In the land of billionaires, of all political stripes, the only downside will be the traffic jams.
The Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers are neck and neck, and Taylor Swift is stressed. About 4000 kilometres across the US, the 58th annual Super Bowl is blaring from three giant screens into a large, carpeted dining room.
Among golden-framed magazine covers and photos of the former president on the corridor walls, an honours board lists the golf club’s “Men’s Senior Club Champion”: 2012 – Donald J. Trump; 2013 – Donald J. Trump; 2022 – Donald J. Trump; 2023 – Donald J. Trump. Sometimes, he addresses the attractive woman to her right, Margo Martin, his deputy director of communications. Melania is not at the party.
Al, who is sitting across the table, has put money on the Chiefs and is looking smug. I follow the genuflecting crowds out, passing Giuliani, who is contentedly eating another ice cream.The last time I was in Palm Beach, in November 2022, things were looking quite different. Trump had not yet become the first president to be charged with a felony. Not even one count, let alone 91.
They will be having pizza and sushi prepared by his private sushi chef. “It’s a casual thing,” he makes clear. “This isn’t a fancy party.”Being sociable is no small matter in Palm Beach, particularly at this time of year. It’s the height of “the season”. Though the precise bounds are disputed, it roughly spans the months between Thanksgiving and Easter, after which islanders traditionally retreat to other homes in the Hamptons or perhaps Europe.
The host and organiser of the evening is Scott Atlas, Trump’s former COVID-19 adviser, who was a lockdown sceptic. “It’s just so nice to walk into a room and to know: these people think like I do,” one woman tells me.I meet Andy Guttman, a Republican who is running for Congress in Florida’s 22nd district, an area that encompasses Palm Beach. “Everyone says the same thing about Palm Beach – that it’s like billionaire high school,” he says.
To go along with the theme, there is a real-life Bond villain here, who is also a supporter of Trump and frequent Conservative Political Action Conference speaker: Robert Davi, who played the drug lord Franz Sanchez inThere is also a strict dress code: “glamorous attire” in black, white or gold for the ladies and black tie or a black suit for the gentlemen.
Another woman, in her 70s, with rhinestones stuck below her eyebrows and a heart shape painted in red over her lips, has flown in from Los Angeles for the occasion. She says Trump has been “anointed by God” to save America. “I would walk through fires for him,” she tells me, bursting into tears. “So we have a problem, and we’re going to solve the problem, but we have to make sure that in November bad things don’t happen like happened last time,” Trump tells the crowd, without making explicit what these “bad things” are.“And, I will say this: we’re far more popular in the polls, and I think just popular, period, right Kimber– I love that name, so elegant. Kimberly is a fantastic person doing a great job, and we appreciate it, thank you Kimberly.” Guilfoyle blows him a kiss.