At a charity gala in Palm Beach last month, billionaire investor Herbert Wertheim paid $2 million for one of the most exclusive and controversial invitations in America: a private visit to the White House with President Donald Trump.
The winning bid came during a charity event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, supporting educational scholarships for children of Palm Beach police officers and firefighters. The event raised a record $7.5 million for first responders’ scholarships and local services, organizers said. Wertheim’s lunch purchase came bundled with roundtrip travel on financier Thomas Peterffy’s private jet, a perk donated jointly by Peterffy, Trump, and philanthropist Lynne Wheat.
“It is certainly for a good cause,” Wertheim said in an interview with the Palm Beach Post. “We were certainly pleased to be able to do that.”
A White House spokesperson told Fortune that the reward was cleared by White House counsel and no legal conflicts of interest were identified. Presidents from both parties have long entertained high-profile donors with extravagant rewards and appointments, but watchdog groups have been critical of the Trump administration’s use of big-ticket charity events to exchange face time with the president, even when their donations go toward a charitable cause.
