President Biden’s reelection campaign criticized former President Trump on Friday for the guest list at his upcoming high-dollar fundraiser in Palm Beach, Fla. this weekend.
President Trump is set to surpass Joe Biden’s recent $26 million fundraising event in New York City. The fundraiser, hosted by hedge fund founder John Paulson, is projected to raise an impressive $33 million.
The Biden campaign, in their initial statement to The Hill, placed emphasis on the individuals who are anticipated to attend the event. They used this opportunity to criticize Trump for his fundraising approach, which involves seeking support from billionaires known to advocate for reductions in programs like Social Security.
According to Sarafina Chitika, a senior spokesperson for the Biden campaign, the guests invited to Donald Trump’s dinner on Saturday night are reflective of the people he will prioritize in a potential second term. Chitika alleges that these guests include tax cheats, scammers, racists, and extremists.
“Let’s be clear, Donald Trump prioritizes the interests of his billionaire associates over the well-being of the American people. He gladly accepts their financial support and implements policies that benefit them, while disregarding hardworking Americans. This includes outsourcing jobs, undermining Social Security and Medicare, dismantling healthcare protections, and restricting access to abortion,” she emphasized.
During a 2018 panel at New York University, Paulson, who has reportedly been considered for the position of Treasury Secretary if Trump wins, suggested that Social Security could potentially transition from a defined benefit system to a defined contribution system.
In 2019, Jeff Yass, a billionaire businessman and prominent investor in TikTok, made headlines when he proposed the idea of privatizing Social Security accounts in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal.
Biden has emphasized the importance of safeguarding Social Security, especially in response to recent remarks made by Trump. In a recent CNBC interview, Trump suggested the possibility of making cuts to entitlement programs, which further highlighted the need to protect Social Security.
The campaign also highlighted Michael Hodges, the founder of a payday lending company, who allegedly informed fellow payday lenders in 2019 that donating to Trump’s 2020 campaign could lead to access to the administration at that time, as reported by The Washington Post. Furthermore, it noted that members of the Mercer family have been donors to Trump, and hedge fund manager Robert Mercer has expressed his belief that the Civil Rights Act was a mistake, as mentioned in The New Yorker.
The Biden campaign also highlighted the presence of John Catsimatidis at the dinner. Catsimatidis, a billionaire who ran for New York City mayor in 2013, made a controversial comparison between former President Obama’s plans to increase taxes on the wealthy and how “Hitler punished the Jews,” as reported by Newsweek.
The Biden campaign contends that Trump’s grassroots fundraising, which has typically been a strong point for him in previous campaigns, has experienced a slowdown. In contrast, the Biden campaign has reported its most successful month of grassroots fundraising to date in March. They have broken their own record for small-dollar donations for the fifth consecutive month.
