Attendees at an April fundraiser for Donald Trump will shell out as much as $814,600 to join a guest list that includes sports team owners Woody Johnson and Todd Ricketts and casino mogul Steve Wynn, The Post has learned.
Also on the list: hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah Mercer, who helped bankroll the former president’s 2016 election but mostly sat out the 2020 campaign.
Sources in Trump’s inner circle are calling the “Inaugural Leadership Dinner,” hosted by hedge fund tycoon John Paulson, a “come-home-to-Trump moment,” since a number of prominent billionaires who had been lukewarm on the candidate’s future are set to attend. It will be the first major fundraiser since Trump clinched the GOP nomination.
The event will be held at Paulson and girlfriend Alina de Almeida’s $110 million Palm Beach home.
“I am pleased to support President Trump in his re-election efforts. His policies on the economy, energy, immigration and foreign policy will be very beneficial for the country,” Paulson told The Post. “We are receiving an overwhelming amount of support from donors.”
Donors listed on the host committee include Wynn, oil tycoon Harold Hamm, New York Jets owner Johnson, Chicago Cubs owner Ricketts, former Trump administration Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler and her husband, Jeff Sprecher, CEO of Intercontinental Exchange and chair of the New York Stock Exchange.
Supermarket owner John Catsimatidis, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick and Budget Suites of America founder Robert Bigelow are on the list, as is WWE co-founder Linda McMahon, the former head of the Small Business Administration.
The event is being planned as Trump aims to scrape together a $454 million bond for a New York civil case and run his presidential race.
President Biden’s campaign has announced it raised $53 million in February and has $155 million cash on hand — the largest war chest any candidate has had at this point in the election.
Trump’s political finances are far more complicated. Some reports suggest he already had an estimated $500 million in his coffers, according to Open Secrets, when he announced his candidacy in 2022.
But between donations to his campaign, his Super PAC and his legal fight fund, it is difficult to determine exactly how much Trump has raised, since money from his PAC has been used to pay legal fees. The campaign and Super PAC have raised nearly $170 million but Trump and the PAC reportedly went into 2024 with $56 million in cash on hand.
The Mercers, who dramatically scaled back their giving in the 2020 election, had been quiet about which candidate they would support this time — and previous reports suggested they could even sit out the cycle.
In 2016, their donations to political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica allowed Trump to mount a successful digital advertising campaign that used Facebook’s data to target users inclined to vote for him. Nabbing their support could mean some serious cash injections for Trump’s 2024 campaign.
The fundraiser’s “Chairman” option costs $814,600 per person and includes “dinner seating at President’s table, reception, and photo opportunity, personalized ‘our journey together’ coffee table book by President Donald J. Trump.” “Host Committee” runs $250,000 per person and does not include seating with Trump.
Former Republican presidential contenders Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — both rumored to be possible vice presidential picks — will be joining as “special guests.” So will Vivek Ramaswamy, although The Post has reported that Trump has rejected him as a running mate.
