There were cheetah and zebra stripes on the walls and tables. Women wore sequined leotards and elaborate headdresses, and one couple flocked around in bright-feathered costumes of jungle birds. Then President Trump arrived.
“I came as Donald Trump,” he said, outfitted in his standard red tie and navy suit. “I didn’t have time to get. People spent a lot of time and money. Rich people. They spent nine hours getting ready. I had 10 minutes, so I came as Donald Trump.”
Such was the scene Saturday night, when hundreds gathered in the ballroom at Mar-a-Lago to celebrate Halloween with the president. The theme was the jungle, if an opulent one.
There was Alaskan king crab and a caviar bar. There were bongo drums and puppets. Attendees posted photos on social media that showed a pen at the club with a zebra and a miniature pony. Nothing too scary.
Much more frightening for Republicans is the political environment across the country. And yet even as they brace for potential losses on Tuesday, Mr. Trump, whose approval rating is near historic lows, was thrilled to be entertaining.
“Look at all my rich members,” he told reporters. “They spent all day getting ready. Look at these guys.”
He added: “These are the biggest guys on Wall Street.”
It was a striking comment, with polls showing voters souring even more on Mr. Trump’s handling of the economy. One recent one from The New York Times and Siena University found that a majority of voters blame Mr. Trump for the decline: 69 percent disapprove of his handling of the cost of living, 65 percent disapprove of the war in Iran, and nearly 75 percent disapprove of the high price of gas and diesel.
But for Mr. Trump, Mar-a-Lago is always a stage for his brand of gilded festivity.
There was Speaker Mike Johnson and Sergio Gor, the U.S. ambassador to India, in the cordoned-off section of the ballroom. Attorney General Todd Blanche, who traveled with Mr. Trump on Air Force One on Friday, told reporters that he planned to wear an astronaut suit to the party. Vice President JD Vance was back in Washington, dressed as Albus Dumbledore as part of a family Harry Potter set of costumes.
Mr. Trump entered the ballroom to fanfare and gabbed with reporters on the dance floor before mingling with his “rich friends,” as he kept calling them. He castigated Alina Habba Mildon, his former personal lawyer, over a $50 million deal she secured for work with a billionaire Venezuelan family seeking a pardon from the president. He weighed in on the feud between Representative Haley Stevens of Michigan and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate.
And he addressed, for the first time, a report in The New York Times that Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia and an adviser to Mr. Trump, was the target of a Chinese spy plot.
“I have a lot of respect for him. I like him. We hope everything’s OK,” he said. “We’ll check it out. We’re going to check it out very closely.”
When asked if Mr. Huang would stay on as a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Mr. Trump said he “would like to say yes.”
“I mean, unless we find out something to the contrary,” he said. “I’ve always found Jensen Huang to be very above board. But you know, you’re dealing in a very complex issue, I will say.”
The Halloween party landed at a complicated moment for the president. He has spent much of the last month crisscrossing the country holding rallies for Republican candidates, many of them even or lagging in the polls. Some have sought to distance themselves from the president’s unpopular policies.
Mr. Trump was originally scheduled to travel to Kansas on Saturday for a rally, then to Iowa on Sunday. But on Thursday, both were canceled. A day later, after the president chewed out a reporter for asking why the first rally was canceled, the events were back on, but rescheduled as a double-header on Sunday.
Before the Halloween bash, Mr. Trump spent much of the day at his golf course in West Palm Beach, and participating in virtual rallies for Republican candidates.
“I feel very good,” the president told reporters, with the feathered guests gawking at him. “I mean, I feel like we’re doing well. The country has never done better.”
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