‘I came as Donald Trump’: The US president hosts a luxury Halloween at Mar-a-Lago

• Trump hosted a lavish Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago, calling himself “Donald Trump” in his suit and red tie, while guests wore jungle-themed costumes and the club showed off luxury food and decor.
• The event came as Republicans faced poor polls and Trump’s approval stayed low, with many voters blaming him for the economy, gas prices and the cost of living, according to a New York Times and Siena University poll.
• Trump used the party to mingle with wealthy guests, comment on political fights and a reported Chinese spy plot involving Nvidia chief Jensen Huang, while he kept campaigning for Republicans.

PALM BEACH, Florida – 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 US President Donald 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 on the night of Oct 31, 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 Nov 3, 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 tone, with polls showing voters souring even more on Trump’s handling of the economy.

One recent poll from The New York Times and Siena University found that a majority of voters blame Trump for the decline: 69% disapprove of his handling of the cost of living, 65% disapprove of the war in Iran, and nearly 75% disapprove of the high price of gas and diesel.

But for Trump, Mar-a-Lago is always a stage for his brand of gilded festivity.

There was Speaker Mike Johnson and Sergio Gor, the US ambassador to India, in the cordoned-off section of the ballroom.

Attorney-General Todd Blanche, who travelled with Trump on Air Force One on Oct 30, told reporters that he planned to wear an astronaut suit to the party. (On Nov 1, a spokesperson for Blanche said he neither attended the party nor intended to.)

Vice-President J.D. Vance was back in Washington, dressed as Albus Dumbledore as part of a family Harry Potter set of costumes.

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 US$50 million (S$63.92 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 Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate.

And he addressed, for the first time, a report in the Times that Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia and an adviser to 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 Huang would stay on as a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 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 aboveboard. 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.

Trump was originally scheduled to travel to Kansas on Oct 31 for a rally, then to Iowa on Nov 1.

But on Oct 29, both were cancelled.

A day later, after the president chewed out a reporter for asking why the first rally was cancelled, the events were back on, but rescheduled as a doubleheader on Nov 1.

Before the Halloween bash, Trump spent much of the day at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, 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.” NYTIMES

• This article originally appeared in The New York Times.