Estimated Loss of $800,000 to $2.2 Million
Eight major non-profits have canceled scheduled events at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach this week, after the President expressed support for white supremacists and neo-Nazis in response to their violent actions in Charlottesville.
The Salvation Army, the American Red Cross, and Susan G. Komen for the Cure on Friday all pulled out, according to The Washington Post‘s Drew Harwell and David Farenthold.
And the American Red Cross said it would cancel its annual fundraiser at the club because “it has increasingly become a source of controversy and pain for many of our volunteers, employees and supporters,†the charity said in a statement.
“The major exits now mean more than eight of the club’s biggest event customers have abandoned it this week, likely costing the Trump business hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue or more,” The Post reports.Â
On Thursday, the Cleveland Clinic, the American Friends of Magen David Adom and the American Cancer Society also canceled scheduled fundraising events at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.Â
“The cancellations will hit one of the biggest moneymakers for what Trump calls the ‘winter White House,’ where similar-sized events have often earned the club between $100,000 and $275,000 a piece,” Farenthold on Thursday reported.
With the tally at eight cancelations, Trump conceivably has lost between $800,000 and $2.2 million, based on the Post’s numbers.Â
The Post notes for Trump this time it’s getting personal.
“One of the cancellations cut close to home for the Trumps. Big Dog Ranch Rescue said Friday it would no longer hold an upcoming event at the club and would instead move it to the group’s facility nearby. Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, was scheduled to co-chair the event.”
It’s not only large national non-profits that are leaving.
“Lois Pope, a Mar-a-Lago member and philanthropist who heads the Lois Pope Life Foundation and Leaders In Furthering Education, said she had told her foundation’s board to move its well-known December gala from the club.”
“The hatred, vitriol and Anti-Semitic and racist views being spewed by Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists are repugnant and repulsive,†Pope wrote in a statement. “And anyone who would demonstrate even a modicum of support for them by insisting that there are ‘good people’ among them is not deserving of my personal patronage or that of my foundations.â€
To comment on this article and other NCRM content, visit our Facebook page.Â
Image by sergio_leenen via Flickr and a CC license