Evan Vucci / AP
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with members of the House Ways and Means committee in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017, in Washington.
Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017 | 12:26 p.m.
NEW YORK — For a cool quarter-million dollars per couple, wealthy Republican donors participated in a “private roundtable” with President Donald Trump on Tuesday night.
Trump insisted during the fundraiser that “everybody” agreed with his objections about the issue of NFL players kneeling during the national anthem during football games, according to participants at the event.
He also criticized Roger Goodell, the football commissioner, for mishandling the issue of the protests, saying the situation could have been diffused had Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback and first football player to protest during the anthem, simply been suspended for a couple of games.
His position on the issue, the president added, has “caught on.”
Speaking before the results of the Alabama Republican primary were known, the president said he would be happy with either of the candidates. Trump said he had campaigned for Sen. Luther Strange, the incumbent, because Strange did not make demands of him when Trump asked for his support on repealing the Affordable Care Act.
Strange’s challenger, former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice Roy Moore, declared victory a few hours later.
The exclusive conversation took place at New York’s Le Cirque restaurant, which lists escargot vol-au-vent, octopus salvatore and paupiette of black cod on its dinner menu and served as the evening’s venue for Trump to raise money for the Republican National Committee.
Couples who paid $250,000 got the private face time with the president, while donors who contributed $100,000 each enjoyed “VIP access” to Trump, Republican officials said. The minimum contribution for the event was set at $35,000.
The president is helping the Republican Party raise money before the 2018 congressional midterm elections, even as he has already set up the apparatus to mount his own re-election campaign in 2020. Since taking office, Trump has held fundraisers and rallies in several states around the country.
The fundraiser was expected to draw some of Trump’s most wealthy supporters from New York’s finance and real estate worlds. As a presidential candidate, Trump turned to many of the same people to finance his campaign.
Attending the fundraiser were Trump’s two grown sons, Donald Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as Steve Wynn, the casino executive. Also there, according to participants, were John Catsimatidis, a wealthy New York businessman; Marc Kasowitz, Trump’s lawyer; and Howard Lorber, a businessman.
The restaurant appears to be a favorite of Trump’s, though it has fallen on hard times in recent years — its owner filed for bankruptcy protection in March. Trump held a similar fundraiser at its 58th Street location during the presidential campaign, and it has also played host to other candidates and celebrities throughout the years.
But despite the presidential endorsement Tuesday night, Le Cirque has struggled to impress food critics.
In a 2012 review, The New York Times wrote that the restaurant’s most famous dishes, including its chocolate souffle and its steak au poivre, “lacked conviction.” It went on to add that “new dishes lacked rationale. Nearly everything lacked seasoning. The kitchen gave the impression that it had stopped reaching for excellence and possibly no longer remembered what that might mean.”
