Donald Trump’s Sea-to-Lake Club is treating a coronavirus outbreak. But that doesn’t mean the parties stop.
On Sunday, the club will host a fundraiser of 500 people for a children’s charity, with vintage cars, Lamborghinis, Ferraris and “everyone playing in the pool,” according to Palm Beach real estate agent Valentina Aved, who helped to organize the event.
The $ 370 game in favor of Place of Hope is sold out, Aved says, and no one seems worried about the outbreak.
“It will be a very exciting event. The most beautiful cars, the people, the good friends, ”he told The Daily Beast.
The charity’s Instagram also promised “hundreds of historic cars on display, live entertainment, a fashion show, brunch and more!” He does not mention the precautions against coronavirus. The party’s website once refers to “sanitation stations” and “margin for social distancing”.
The event will be held outdoors after several infections forced the club’s dining room and beach premises to close. In an email to members, first reported by the Associated Press, Mar-a-Lago said that “recently some of our employees have tested positive for COVID-19,” but promised that “all appropriate response measures “. The affected areas were being sanitized and some workers were in quarantine, but services for banquets and events remain open, he said.
Aved, who goes by Valentina Deva on Instagram, told The Daily Beast that two members of the kitchen had tested positive. He was in Mar-a-Lago last week during two wild fundraising events organized for a dog charity, Big Dog Ranch Rescue, chaired by Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump.
Normally, the annual gala, which is almost always held at Trump properties, attracts at least 800 people, but due to COVID-19, organizers split the event in two strokes of about 500 people in two. days.
Aved insisted that everyone wear masks and did their best to social distance – “maybe not six feet, but at least three feet away” – in the Great Ballroom.
But dozens of photos and videos of the event show that there are almost no attendees wearing masks and that women are screaming and crowding into each other to take photos.
In a video of the event posted by Miami philanthropist Angela Bird, a topless male model was walking down a catwalk while a maskless woman shouted and cheered at nearby tables.
According to reports, the events, with dog shows and an auction, raised $ 1.4 million. Neither Place of Hope, Big Dog Ranch Rescue nor Mar-a-Lago responded to The Daily Beast’s request for comment on the precautions taken.
Lara Trump also attended the fundraiser. Donald Trump himself showed up in the middle of the speech and told the crowd that he heard his sudden noises from the golf course and that he was coming to “check what you’re doing,” according to Aved.
Trump was seen hugging people as mostly mask-free people took pictures and sang, “We love you, we love you.”
In other videos last week, Melania Trump was seen joining her husband in a dining area, docked by more maskless patrons.
The former first family moved permanently to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House in January. Donald and Melania were there Friday preparing for their son Barron’s 15th birthday when the outbreak was made public, according to CNN.
Aved said he reviewed his friends in light of the club’s positive cases. Some had returned to Miami, others to New York, where travelers who are in their forties or so are supposed to show a negative COVID-19 test result. None of them felt sick, he said.
Democratic Rep. Omari Hardy, representing the state of Florida, called on Palm Beach County to close Mar-a-Lago in January after a New Year’s Eve night that attracted hundreds of partygoers without masks. The county sent a stern letter to the club warning that it had violated county codes and could be fined $ 15,000.
Hardy said the Florida House had approved a COVID-19 liability bill that will give immunity to companies like Mar-a-Lago despite irresponsible behavior.
He he tweeted Friday night: “Workers don’t deserve this.”