Trump’s New Year’s party at Mar-a-Lago caps off a very bizarre year for the host

For President-elect Donald Trump, 2024 was a political nadir and a great rally; a year of defiant court hearings, crimes, a assassination try that anotherand then a victory too overwhelming to argue about, too brazen to ignore.

But the tumultuous year of blaring breaking news alerts will end Tuesday when 2025 opens at Trump’s lavish personal residence and private club Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.

If earlier New Year’s parties at the historic salmon-colored property is every indication it could include a star-studded cast of Hollywood stars, athletes, high-profile political cronies, wealthy club members and, this year, new friends and lovers, including billionaire Elon Musk and socialite Bettina Anderson, who is dating Donald Trump Jr .

More: Trump’s New Year’s Eve parties, celebrities at Mar-a-Lago over the years. Take a photo tour

“Everybody in the world wants to be at Mar-a-Lago,” said former Palm Beach County Republican Party Chairman Sid Dinerstein, who is not attending the New Year’s Eve party but has held fundraisers at the club in the past. . “These days they want every other big name that can establish themselves.”

Palm Beach Police Department spokesman Capt. William Rothrock said Monday that more than 300 guests could attend Mar-a-Lago’s New Year’s Eve party. That would put it in one of the biggest categories of events in the club’s traffic management plan with the city. Guests will be ferried to the club by bus from another location.

Rothrock said he is not aware of any fireworks being planned.

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In recent years, 90s rap Vanilla Ice has performed New Year’s Eve in the so-called “Southern White House”. There was a rumor this year that it would be The Beach Boys taking the stage, but it turned out that the iconic rock band performed on Saturday night, according to a post on social media who called the Dec. 28 party a “New Year’s Eve party” that featured a short video of Trump doing his signature dance move.

Trump has not given any indication of who might be on stage Tuesday. In a cryptic social media post possibly directed at Musk on Friday, he said Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates asked to come to Mar-a-Lago, which Trump called “the Center of the Universe.”

“We miss you and x! New Year’s Eve is going to be AMAZING!!!” Trump wrote on his social media account.

Musk has a 4-year-old son named X Æ A-Xii, or just X for short.

Gates has owned property in Wellingtonwhich is about 15 miles from Mar-a-Lago, previously. Gates’ daughter Jennifer was a show jumper who competed at Wellington’s Winter Equestrian Festival.

The red carpet party has been the liveliest year-end event on the island for decades.

It has featured an eclectic list of artists – including Rod Stewart and Vanessa Williams in the past. The women in attendance wore sparkling floor-length designer gowns and the men were decked out in black tie tuxedos as they sipped champagne from flutes passed around under the chandeliers of the Donald J. Trump Ballroom at the Palm Beach club.

Last year, Melania Trump had to skip New Year’s Eve because she was caring for her sick mother, who died in January 2024. Trump joked during the party that it had become so popular that people were “scalping tickets outside.”

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

“Can you believe it? They get $10,000 for a ticket,” he said.

A Mar-a-Lago member, who did not want to be identified, said the clamor to join the club jumped after the election with some people outbidding the estimated $1 million membership by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Although the member is unable to attend Tuesday’s soiree, he has attended previous New Year’s parties and called them “spectacular”.

“(Trump) comes around to every table and talks to us, and I think that says something about the kind of person he is,” the member said, noting that this year’s celebration is particularly special given the eventful year , Trump had and looks forward to. to his presidency in 2025. “It’s been the biggest comeback period in all of human history because it’s not just political, it’s reputational, it’s business, and he beat all the odds.”

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As for those attending the party, it’s unknown if any recent visitors, such as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, will be there.

In the past, celebrity guests have included tennis great Serena Williams, rock star and Palm Beach real estate owner Rod Stewart and stay-at-home extraordinaire and businesswoman Martha Stewart. Sylvester Stallone, who also lives in Palm Beach and recently had a dustup with the city over a seaweed barrier, may also stop by.

It will likely be a very different night than New Year’s Eve 2020 after the election loss to President Joe Biden, as Trump was absent from his own New Year’s party. On the morning of the event, he said he was returning to Washington on Air Force One, but did not give a reason why.

According to the Jan. 6 hearings, Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue said a “desperate” Trump rushed back from Mar-a-Lago to an emergency White House meeting where there was a failed attempt to shooting top Justice Department officials, according to testimony.

Trump also missed the party in 2018, staying in Washington amid what became a record 35-day federal government shutdown.

“Trump is basking in one of the greatest political comebacks in American history,” Dinerstein said. “It will be quite festive. I think you can only imagine.”

Palm Beach Daily News reporter Jodi Wagner and Palm Beach Post Political Editor Antonio Fins contributed to this story.

Kimberly Miller is a reporter for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate, weather and the environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate overview. If you have news tips, send them to [email protected]. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on the Palm Beach Post: New Year’s Eve at Mar-a-Lago ends a bizarre year for Donald Trump