Rich Republicans who call the Bay Area home will have a chance to attend a local fundraiser for Donald Trump's reelection this month — though the location, for obvious reasons, isn't being publicized.
Co-hosting the July 17 cocktail reception will be society grande dame and frequent Republican donor Dede Wilsey, along with Elizabeth and Clarke Swanson, Giants part owner Debby Magowan, and Carole McNeil, as the Chronicle's Phil Matier is reporting. While the location has been kept secret so far, it will no doubt be leaked in the coming week or so, and the gathering can expect some lively protesting.
The President himself isn't likely to set foot in the Bay Area, though anything is possible. Matier has it that the guests of honor — and the president's proxies — for this fundraiser will be former SF first lady turned Fox News personality turned Donald Trump Jr. girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Junior himself.
Also suggesting that Daddy Trump won't be there: the tickets aren't so expensive, as Trump fundraisers go. Single tickets for the fundraiser are $1,000, couples tickets (with photo opportunity) are $15,000, and $35,000 will buy you a "Team 100 Membership."
The fundraiser may not, in fact, be held in SF proper. In August 2016, Trump came to the Bay Area for fundraisers at private homes in Napa and on the Peninsula.
Wilsey's family got a direct thanks from the Trump administration for their past support — Wilsey's son Trevor Traina was named U.S. ambassador to Austria last year.
And this Bay Area event is likely to raise just a drop in the bucket for Trump's 2020 bid. Trump has enjoyed some major money windfalls in his nascent reelection campaign so far, as NBC News reported last week. Between the Republican National Committee and Trump's own reelection campaign, Republicans have raised $105 million so far — a record for this point in a campaign. By this point in 2011, former President Barack Obama had raised $86 million for his reelection.
