Trump Joins Mar-a-Lago Disco Party After Visiting Survivors Of School Shooting
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attended a party at Mar-a-Lago on Friday just hours after visiting first responders and wounded survivors of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting that killed 17 people.
The event was a Studio 54-themed disco party, according to CNN’s Kevin Liptak.
President Trump and the First Lady stopped by a Studio 54-themed disco party in the ballroom at Mar-a-Lago last night after returning from the Broward sheriff’s department
— Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) February 17, 2018
A photo posted on Instagram captured the first couple sitting down and chatting while people socialized around them in a luridly lit room of Trump’s resort.
“Please take note that the President did NOT dance,” Instagram user Sean Bianca wrote before the photo was removed later Saturday and her Instagram account was switched to private. “He and the First Lady were there for a short time but neither was dancing around as one should have expected. Their mood was somber and they were there for a very short time.”
Trump’s appearance at the party was confirmed on Facebook by prominent Florida bankruptcy attorney David Lloyd Merrill.
“So the president did arrive,” wrote Merrill, who attended the bash after hearing Trump would attend. “I couldn’t meet him or speak but was about 3’ away. Super cool no matter what your political affiliation!”
It was an unusual activity following a visit to survivors of one of the nation’s largest school shootings.
The president’s attendance at the disco party occurred amid a Twitter storm over a group photo featuring a smiling Trump giving a thumbs up while posing with law enforcement officers who responded to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The photo is Trump’s new header photo on his Twitter page. Twitter comments slammed the president’s “tone-deaf” demeanor.
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The president's new Twitter banner is a photo of him smiling and giving a thumbs up while meeting tonight with police officers who responded to the massacre of 17 people, most of them students, at a high school in Parkland pic.twitter.com/3NoH95CqKQ
— Mark Berman (@markberman) February 17, 2018
Here’s Trump’s new header pic. He’s meeting with Florida police about the Parkland shooting and giving a thumbs up like he’s at the grand opening of a car lot. pic.twitter.com/IQhnsTPIfv
— shauna (@goldengateblond) February 17, 2018
Trump is spending the holiday weekend at his resort. He will forego his traditional round of golf at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday “to respect the dead and the mourners,” a White House aide told Bloomberg.
The president will not be golfing on this sunny Saturday in Palm Beach.
White House wants to respect the dead and the mourners, I’m told. Mar-a-Lago is only about half an hour from the site of the Parkland school shooting, and memorial services continue.— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) February 17, 2018
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story indicated Jennifer Jacobs is a White House aide. In fact, she is a reporter for Bloomberg and was quoting a White House aide.
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