Trump Attends Beverly Hills 2020 Fundraiser
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – President Donald Trump arrived in Los Angeles Friday afternoon ahead of a scheduled attendance at a Beverly Hills fundraiser.
Trump touched down just after 4 p.m. at Los Angeles International Airport aboard Air Force One after viewing a newly completed section of the border wall in Calexico.
He then attended a campaign fundraiser at the Beverly Hills home of health care executive Lee Samson, according to TMZ.
Tickets were $15,000 for dinner, $50,000 for the opportunity to take a picture with Trump and $150,000 to participate in a roundtable discussion during the event, according to an invitation obtained by City News Service.
Trump left the Southland Friday night, bound for Las Vegas, where he will speak Saturday at the Republican Jewish Coalition's Annual Leadership Meeting.
The visit marks Trump's third to the Los Angeles area as president.
He headlined a Republican National Committee fundraiser near Beverly Hills in March 2018. In November, he toured areas ravaged by the Woolsey Fire in Ventura and Los Angeles counties, then met with survivors of the mass shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks.
Tonight's trip was a lucrative one for his re-election campaign even though the president spent only a few hours in Los Angeles.
CBS2/KCAL9 Political Reporter Dave Bryan spoke to one GOP operative who said the president raked in millions.
"It was a packed house," Shawn Steel, a California Republican National Committee member, told Bryan.
He attended the fundraiser and said it was a great success.
"The goal was $2 million and they raised $4 million," Steel says, "and that shocked everybody."
The president, Steel said, even hinted that he might win California in 2020.
"The last thing he said tonight," said Steel, "is that I think I can win California."
While the president was partying and fundraising, a vocal group protested his visit, his presidency and his immigration policies.
"Anybody with a conscience should be out here," said Michelle Xai, "and should be out here protesting. Not just that he's in Los Angeles. But that he's a criminal and he's getting more dangerous than ever. He's going after his opposition, threatening war with Iran and Syria. And these are dangerous times. That's why we're out here."
Barack Obama had made 21 visits to Los Angeles and Orange counties at the similar stage of his presidency, attending fundraisers during 18 of those visits.
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
