Donald Trump hosted a lavish Halloween party in Florida(Image: Getty Images)
Donald Trump hosted a Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he confided in Secretary of State Marco Rubio about wanting to be alone with First Lady Melania.
Lip reader Nicola Hickling watched a video from the event and believes she has a good idea of what the U.S. President said to the White House official.
“No small talk,” Trump said. “One night, I don’t want to be disturbed and want to spend some time with Melania before I leave.”
READ MORE: Damning pictures show Trump’s extravagant Mar-a-Lago party while Americans go hungryREAD MORE: Trump in need of ‘alone time’ with Melania after Halloween bash
But the White House may have bigger worries, as the theme of the party, which highlights economic inequality, has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
A White House reporter for conservative news network NewsNation revealed in an X post that the celebration’s theme was “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody,” the title of a track from the 2013 movie The Great Gatsby soundtrack.
The narrative, originally presented in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s celebrated 1925 novel, explores individuals at opposite ends of enormous wealth and social divides during the Roaring Twenties.
Jay Gatsby, the extraordinarily wealthy bootlegger and extravagant party thrower, serves as a misleading symbol of the American dream, an individual whose existence lacks fulfillment and purpose despite coming out ahead in the battle between social classes. “That doesn’t stop him from chasing ‘the green light’ of wealth and status,” Sarah Churchwell of The Guardian wrote in 2013, reports the Mirror US.
“The dangled promise of power that can only create a corrupt plutocracy shored up by vast social inequality.”
Fitzgerald, whose written works have remained connected to contemporary visions of luxurious living in the 1920s, dismissed the idea that he was mesmerized by the notion of excessive wealth.
“Fitzgerald, more than anyone else of his time, realised the rigorousness of the systems of prestige that lie beneath the American social fluidity,” critic Lionel Trilling wrote in 1951.
Melania did not attend the Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party
The contradiction of Trump hosting a Gatsby-themed celebration at his expansive Florida estate while serving as president — amid a government shutdown that had furloughed thousands of workers and left tens of millions of low-income Americans facing benefit cuts — was hard to miss.
The Mirror has reached out to the White House for comment.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The NewsNation correspondent reported that one attendee remarked, “Okay, get them out of here,” apparently referring to journalists present at the event. “It was time to leave them to their party,” she noted.
Social media users quickly ridiculed the festivities. One commented, “The Universe is serving up some heavy-handed metaphors.”
Another observed, “A little too on the money for the damage these selfish Gatsby goers do.”
A third remarked, “Trump hosts Gatsby-themed Halloween party for his millionaire buddies as Americans across the country go hungry. Very on brand for him.”
It seems like Donald was missing the First Lady
The Gatsby-inspired Halloween celebration follows Trump’s evasive responses regarding the funding sources for his $300 million ballroom, which replaced the White House’s East Wing and is designated for hosting major events.
Last week, the administration revealed that ballroom contributors include major players from the tech and cryptocurrency sectors, Trump-appointed federal officials currently in office, and various affluent business leaders and entrepreneurs seeking to cultivate relationships with the president.
Trump has declined to reveal individual contribution amounts for his ballroom initiative, and has not confirmed whether the “patriot” donor who volunteered to cover active-duty military salaries during the government shutdown also contributed to the ballroom fund.
The president has channeled hundreds of millions of dollars toward renovating White House areas accessible to himself, his associates and invited guests.