Guests are paying millions of dollars to dine and meet with President Donald Trump at special events held at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Business leaders can secure a one-on-one meeting with the president at Mar-a-Lago for $5,000,000, according to sources with direct knowledge of the meetings. At a so-called Candlelight Dinner held as recently as this past Saturday, prospective Mar-a-Lago guests were asked to spend $1,000,000 to reserve a seat, according to an invitation obtained by WIRED.
“You are invited to a candlelight dinner featuring special guest President Donald J. Trump,” the invitation reads, under a “MAGA INC.” header. MAGA Inc, or Make America Great Again Inc, is a super PAC that supported Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. “Additional details provided upon RSVP. RSVPs will be accommodated on a first come, first serve basis. Space is very limited. $1,000,000 per person.”
Invitees were asked to RSVP to Meredith O’Rourke, who served as national finance director and senior advisor at Donald J. Trump for President 2024, a campaign committee, and the owner of The O’Rourke Group, which O’Rourke describes on her LinkedIn page as a “Republican political fundraiser.” Invitees were also directed to email Abby Mathis, the finance coordinator at MAGA Inc. Mathis was previously a staff assistant for senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama—a former Auburn University football coach—and also served as an intern at the White House office of the staff secretary, according to LegiStorm, a research organization that posts information on politicians and their staffers.
O’Rourke and Mathis did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the White House.
The invitation specifically states that “Donald J. Trump is appearing at this event only as a featured speaker, and is not asking for funds or donations.” The event occurred at 7:00pm on March 1 and was listed on the president’s official schedule as the “MAGA INC. Candlelight Finance Dinner.” This is the only event by that name on Trump’s official schedule since he took office.
Michael Solakiewicz, a pro-Trump digital creator, posted photographs of the event on Instagram. WIRED has also viewed photographs and videos of Elon Musk with his son X at Mar-a-Lago the following day during a charity event hosted by a group called Wine Women & Shoes that also featured Trump.
“It’s everyone else who missed the boat,” a Trumpworld source with knowledge of the meetings says, referring to latecomers to the Trump agenda. The source pointed specifically to the tech sector, where executives have scrambled to show fealty to the new administration. While X owner Elon Musk notably spent at least $260 million to elect Trump, other tech companies and executives collectively donated millions to Trump’s inauguration fund: Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos, Meta, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Uber, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman all donated $1,000,000 each.
The $5 million one-on-one meetings have become a “hot ticket” in the business community, says a source familiar with them.
