Trump Hosts Decadent Opera and Truffles Party at Mar-a-Lago

Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet for a lavish party at Mar-a-Lago on Friday—swapping a government shutdown for opera and truffled gratin dauphinois.

He partied over filet, scallops and a dessert trio with a Fox News star, a foreign politician and a country singer at the same time as his administration was asking the Supreme Court to stop it from being forced to pay food stamps to millions.

Footage from the event showed guests in tuxedos and gowns strutting down a Hollywood-style red carpet leading to Trump’s Palm Beach estate.

Inside, political allies, celebrities, and loyal supporters enjoyed an opera performance from less-than fully clad singer, ice sculptures, cocktails, and dinner.

The event was the second big Friday in a row for Trump at his Florida club. Last Friday, which was Halloween, he a Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party featuring skimpily dressed dancers in lifesized martini glasses. That earned him mockery for his apparent failure to know the plot of Gatsby, while California governor Gavin Newsom compared Trump to Marie Antoinette.

Unabashed by that comparison however, the president, 79, posed for photos with several guests. Video that was posted Friday night also shows him seated at a banquet table next to one of his occasional golf buddies, Fox News’ anchor Bret Baier.

Baier is described as being from the “straight news” side of Fox and had an exclusive interview with the president on Wednesday, when he challenged Trump on the cost of living crisis, reading a message from a lifelong Republican who voted for Trump three times but is “not happy” about costs, and said, “I don’t see the best economy right now—Wall Street numbers do not reflect my Main Street money. Please do something, President Trump.“

Baier asked Trump his response, prompting Trump to say, “Beef we have to get down. I think of groceries—you know, it’s an old fashion word but it’s a beautiful word. Beef we have to get down, but we’ve got prices way down and think of this: energy. She drives a car, probably, and her energy prices are way down. And energy is so all-encompassing. It’s so big that when energy goes down everything comes down. Everything follows it. And I have energy down to five or six-year lows now.”

Baier then sat down right beside Trump on Friday over a meal centered on the beef which the president had said was unaffordable.

The three-course meal began with a variation on a pear and blue cheese salad: blue cheese and cabernet-poached pear with watercress, blue cheese mousse, walnuts dukkah (a Middle Eastern spice blend), port gastrique dressing and fresh herbs, according to a menu posted online.

The main course featured sliced beef filet, truffle dauphinoise (a potato dish) and pan-seared scallops paired with vegetables and leeks.

Dessert included the “Mar-a-Lago Trio”: Trump chocolate cake, key lime pie, and vanilla cheesecake.

Among those in attendance were anti-immigration British politician Nigel Farage a longtime Trump ally, Iowa GOP Rep. Zach Nunn, from a district which Trump won 51-47, Hercules star Kevin Sorbo, country music singer Jason Aldean and his wife, Brittany.

By Saturday morning, guests were enjoying frothy Mar-a-Lago lattes while Trump headed for his golf course.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.

Trump’s most recent rager occurred hours after he ordered senators to stay in D.C. until a deal was struck on the government shutdown.

“The United States Senate should not leave town until they have a Deal to end the Democrat Shutdown,” the president wrote on Truth Social.

“If they can’t reach a Deal, the Republicans should terminate the Filibuster, IMMEDIATELY, and take care of our Great American Workers!”

He promptly left town, boarding Air Force One for Palm Beach as Americans were affected by the cancellation of over 1,000 flights across the country after the FAA announced Wednesday that it would seek to reduce air traffic by 10 percent as the shutdown continues to stretch its resources.

His administration, meanwhile, appealed to the Supreme Court to allow it to keep SNAP food benefits frozen for millions, scoring a procedural win, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson giving an emergency order in Trump’s favor.

“President [Trump] en route to Palm Beach, FL,” Trump aide Margo Martin captioned an Instagram post of the president departing the White House on Friday. Later, she followed up with photos of pizza and cocktails and the Florida sunset.

Trump’s decision to swap D.C. for Florida was, perhaps inevitably, mocked by his Democratic foil Gavin Newsom, whose press office posted him as an elderly Marie Antoinette.