President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump played host at Mar-a-Lago’s glitzy MAGA-filled New Year’s Eve party Wednesday night.
The first lady chose to wear a stunning silver number, which she paired with silver-studded Louboutin heels, while the president sported his traditional tuxedo.
As the first couple walked the black carpet, the president was clear about his New Year’s resolution.
‘Peace. Peace on earth,’ he said, after a year in which he claimed to end numerous wars across the globe.
As Trump briefly addressed the gaggle of assembled reporters, he balked at a question about whether he would send U.S. troops to Ukraine as part of a security guarantee, something Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday was on the table.
He also ignored a question about the CIA’s role in a drone strike in Venezuela.
‘Thank you,’ the president said, as he smiled and walked into the party holding Melania’s hand, inviting the gathered reporters to join him.
The MAGA luminaries spotted at the shindig included former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, MyPillow CEO and U.S. Senate hopeful Mike Lindell, Hollywood director Brett Ratner, who directed the forthcoming Melania documentary and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who held official meetings with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, was also seen at the party.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have arrived at the commander-in-chief’s annual New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago
Trump’s son Eric Trump and his wife Lara Trump arrive for the celebration
Once inside, Trump turned emcee to help auction off a painting of Jesus done by artist Vanessa Horabuena.
It ended up going for $2.75million, as Trump joked he’d be happy to sign it if it went for more.
While he had the mic, the president continued to hammer at the ongoing daycare fraud scandal in Minnesota, while hinting that they’re looking into other states next.
‘They stole $18billion, that’s just what we’re learning about. California’s worse, Illinois’ worse and sadly, New York’s worse, a lot of other places,’ he said.
He then declared that ‘we’re gonna’ get to the bottom of all of it, it was a giant scam. We’re gonna’ get to the bottom of it.’
Also at the party were two fresh reality TV personalities, as Daily Mail confirmed the attendance of Hilary Musser and Rosalyn Yellin, cast members of the new Netflix show, Members Only: Palm Beach.
Laura Loomer, the conspiracy theorist who’s tight with the president, told the Daily Mail that she would be there.
Loomer had been first to report that Netanyahu would join the festivities.
Trump didn’t call attention to the Israeli prime minister while he was onstage, but the two leaders were captured on social media watching the fireworks over Palm Beach.
The First Lady in particular stunned in a bright, sparkling silver dress and a studded Louboutin worthy of the occasion, while the president wore a traditional tuxedo
President Trump had a very clear, simple answer when questioned on his New Year’s resolution. ‘Peace. Peace on earth,’ he said, after a year in which he claimed to end numerous wars across the globe
Trump’s New Year’s tradition goes back to the late 1990s, after he turned the historic Palm Beach waterfront home into a private club.
Attendees over the course of three decades have included Martha Stewart, Serena Williams, Sylvester Stallone, the late Regis Philbin, Jason Aldean and Tiger Woods.
In recent years, it hasn’t attracted as many celebrity guests, instead welcoming MAGA mainstays like Lindell and Giuliani, as well as the well-monied set who can afford a membership to the president’s private beachfront Florida club.
Those with club memberships are each allowed two guests – and the party comes at an additional cost, which one Mar-a-Lago member told the Daily Mail amounts to several thousand dollars.
Ronald Kessler, a best-selling author known for his books on the Secret Service, FBI, and CIA, previously delved into Palm Beach society for his 1999 tome, The Season: Inside Palm Beach and America’s Richest Society.
Kessler befriended Trump while doing research for his book, and got a firsthand look at one of the future president’s first New Year’s Eve parties.
‘Everyone wants to come to Mar-a-Lago. For New Year’s Eve, we have hundreds of requests for reservations. We can’t get them in,’ Trump is quoted as saying in December 1998. ‘Rod Stewart took a table, Ron Perelman took four tables. We’ve had Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Diana Ross, Jay Leno, Julio Iglesias, Tony Bennett, the Beach Boys, Tom Jones. It’s the hot place.’
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Has Mar-a-Lago’s New Year’s Eve party lost its star power or become a political showcase?
