The donors and corporations who are ushering in Donald Trump’s inauguration with more than $90 million in gifts to his Inaugural Committee are due to receive quite the appreciation beginning Tuesday evening.
Elaborate gatherings are expected in every corner of town this week for Trump friends and foes alike, but perhaps no path will be more gilded than the “underwriters” who have helped this inaugural committee smash fundraising records. The celebration begins with a ritzy black-tie gala at the Andrew W. Mellon auditorium near the White House on Tuesday at what is described to donors as the Chairman’s Global Dinner.
Other gatherings listed on a complete “Underwriter Events Schedule” distributed to top financial supporters and obtained by CNN include a “Victory Reception” at the National Building Museum on Wednesday afternoon followed by the Vice President’s Dinner at the National Portrait Gallery in the evening.
Thursday features more access-heavy sit-downs such as a black-tie “candlelight dinner” at Union Station the night before they head to their prime seats at the swearing-in ceremony on Friday at the Capitol.
The Inaugural Committee has collected checks from corporations like Boeing, which has announced a $1 million gift, and families like the Adelsons of Las Vegas, who have committed around $5 million to the festivities. The week has been planned by Tom Barrack, Trump’s longtime consigliere with a far-flung network of global business ties.
“It’s the bandwidth of people who are thankful for saving capitalism — that didn’t support him in the candidacy phase,” Barrack said of the inaugural donors in an interview with CNN earlier this month. “So there was a lot of low-hanging fruit.”
