Trump has been vocal about the homelessness crisis in the state in the past week, blasting officials in Los Angeles and other cities in California to “clean it up.”
(MORE: Trump on homelessness problem in California cities: 'Clean it up') At the Beverly Hills fundraiser, featuring president's son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, senior campaign adviser Kimberly Guilfoyle and billionaire financier and Trump's longtime friend Tom Barrack, the president spoke at length about his economic record and foreign policy. And during a question and answer session, according to an attendee, Trump, when asked by an attendee about the burden of college tuition for her daughter, joked in response, saying that she can now pay for the tuition since she just took a $100,000 photo with himself.
But as much warm reception as he received at his fundraisers, Trump’s visit to a state that he lost by more than 30 points in 2016 wasn’t without noise. Even before his arrival, the news of his fundraisers in California, first made public by The Hollywood Reporters’ reporting, caused an outburst from critics, including "Will & Grace" stars Eric McCormick and Debra Messing calling for the list of Trump fundraiser attendees to be made public.
Trump called the outburst an attempt to create a “blacklist of Trump supporters.”
Every stop the president made during the visit this week was met with anti-Trump protesters, and the Democratic majority in the California legislature at the state level has been in constant clash with Trump’s policies imposed at the federal level as recently as this week.
(MORE: Trump revokes California's waiver on emissions standards, setting up legal fight) But Trump’s rare visit to the Golden State -- which went for Democrats by landslide in the past few cycles -- is not necessarily an effort to flip the state.
During the two-day fundraising dash this week, President Trump raised a whopping $15 million for his high-dollar reelection fundraising vehicle Trump Victory, as he picks up new support from California’s wealthy donors. He also is backed by some of his early California supporters including Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel and former Facebook virtual reality lead and Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey.
Kaynak:Abcnews