Once inside, Trump turned emcee to help auction off a painting of Jesus done by artist Vanessa Horabuena. It ended up going for $2.75million, as Trump joked he’d be happy to sign it if it went for more
US Attorney for the District of Columbia and former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro arrives
President Donald Trump (L) introduces a speed painter that created a Jesus art piece during the New Year’s Eve Party
The president’s eldest son, Don Jr, was also in attendance
White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and Erin Elmore walk the carpet
At that year’s party, Trump was accompanied by his then-girlfriend, Melania Knauss, with one partygoer remarking that the next year’s theme could be, ‘Melania for the millennium.’
She was indeed, as the couple has now been together for 27 years.
To welcome in 1999, Donna Summer performed a set on Mar-a-Lago’s lawn, as Mar-a-Lago’s gilded ballroom hadn’t been constructed yet.
Kessler told the Daily Mail he attended the New Year’s Eve festivities many times after writing his book, including in December 2015, when Trump was a first-time presidential candidate.
He wrote up his observations that year for the Daily Mail, recalling how he was served truffle and ricotta ravioli, filet mignon and scallops and sparkling wine from the Trump-branded Charlottesville, Virginia vineyard.
Donatella Versace was a guest and partied alongside a pregnant Ivanka Trump.
Trump had turned Mar-a-Lago – which he had purchased 10 years before – into a private club in 1995, incensing locals by accepting Jewish people and African-Americans as members, which many Palm Beach private clubs barred at the time.
He called the trust fund babies who opposed his plans for Mar-a-Lago members of the ‘lucky sperm club,’ Kessler wrote in his book.
Former Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani was once again in attendance
While he had the mic, the president continued to hammer at the ongoing daycare fraud scandal in Minnesota, while hinting that they’re looking into other states next
A speed painter creates a Jesus art piece during the New Year’s Eve Party hosted by Trump. It auctioned off for $2.75million
Before Trump’s political career took off, he hosted an array of celebrities at the club.
In one memorable anecdote, Sean ‘Puff Daddy’ Combs – who has since been sentenced to spend 50 months in federal prison on prostitution-related charges – wandered from Mar-a-Lago next door to the Bath & Tennis Club, which didn’t accept minority members.
Diddy got kicked out of Bath & Tennis after being caught hooking up with his girlfriend on a lounger, Kessler’s book recalled. It was Trump who told the author the story.
Early honorary Mar-a-Lago members included Stewart, the singer who is a neighbor of Trump’s, Stallone, the late Charlton Heston, Steven Spielberg and Denzel Washington.
In recent years, the ‘celebrities’ at Mar-a-Lago have become more MAGA-aligned and political in nature.
Stallone, a recent winner of the Trumpified Kennedy Center Honors, is still a fixture.
Woods is dating Donald Trump Jr.’s ex-wife Vanessa, which the Daily Mail first reported, and thus is still in the Mar-a-Lago orbit.
But Stewart has since distanced himself from Trump, saying in an interview in June that he doesn’t approve of the president’s behavior toward women and the Trump administration selling arms to Israel. ‘Since he became president, he became another guy,’ Stewart said. ‘Somebody I didn’t know.’
President Donald Trump speaks to guests during a New Year’s Eve event at his Mar-a-Lago home
Trump walks off the stage after briefly taking the mic
Spielberg spent hundreds of thousands of dollars last year to help Democratic candidates get elected, while actor Washington had to slap down a story that said he supported Trump’s first election.
During last year’s celebration, which took place three weeks before Trump returned to the White House, Elon Musk, who brought along son X, turned heads.
As did Trump Jr.’s new girlfriend, Bettina Anderson, with New Year’s Eve serving as her official coming-out party, after the younger Trump broke off his engagement to the current ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle.
The couple has since gotten engaged.
Mar-a-Lago was still partying like it’s 1999, more than two decades later, with 90s rapper Vanilla Ice tapped to ring in 2021, just weeks before Trump would leave office and days before the January 6 Capitol attack.
Trump ditched the party that year, and guests were criticized for partying indoors amid the COVID-19 pandemic without wearing masks.
Vanilla Ice – who lives nearby – returned to perform for the event to kick off 2024 – a much better year for the president – bringing along with him another piece of 90s nostalgia, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.
Last year, one musical act was a little closer to home: daughter-in-law Lara Trump took the stage to perform a rendition of Tom Petty’s, I Won’t Back Down.
But at least one Trump loyalist tells the Daily Mail he’s staying away from Mar-a-Lago ball drop this year, pouring cold water on the perceived hype around the party.
‘Been for NYE before, boring and left early,’ the source said.
