Melania Trump's pathetically small, closeted gay fundraiser

Distanced from Donald Trump and clearly intended not to get Christian nationalists alarmed, the Mar-a-Lago event was kept muted.

Melania Trump held a fundraiser for her husband’s campaign—billed as her first foray into the 2024 race—with the gay Republican group, the Log Cabin Republicans, last Saturday night at Mar-a-Lago. But you wouldn’t know much about it from media coverage, as the puny gathering, which only attracted 60 people, was shrouded in semi-secrecy, with few details revealed both before and after the event.

It was billed by Log Cabin as an “LGBT” fundraiser for Trump’s campaign, but I’m loathe to use the “T” in discussing this since Log Cabin has completely thrown transgender people under the bus, supporting heinous anti-trans laws in the states.

There’s nothing the group is even remotely doing to help transgender people—nor gay, lesbian, or bisexual people, for that matter, supporting a candidate who was the most anti-LGBTQ president in history and even recently backing “don’t say gay” laws. And Trump’s plans, through his embrace of Project 2025, make clear how devastating another Trump presidency would be for LGBTQ people and for transgender people in particular.

But perhaps because Caitlyn Jenner attended the Mar-a-Lago fundraiser, Log Cabin thought they could get some cover in calling it an “LGBT” fundraiser, even though the privileged Hollywood celebrity has become a reliable Fox go-to guest to bash other trans people.

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Before the event, promoted by Log Cabin as the kickoff of their “Road to Victory” tour, few in the media were able to get anyone on the record from Trumpworld to talk about it, resorting to quoting “sources” discussing the details and describing Trump’s former ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell—the gay, far-right figure who cozied up to right-wing extremist leaders in Europe and helped elect George Santos—as organizing the event with Melania.

Politico “obtained an invitation” but couldn’t get any details from the Trump campaign:

The April event is the launch of the organization’s “Road to Victory” program, which plans to target voters in swing states.

A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Melania’s own post about the event on X last week as she was set to host the event on Saturday night didn’t reference “gay,” “LGBT,” “sexual orientation,” or even “equality.” The post reads:

As we look toward the future and the challenges that lie ahead, we must come together around the principles of liberty, justice, and patriotism. By uniting in our common goals, we can create a brighter and more promising future for all.

What?

The post shared a link to a Fox News Digital story headlined, “Melania Trump says the US 'must unite’ ahead of Mar-a-Lago Log Cabin Republicans event.”

Melania gave what appears to be the only interview about the event for the Fox Digital piece. The interview consisted of more word salad, again with no mention of gay or LGBT people:

 "Together, we must nourish and safeguard the seeds of liberty," she continued. "Because, when successful, America blossoms into a magnificent place where everyone can practice their beliefs, share new ideas, and express individualism — this is when we are our best." 

Bill White, one-half of the infamous power hungry, monied gay couple who garnered headlines for leaving Hillary Clinton’s election night event at the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan in 2016 after it appeared she had lost, and raced across town to the Hilton where Trump was having his victory party—switching from long-time Democratic donors to MAGA gays within minutes, just to be on the winning side—was a co-chair of the event.

He gave an interview to Fox News after the event, a clip of which Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, in which White attempted to obscure the fact that the event had a pitiful turnout, telling Martha MacCallum that “we had a small room” because there was a “lovely wedding going on” at Mar-a-Lago. He claimed, “We sold the event out in 36 hours. We had hundreds of people who wanted to come and meet the first lady and experience this amazing opportunity to hear from her.”

You would think from that statement that hundreds of people attended, but note that he claimed hundreds “wanted to” attend. According to the New York Post (and other outlets), the “intimate” event was only attended by 60 people, including Dr. Oz and Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, in addition to Jenner.

Claims from organizers about how much the event raised are all over the place, from reports of $1 million to “more than $1 million” to the tabloid MAGA-promoting Daily Mail reporting $5 million. Nothing coming out of the mouths of the organizers of this event can be remotely trusted.

Only one short video clip was released of the apparently sleepy event. As The Daily Beast described it:

In a brief video clip of the event, Melania is seen making her entrance to polite—but notably light—applause. She then stands about six feet from a lectern as Grenell awkwardly fumbles with the microphone before introducing her. The gathering was large enough that they used a microphone, but small enough that they didn’t really seem to need one.

Throughout the entire clip, the crowd is so quiet that you can hear some version of hotel lobby muzak.

The event was so small that the gathering was held in the resort’s tea room, right off the main living room at Mar-a-Lago….

…Also notable about the crowd was the gender breakdown. It was roughly 60 percent women in attendance, the source said.

That brief video from the event indeed shows a scant crowd, with only 28 people appearing in a clip that an attendee posted to Instagram.

I highly doubt that the 60 percent of the crowd who were women were lesbians—or trans women—which would mean that most of the people at this awkwardly-staged event were heterosexual, with maybe 20 to 25 odious gay men attending.

Melania Trump apparently said nothing about gay or LGBT people in her speech and made no mention of policy, laws, discrimination, or rights. And that’s not a shocker because anything like that would enrage Christian nationalists, who are essential to Trump’s base.

According to Bill White in the Fox News interview, the speech was just more vague, empty statements about “unity and bringing our country together” and a call to “be human, be loving, and be supportive of one another”—which White called a “phenomenal speech.”

In other words, this was another completely closeted gay event in which the words “gay” or “LGBT” or “rights” weren’t mentioned.

The anti-LGBTQ evangelical right has gotten used to swallowing closeted gay events by Republicans, taking them as relatively harmless as long as nothing overt is said that actually supports LGBTQ rights. They understand that these PR stunts are necessary to reach out to suburban voters and make Trump seem more moderate, just as he recently tried to appear to be more moderate—and failed miserably—on the issue of abortion, saying it should “go back to the states.”

In fact, White—who also appeared to be excusing Donald Trump for not attending such an event and having Melania do it alone, saying “you can’t keep up with him” because he has so many events— let the cat out of the bag when he laughably told MacCallum this event was the “launch of the largest outreach to LGBT and suburban women voters in the history of a Republican candidacy.”

Suburban women voters? I thought it was an LGBT event.

That told us everything about who this event was staged for. It and any further events like it will be enormously ineffective, however, because Trump is a known quantity. He has embraced his own actions as president, which stripped LGBTQ people of their rights. His four-year record on LGBTQ rights, documented many times in the media, stands on its own—as do the plans he and his allies have laid out on LGBTQ rights for another term.

No amount of closeted gay fundraisers is going to change that.