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Fundraising gala for defendants in 6th criminal case takes place at Trump Golf Club
Representatives of former President Donald Trump’s campaign team said he would not attend a fundraising gala for the January 6 defendants, which is scheduled to take place at a Trump golf club.
Donald Trump is a master of rhetoric, a man who not only claims to have mastered the “art of the deal” but is also an artist at evading responsibility.
In the coming days, Trump’s tactics will become even more brazen. His golf club in the hills of Bedminster, New Jersey, will be the scene of a fundraiser for the legion of criminals who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Trump’s campaign team insists that the former president will play no role in the so-called “J6 Awards Gala,” which is scheduled to take place on September 5 at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster. But who are they trying to fool? Who is Trump trying to fool?
The digital invitation to the gala comes from the nonprofit advocacy group Stand in the Gap Foundation and shows two photos of Trump – one serious, one smiling – and the dual message that while he is an “attendee” he is only “invited” and his participation has not yet been confirmed.
Confused? That’s the Trump method. Fake one way, run another. And then fake again.
Adding to the confusion over Trump’s role is the fact that this spectacular event took place on the former president’s most famous golf course, where he has a house and spends most of the summer escaping the heat and humidity of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. When Trump is on stage, does anyone expect him to stay home, watch Fox News and send out truth socials claiming Kamala Harris is a communist and not as good-looking as him?
Welcome to Trump’s Rope-a-Dope. He’s at this gala, but not really. He’s not turning down the request to hold this “fundraiser” at his New Jersey club. And he’s not asking anyone to remove their photos from the invitation. He may not be there. But his spirit will be there. And if he is there, who knows what might happen?
The problem is that Trump once occupied the Oval Office — and wants to occupy that powerful space again. As a former president who craves the title, he’s not just another buffoon who happens to own a golf club that includes a herd of goats that gives him special agricultural tax status under New Jersey’s open space laws.
Love him or hate him, Trump definitely knows how to exploit every possible trick.
And now Trump is pulling out all the stops in the attack of January 6, 2021.
Can we really forget the uprising of January 6?
Faced with his failure to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, Trump called on his supporters to gather in Washington, D.C. The rally took place on January 6, 2021, the same day that Congress was required by the U.S. Constitution to certify the results of the presidential election.
After addressing the crowd near the White House, Trump urged his supporters to march up Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol, where Congress was meeting and planning to vote on his certification. In true Rope-a-Dope fashion, Trump urged the crowd to “peacefully and patriotically make their voices heard,” adding, “We’re fighting like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Keep in mind that some of those attending the rally were carrying weapons. Trump also knew that members of two paramilitary groups, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, were in the crowd. Definitely a peaceful, Gandhi-style gathering, right? I suspect some didn’t get the message to be “peaceful” and felt an adrenaline rush at the call to “fight like hell.”
But Trump’s double message of evasion and avoidance, peace and fight, seems to have helped him avoid his responsibility – at least for a while.
The U.S. government’s special counsel investigating Trump’s role in trying to overturn the 2020 election issued a new indictment this week that seeks to link Trump to numerous conspiracies related to efforts to keep Biden from the presidency. If this latest indictment survives review by the U.S. Supreme Court, Trump could end up holding a fundraiser at his golf club for his own legal fees.
But we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.
The problem with the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, is that most reasonable people understand exactly what happened. An angry loser – Trump – incited a crowd of his most loyal supporters and urged them to march to the Capitol. Yes, Trump said they should be peaceful. But he also urged them to fight. That’s like saying, “Let’s play 10 rounds of beer pong. But let’s not get drunk.”
Whether Trump felt the mob was going to trash the building is irrelevant. We all know what happened. He brought about the disaster. And in Trump’s case, it’s important to understand this undeniable fact: When the mob attacked the Capitol, he sat back and watched the chaos on television for hours. The so-called commander in chief, who had sworn an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution,” did nothing as the heart of American democracy was under siege.
Making sense of these horrific events is one of the most difficult tasks for Trump’s supporters. In their emails to me, they continually deny that Trump played any role.
But let’s not kid ourselves. Simply put, the attack on the U.S. Capitol would not have happened if Trump had simply accepted his defeat in the days or even weeks after the election and promised a peaceful transition of power – as every president before him has done. His staff still calls him “Mr. President” – a sign that he believes he should still be living in the White House. Such behavior threatens the very core of American democracy: that we trust our elections. This is no small thing.
Trump doesn’t seem to care. For four years he has been playing the rope-a-dope game, falsely claiming without evidence that the election was “stolen” and “rigged.” With such nonsense spouted by the great rope-a-dope babbler himself, is anyone shocked that Trump’s most violent supporters have followed his orders to “fight like hell” and ignored his pathetic legal cover to remain “peaceful”?
Now we come to another crucial moment in America’s reckoning with the events of January 6, 2021.
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Will Trump benefit from the “gala”?
The benefit “gala” at Trump’s golf club will include confirmed speakers such as former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who called on protesters to engage in a “court fight” on January 6, 2021, and who now faces a litany of financial and legal problems due to his increasingly shocking history of false testimony. Also on the list of speakers is Peter Navarro, who may be able to tell the crowd about his recent prison stint. And finally, there is a group of people referred to as “influencers.” Just imagine.
For that, guests can pay $1,500 for “general admission” or $2,500 for a “Gala VIP” ticket, which entitles them to a “pre-event reception with open bar and appetizers, premium seating for the main event, and exclusive photo opportunities with the speakers, J6ers and their families.” Those who want to bring a group will pay just $30,000 for a table for 12.
It’s not clear whether Trump is donating his club’s services to this event, so there’s a strong possibility that the man who wrote the best-selling book “The Art of the Deal” has made a deal to make money from this event.
But it is clear how Trump feels about the 1,400 people charged in connection with their role in the storming of the U.S. Capitol nearly four years ago. He has called them “hostages” and “political prisoners” and began some campaign rallies with a recording of some of the defendants singing the national anthem.
Perhaps most controversial of all is Trump’s promise that if re-elected, he will pardon those charged with the attack on the Capitol, including those convicted of attacking police officers.
Around 140 police officers were injured in the attacks. One officer, Brian Sicknick of South River, New Jersey, died after suffering two strokes as a result of the attack and being sprayed with chemicals by the attackers. Four other officers committed suicide in the weeks following the attack.
Four attackers were killed, including 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran who was shot by police as she tried to break down the door to a cordoned-off area. Trump’s supporters have since considered her a martyr of sorts.
And so the rope-a-dope game continues. The people who attacked all those police officers on January 6, 2021 are actually “hostages” who do not belong in jail.
And the man at the center of this moral chaos wants to become president.
Mike Kelly is an award-winning columnist for NorthJersey.com, part of the USA TODAY Network, as well as the author of three critically acclaimed nonfiction books and a producer of podcasts and documentaries. A paperback edition with an updated afterword of his 1995 book “Color Lines,” which chronicles race relations in a small New Jersey town after a police shooting and was called “American journalism at its finest” by The Washington Post, was released last year. For unlimited access to his insightful thoughts on how we live in the Northeast, subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: [email protected]
