FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ As more than a dozen fundraising organizations pull the plug on Mar-a-Lago events, the Palm Beach County Republican Party is standing firm behind President Donald Trump.
Palm Beach County GOP Chairman Michael Barnett said all the phone calls he received from party members urged him to not move the party's annual Lincoln Day dinner planned for March at the president's oceanfront estate.
Nearly 700 people are expected to attend the party fundraiser, which has been held at Mar-a-Lago since 2013.
"A lot of folks are looking forward to having dinner at his house," Barnett said Monday. "He has been a real friend of ours. He has supported us, and we support him "
That's not the sentiment of most organizations that had events set for Mar-a-Lago during Palm Beach's fundraising season. At least 15 have canceled amid furor over Trump's remarks blaming both white supremacists and counterprotesters for violence that killed one person in Charlottesville, Va.
That leaves only a few big-ticket fundraisers on the schedule at Mar-a-Lago. Organizers of the Palm Beach Police Foundation ball and the Team Achilles Freedom Team of Wounded Vets holiday gala indicated they would not cancel their events.
The mounting cancellations will hit Trump's pocketbook.
Rental costs at Mar-a-Lago can run as much as $275,000, according to tax records.
Fundraising giants, such as the American Red Cross, the American Cancer Society, the Salvation Army, Susan G. Komen Foundation and the Cleveland Clinic, announced in the past week they will move their galas. The latest organization to change venues is the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, which formalized plans Monday to move its annual wine auction from Mar-a-Lago to its building in West Palm Beach.
"Recent controversy has shifted the focus away from the purpose of the event and our mission," a statement read.
Other organizations nixing events are the Palm Beach Zoo, the Autism Project of Palm Beach County, Big Dog Ranch Rescue, American Friends of Magen David Adom, the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach, MorseLife Health System, Ryan Licht Sang Bipolar Foundation, Hearing the Ovarian Cancer Whisper and Leaders in Furthering Education.
Most organizations have indicated they will search for other venues.
Nick Gold, a spokesman for Eau Palm Beach Resort and Spa, said rescheduling an event on short notice is challenging because Palm Beach's social calendar fills up quickly, Gold said. The fundraising season spans from late November to April, peaking in February, he said.
"We are certainly reaching out to all of them to find that an event that will work," said Gold, whose venue can accommodate up to 550 people. "We are flexible. We'd like to work with them as best we can."
Eau Palm Beach has talked with event organizers from Cleveland Clinic and American Friends of Magen David Adom, along with four other organizations, he said.
Mary Bryant McCourt, president and co-founder of Achilles Freedom Team of Wounded Vets, said last week she doesn't plan to move the organization's fundraiser set for Mar-a-Lago.
Janet Patton, another member of the organization, told the Sun Sentinel she's working to change the event's site "as my values do not align with any form of hate, bigotry, white supremacy or neo-Nazism."
It wouldn't have been practical for the Palm Beach Police Foundation to cancel its event, according to a statement issued by the organization that supports Palm Beach Police Department employees.
"The ball typically attracts 700 people, and it's the only venue in Palm Beach that will accommodate a crowd of that size," the statement read.
Donald Trump has owned Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach estate built by cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, since the 1980s. Trump turned it into a private club and is using it as his Weekend White House.
