minimize its impact.
