Donald Trump was reportedly caught on tape turning the grieving widow of a man who died at one of his rallies into a source of amusement for his super-wealthy dinner guests.
The recording, obtained by The Guardian, apparently comes from a private meal Trump held Aug. 10 in Aspen, Colorado. In it, the Republican presidential nominee reportedly recalled a meeting with the wife of Corey Comperatore, the man who was killed by shots fired at Trump by Thomas Crooks at a Pennsylvania rally in July.
“So they’re going to get millions of dollars but the woman, the wife, this beautiful woman, I handed her the check—we handed her the check—and she said, ‘This is so nice, and I appreciate it, but I’d much rather have my husband.’ Now I know some of the women in this room wouldn’t say the same,” Trump reportedly said. “At least four couples here would have been thrilled, actually.”
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The dinner, which Trump reportedly flew in for on a private jet once owned by disgraced financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, was held at the $38 million home of art collectors and investors John and Amy Phelan, with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), gambling mogul Steve Wynn, and billionaire Thomas Peterffy also in attendance. There were about 100 attendees at the event, which required couples to pony up $500,000 to serve on the host committee or at least $25,000 to attend at all.
Those who cut checks included Warren G. Lichtenstein, executive chairman of Steel Partners; former hedge fund manager Duke Buchan, who served as ambassador to Spain in Trump’s presidency; Houston billionaires Mindy and Jeff Hildebrand; Drew McKnight, a billionaire donor to the failed No Labels effort; and Andrew McKenna.
A source in attendance told the Daily Beast that Trump, who was then still publicly fuming about Kamala Harris’ crowd sizes in her early days as the nominee, actually appeared “disciplined” and was “funny” in Aspen.
Over the course of the meal, The Guardian reported that Trump launched into an expletive-laden rant about undocumented migrants. The former president allegedly claimed that “smart, very streetwise” political leaders around the world are deliberately channeling convicted criminals into the U.S. to destabilize the country.
He also spoke at length, according to The Guardian, about a supposed incident, denied by the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in which more than 20 people traveled to the U.S. after being released from prison in the Central African nation.
“We said, ‘Where do you come from?’ They said, ‘Prison.’ ‘What did you do?’ ‘None of your f---ing business what we did,’” he claimed an exchange between the supposed convicts and unspecified U.S. officials went down. “You know why? Because they’re murderers.”
Seemingly recognizing this had perhaps pushed the boat a little too far for his guests, the recording then reportedly featured Trump saying, “I hate to use that foul language.”
“These are the toughest people. These people are coming in from Africa, from the Middle East,” he reportedly went on. “They’re coming in from all parts of Asia, the bad parts, the parts where they’re rough, and the only thing good is they make our criminals look extremely nice. They make our Hell’s Angels look like the nicest people on Earth.”
Trump, who still refuses to admit his 2020 electoral loss to President Joe Biden, further used his high-roller audience to portray his Democratic rival Kamala Harris as a dire threat to American democracy.
“Look, we gotta win and if we don’t win this country’s going to hell,” he reportedly said. “You know, there’s an expression, this could be the last election we ever have, and it’s an expression that I really believe, and I believe that this could be the last election we ever have.”
The Daily Beast reached out to the Trump campaign for comment on the matter. A spokesperson from the RNC responded and shared many examples—including a sentence in his RNC speech—where Trump praised Comperatore, whom he’s called a “great guy” and “great firefighter.”
