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Salvation Army, Red Cross, Susan G. Komen abandon Trump's Mar-a-Lago

 
A Secret Service agent stands at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach in April. [Doug Mills | New York Times]
A Secret Service agent stands at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach in April. [Doug Mills | New York Times]
Published Aug. 18, 2017

The Salvation Army, the American Red Cross and Susan G. Komen on Friday joined a growing exodus of organizations canceling plans to hold fundraising events at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, deepening the financial impact to President Donald Trump's private business amid furor over his comments on Charlottesville.

The major exits now mean more than eight of the club's biggest event customers have abandoned it this week, likely costing the Trump business hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue or more.

Susan G. Komen, the nation's largest breast-cancer fundraising group, said it would seek another venue after hosting its "Perfect Pink Party" gala at Mar-a-Lago every year since 2011.

The Salvation Army, which has held a gala at the club every year since 2014, said in a statement that it would not hold its event there "because the conversation has shifted away" from its mission of helping those in need.

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And the American Red Cross said it would cancel its annual fundraiser at the club because "it has increasingly become a source of controversy and pain for many of our volunteers, employees and supporters," the charity said in a statement.

In a letter to staff Friday, chief executive Gail McGovern said, "The Red Cross provides assistance without discrimination to all people in need - regardless of nationality, race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or political opinions - and we must be clear and unequivocal in our defense of that principle."

The cancellations hit at one of the private Florida club's top moneymakers: The club earned between $100,000 and $275,000 each from similar-sized events in the past during Palm Beach's glitzy social seasons.

But they also reveal a widening vulnerability for Trump, who, unlike past presidents, refused to divest from his business interests when he joined the White House.

The charitable groups joined three other large event cancellations Thursday: the Cleveland Clinic, the American Friends of Magen David Adom and the American Cancer Society, which cited its "values and commitment to diversity" in its decision to abandon the club.

Some of the club's most notable local boosters, with long fundraising histories and deep Palm Beach roots, were also in outright rebellion Friday against the club. Lois Pope, a Mar-a-Lago member and philanthropist who heads the Lois Pope Life Foundation and Leaders In Furthering Education, said she had told her foundation's board to move its well-known December gala from the club.

"The hatred, vitriol and Anti-Semitic and racist views being spewed by Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists are repugnant and repulsive," Pope wrote in a statement. "And anyone who would demonstrate even a modicum of support for them by insisting that there are 'good people' among them is not deserving of my personal patronage or that of my foundations."

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One of the cancellations cut close to home for the Trumps. Big Dog Ranch Rescue said Friday it would no longer hold an upcoming event at the club and would instead move it to the group's facility nearby. Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, was scheduled to co-chair the event.

The Autism Project of Palm Beach County also said Friday that it is not planning on hosting an event at the club, President Richard Busto told The Post Friday. The local group has held "Renaissance Dinner" galas at Mar-a-Lago every year since at least 2008.

The Ryan Licht Sang Bipolar Foundation on Friday also announced it had canceled its annual medical briefing luncheon at the club and will move it to another venue.

"We stand with the community," the foundation's co-founder, Dusty Sang, told The Post Friday. "I think people are standing up for what they believe."

Another group, the Unicorn Children's Foundation, said it is "currently exploring other options" for a previously planned luncheon at Mar-a-Lago and would make its final decision next month.

The groups' cancellations follow rebukes from business executives this week, who heavily criticized Trump's comments that white supremacists and counterprotesters equally shared the blame for a deadly weekend in Charlottesville.

The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment.