Amid Republican civil war, Trump holds court — and his grip on GOP — at Mar-a-Lago
The lobby of the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C. — dubbed America's Living Room after loyalists made it their favorite schmoozing ground during Trump's presidency— has been replaced by the former president's invite-only gilded private club, Mar-a-Lago.
From GOP leaders to congressional lawmakers to donors to prospective political heir apparents, a steady stream of callers and wooers has steadily descended on the Palm Beach club in the past few weeks. All are falling in line in seeking Trump's blessing and support — and money.
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In their doing so, the question of how much clout former President Donald Trump would retain after leaving office, and how he would wield it, has been answered. In fewer than two months, Trump has established himself as the GOP's king and queen maker — drawing to his ornate private club some of the party's top influencers.
"The majority of the party is with him," said Miami-based GOP strategist and podcast host Gianno Caldwell. "It's unquestionable at this point that they are absolutely with him."
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Although Trump's banishment from social media has left him unable to broadcast and boast about his new role in the party online, news reports and posts to social media by others have confirmed Trump is holding court at Mar-a-Lago. Unlike his D.C. hotel, which is open to the public, Mar-a-Lago is a private club and only those hand-selected by Trump are allowed in.
Mar-a-Lago has become a lucrative destination for fundraising
The weekly treks by Republican lawmakers and notables come as the party struggles with how it will handle Trump's efforts to remain a key player in GOP politics. And as GOP strategists plan efforts to retake Congress by electing Republicans while also deepening the party's grip on state capitals across the country.
Mar-a-Lago has proven to be a particularly lucrative fundraising destination — for both GOP organizations and Trump. Since 2018, the Republican National Committee has spent over $290,000 at Mar-a-Lago. The events have helped the party raise millions.
And the RNC will spend even more in April when it hosts its annual spring retreat dinner for major donors at the former president's club, according to the Washington Post. The dinner is traditionally held at the local hotel that hosts the the annual weekend retreat.
The RNC has decided to move the dinner to the former president’s private club to accommodate Trump, the headline speaker, and guests who would like to visit the club, according to the Washington Post report.
But the RNC's apparent effort to steer Trump towards détente by moving its dinner to Mar-a-Lago and inviting Trump to speak did not work.
Instead, the intra-party divide took a brow-raising twist March 5 when Trump's lawyers sent out cease-and-desist letters to the RNC, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee demanding they no longer use his name and likeness on fundraising emails and merchandise, according to Politico.
The three GOP groups are the largest fundraising organizations focused on electing Republicans to state and national offices.
Trump: Donate to me, not the GOP
On Tuesday evening, Trump's Save America PAC sent out a statement from the former president saying that while he "fully" supported the Republican Party he would "not support RINOs and fools, and it is not their right to use my likeness or image to raise funds."
The statement called on Republicans and the Trump base to "donate to our Save America PAC" to help "the America First movement and doing it right."
The RNC denied Trump's cease-and-desist demand but has agreed not to use Trump's name and image to raise money without his permission. Apparently, though, the RNC received Trump's blessing for an email it sent out Wednesday inviting donors to contribute to the party for a chance to meet the president at the party's spring retreat in Palm Beach in April.
Caldwell said despite the support for Trump among party leadership, donors and elected officials, there is widespread evidence of significant fault lines within the conservative movement.
"The party is fractured, so it's going to be very difficult to unite the party in a way which is cohesive for legitimate forward movement," said Caldwell, host of the Outloud with Gianno Caldwell podcast on iHeartRadio.
Caldwell said that split was clear even at Trump's highly anticipated return to the political stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando late last month. Caldwell noted that while a straw poll found 97% approval for Trump's performance as president, just 55% said they would support him 2024 if he were to run again.
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Caldwell said that's because while many conservatives applauded his public policies during his term at the White House, and his straight talk, others cringed at many of his other statements, concluding that they "were despicable and something a president should never say." And then, of course, there was the Jan. 6 insurrection that many, at least privately, hold Trump responsible for, Caldwell said.
But whether they are with him or not, Caldwell added, many conservatives also feel they now have targets on their backs.
"It is a tough, tough road considering where the country is now," Caldwell said citing media coverage and social media banishments and reprimands. "Because conservatives are legitimately getting beat up everywhere. This is a really, really rough place to be because there is also a lack of leadership in the GOP right now."
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A Democratic communications consultant said Trump is basically kicking the Republican Party to the curb with the acquiescence of the party itself.
"The Republican Party is being eaten alive from within by this," said former Obama presidential campaign adviser Spencer Critchley. "He is doing all this stuff that only serves his own impulsive interest of the moment and the Republican Party seems helpless to do anything but go along with it, even though he is attacking one of the things they presumably care most about, their ability to raise money."
