Re-live Melania Trump’s White House Christmas at Trump ‘charity’ fundraiser

As Jill Biden Monday unveiled this year’s White House holiday decorations, Americans also were reminded of what they were missing: Melania Trump’s more edgy aesthetic, which included infamous blood-red trees that was likened to Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining.”

If Donald Trump’s wife didn’t much like the job of decorating the White House for the holidays — she was famously recorded by a top aide saying, “Who gives a (expletive) about Christmas stuff and decoration?” — the former first lady apparently likes offering inspiration for a fundraiser on her husband’s behalf.

Donald Trump is headlining a fundraiser Friday in his adopted home state of Florida. In an airport hangar in Naples, Florida, 100 Christmas trees “will re-create Melania’s Yuletide decoration of the White House,” New York Daily News columnist Richard Johnson reported.

The trees will be in pots so that they can be replanted after the event, which is being billed as a “Naples Winter Christmas” and an “evening of celebration.”

People are invited to pay $10,000 per person, or $30,000 for a family of four, to have their photo taken with the 45th president, according to the Naples Winter Christmas website. Trump may pose for up to 90 photos with guests who could use the images for their Christmas cards, Johnson reported. Up to 250 guests, with spouses and offspring, could attend.

Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s press secretary, tweeted about the event, saying, “One of my favorite White House memories was the beautiful Christmas Party!” She also said Naples Winter Christmas will feature “stunning decorations inspired by First Lady Melania Trump’s White House.”

It’s not clear from the website who benefits from the fundraiser. Event organizer Brad Keltner insisted to Johnson that it is “not a political fundraiser.”

“The president is doing this to benefit several local causes in a community that strongly supports him,” Keltner said.

However, Keltner acknowledged that “Trump does get a piece of the pie, but the lion’s share will go to charity.”

Johnson noted that Trump currently has a lot of legal bills: He’s facing at least 10 lawsuits, while his family company, the Trump Organization, and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty to tax fraud after being indicted in July.

Trump also will need money if he decides to run for president in 2024 in a bid to return himself and his wife to the White House.

Meanwhile, for those interested in the newly unveiled White House décor, it appears that Jill Biden returned to more traditional motifs: Wreathes, red ribbons, trees decorated with bright red and white lights and ornaments, and a gingerbread White House surrounded by other gingerbread businesses including a grocery store, firehouse, and gas station, the Daily Beast reported.

The Associated Press reported that Jill Biden’s design scheme was inspired by people she met while campaigning for her husband.

“The things we hold sacred unite us and transcend distance, time, and even the constraints of a pandemic: faith, family, and friendship; a love of the arts, learning, and nature; gratitude, service, and community; unity and peace,” Biden wrote in a commemorative guidebook. “

These are the gifts that tie together the heart strings of our lives,” the guidebook continues. “These are the gifts from the heart.”