Last month, Donald Trump was indignant when it appeared that the judge in his hush-money trial might not let him have a day off from the proceedings in order to attend his son Barron’s high school graduation. Trump said Barron “was looking forward for years to have graduation with his mother and father there” at the ceremony, but it looked like the judge wouldn’t let him “escape this scam—it’s a scam trial.”
In the end, of course, Judge Juan Merchan did allow the former president a day off from the trial to go to the graduation, which is set to take place in Florida on Friday. Given how upset he was about the prospect of not being to spend the day with his son in the Sunshine State, it’s perhaps a little surprising that he’s planning to be at the opposite end of the country at a GOP fundraiser on Friday evening.
After the graduation at Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach, Trump will be heading off to Minnesota. There, he’s set to headline the state GOP’s annual Lincoln Reagan dinner in St. Paul—tickets for the event start at $500 but go all the way up to $100,000 for a 10-person VIP table that includes photo opportunities with Trump.
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The event’s VIP reception begins at 5 p.m. Flights from West Palm Beach to St. Paul are more than three hours, leaving a possible graduation lunch with Barron a tight squeeze for Trump.
David Hann, the chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota, said money from the dinner tickets will go to the state party, but some of the photo-op cash could go to Trump’s campaign. He also said he’s expecting about 1,400 people to attend the event.
“He believes this is a state he can win,” Hann told the AP. “We believe that’s the case as well.” He added that there is “great dissatisfaction with President Biden” in Minnesota, noting the almost 19 percent of Democratic voters who backed “uncommitted” in the state’s primary.
Trump has repeatedly construed his hush-money trial in Manhattan as a politically motivated witch hunt designed to keep him off the campaign trail. He’s nevertheless spent many of his days off from the proceedings—Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays—attending curiously few campaign events, using a couple of the days for presumably more enjoyable activities like going to a Formula 1 race or playing golf.