Trump is the 'de facto ideological leader'
Nonetheless, a top fundraiser for Trump and Republicans said Trump is the undisputable leader of the party and the clear choice among most for the presidential nomination in three years.
"You can't underestimate he is the de facto ideological leader of the party," said Blair Brandt, a political consultant in Palm Beach and former Florida co-chair of the Trump Victory Finance Committee. "He is the presumptive frontrunner for 2024 at this time."
If Trump does not run again, he will likely hand-pick the party's next presidential candidate, Brandt added.
"I think that everyone who is doing this now is smart because this is like down time for him," Brandt said. "There will come a time when his availability will shrink."
Still, it took just eight days after the Jan. 20 inauguration of President Joe Biden for the pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago to begin — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was the first lawmaker to bend the knee.
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McCarthy had angered Trump in January after reportedly accusing Trump of bearing some responsibility for the Capitol attack in a heated phone call between the two during the Jan. 6 riot.
Although McCarthy later backtracked on his claim, critics say the California Republican's trip was an effort to win back Trump's favor as McCarthy eyes the House speaker position should the GOP win the House. A statement issued by Trump’s Save America PAC said the men discussed strategy for winning the majority of the chamber's seats in next year's midterm elections.
A parade of other GOP politicians followed. On Feb. 16, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., stopped by Mar-a-Lago, according to Politico Playbook. Scalise, a longtime, loyal Trump supporter did not join in efforts by other top Republicans, including McCarthy, to rebuke the former president after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Several days later, Pensacola Congressman Matt Gaetz and U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado were at Mar-a-Lago on Feb. 20 for a $10,600-per-couple fundraiser for Utah Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, according to a photo of the invite tweeted by Politico reporter Mark Caputo.
Also that weekend, South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham made the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago. Like McCarthy, Graham had also been critical of Trump after the Capitol attack. Graham did not say whether he raised the attack with Trump but rather said he discussed the 2022 elections and efforts to unite the fractured Republican party, according to a report by The Hill.
Political notables and Trump acolytes have also made appearances. Trump's senior campaign advisor Steve Cortes showed up for the Feb. 20 fundraising weekend.
The following weekend, Richard Grenell, Trump's former acting national intelligence director, had dinner with Trump on the terrace at Mar-a-Lago.
Also that weekend, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton posed with Trump at the former president's golf club in West Palm Beach.
Some visits do not 'go well'
Former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, the Georgia Republican who lost a runoff election on Jan. 5, called on Mar-a-Lago in late February and announced afterward that he would not run again in 2022.
A source close to Perdue denied that the meeting was related to his decision not to run again, but an unnamed source told New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman that the meeting at Mar-a-Lago “did not go well," according to a tweet posted by Haberman.
"Perdue had dinner with and played a long round of golf with Trump last week. It did not go well. Two ppl briefed on the meetings said Trump was very focused on McConnell and Kemp and retribution. One person close to Perdue says that wasn’t related to his decision," Haberman's tweet read, which referred to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
Perdue cited personal reasons for not pursing the seat.
Trump has already endorsed more than a handful of Republicans in the 2022 election: Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump's former press secretary, for governor of Arkansas; Jerry Moran of Kansas for U.S. Senate; incumbent Tim Scott of South Carolina for U.S. Senate; and Max Miller of Ohio for the U.S. House.
"There's no question that he's picking winners and losers and not just for his own ego," said Brandt. "It's actually politically effective right now."
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The fundraising and treks to Mar-a-Lago will continue, added Brandt. It makes sense to be seen with Trump and host events at his club. Other GOP donors with deep pockets also live in Palm Beach and "everyone needs a winter vacation," Brandt said.
"If Trump was living in Macon, Georgia, you would be going there to see him, but here, people are not just meeting with him but also donors who typically participate at the six-figure level and above," Brandt said.
Earlier this month, Donald Trump Jr. and girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle hosted a fundraiser for South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem at Mar-a-Lago, per an invite obtained by Daniel Lippman for Politico.
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Trump not only uses invites to Mar-a-Lago as a strategy to command respect and build power but also as a form of payback.
In mid-February, Trump snubbed a request from Nikki Haley, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, to meet with him at Mar-a-Lago, according to Politico Playbook. Haley, a potential presidential hopeful and former governor of South Carolina, was critical of Trump after the Capitol riot.
Trump also did not bother with an invitation to McConnell, who also blasted Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Trump has vowed retribution and appears to be using invites to Mar-a-Lago as a reward to those who remained loyal throughout this election loss and impeachment.
"While other people say he's toxic or responsible for the riots, smart people are realizing that this person is in control of the vast majority of the party," said Brandt.
There was a brief moment after the riots when it looked like the power might tilt in favor of the never-Trumpers in the party, Brandt said. But that didn't happen.
"The working-class voters are really the base right now and they are still waving Trump flags," Brandt added.