President Trump is set to hold a high-dollar dinner at a private residence in Hillsboro Beach, Fla., next week to raise money for his campaign and the Republican National Committee, according to an invitation sent to top GOP donors, his first in-person fundraiser since mid-June.
The invitation does not name the owner of the home hosting the $580,600-per-couple event. Campaign manager Brad Parscale, RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and other senior RNC fundraisers are listed as hosts of the event.
The Trump campaign and the RNC declined to comment.
The fundraiser would inject millions of dollars into Trump’s reelection coffers at a time when putative Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s high-dollar fundraising is ramping up. But it could also bring the president additional scrutiny for holding an event in a coronavirus hotspot while the country is reeling from the virus’s renewed spread.
Florida is confronting a surge in the novel coronavirus, with positive cases topping more than 5,000 per day for about a week. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a close ally of Trump, has repeatedly declined to impose a shutdown in response to the spreading infection.
A person familiar with the fundraiser who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private event said all guests will be tested before interacting with the president.
After stay-at-home orders began in March in response to the pandemic, the campaign halted the president’s aggressive fundraising schedule and focused on raising money online.
Last month, however, Trump resumed in-person fundraising with two events, including a June 11 gathering in Dallas that cost $580,600 per couple. The campaign said it raised more than $10 million through that event.
On June 13, he held a fundraiser at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., that was expected to raise $3 million.
For both, attendees were required to test negative the day of the event in order to attend, complete a “wellness questionnaire” and pass a temperature screening. Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee for the Trump campaign and the Republican Party, covered the cost of the tests, according to party officials.
The president’s return to Florida, a state his advisers view as a must-win, comes as he lags behind Biden in national polls.
Money raised at the July 10 fundraiser will go to Trump Victory. While an individual can donate no more than $5,600 to a presidential campaign, a single person can give more than 103 times that amount to the joint fundraising committee, which pools together accounts at the state and national levels to allow donations as high as $580,600.
In May, Biden dramatically expanded his fundraising capability to compete with Trump’s big-money machine, through an agreement signed by Biden Victory Fund, a committee that raises money with the Democratic National Committee. Since then, Biden has kept to an aggressive fundraising schedule, appearing at virtual events multiple times a week and collecting millions of dollars per event.
Thanks to the expanded fundraising capacity, Biden outraised Trump for the first time in May, according to the latest available records.
Biden’s campaign, the DNC and their affiliated fundraising committees raised $80.8 million in May, in Biden’s first full month as the presumptive Democratic nominee, according to the campaign. Biden’s fundraising picked up as he rose in polls against Trump in May, including in some key swing states.
The Trump campaign, the RNC and their affiliated fundraising committees raised $74 million in May, according to the RNC.
Last month, the campaign and the RNC saw a huge spike in donations, pulling in a total of $131 million and ending the month with $295 million in cash on hand, party officials said Wednesday.
