Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> and his wife Sara, who returned to the club after the president invited them to the party on Monday.\n <\/p>\n\n Trump has been ringing in the new year at Mar-a-Lago for north of two decades. Ticket prices spiked during his first term, hit the $1,000 mark a few years ago and now go for $1,450. That buys a prix-fixe meal and the chance of watching the most powerful man in the world eating it from behind a velvet rope.\n <\/p>\n
\n In the past, the party has attracted high-profile guests like Martha Stewart, Serena Williams, Tiger Woods and Rod Stewart. This year, Emirati billionaire Hussain Sajwani, Hollywood producer Brett Ratner, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, House Republican Whip Tom Emmer, and former television host turned United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro were among the guests.\n <\/p>\n
![\"US](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2026-01-01t031139z-590696882-rc22sia8kmyu-rtrmadp-3-usa-trump.JPG\")
<\/p>\n
\n Trump was uncharacteristically quiet as he walked past a bank of cameras and into the ballroom alongside the first lady, wearing a metallic silver gown. His resolution? \u201cPeace on earth.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Earlier in the day, Trump had gone on a social media tear against\u201cscumbag\u201d governors (Colorado\u2019s Jared Polis), \u201cmediocre\u201d movie stars (George Clooney) and cheating Democrats (all). He used part of his speech Wednesday night to bemoan the brewing scandal over alleged fraud at taxpayer-funded child care centers in Minnesota\u2019s Somali community.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to get to the bottom of all of it. It was a giant scam,\u201d he said. \u201cOther than that, we\u2019re going to have a great new year.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n But by the time he got to the main event, however, his cup of kindness seemed replenished.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere\u2019s a young lady named Vanessa who\u2019s one of the greatest artists anywhere in the world,\u201d he said, as the curious crowd grew quiet. \u201cTo me, she\u2019s one of the greatest. In fact, she did something last night that was incredible. She can paint, slowly, a beautiful portrait for the White House, or she can paint the most incredible painting in literally 10 minutes.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
![\"Artist](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2026-01-01t030423z-560671769-rc21sia5k2pu-rtrmadp-3-usa-trump.JPG\")
<\/p>\n
\n \u201cShe\u2019s a speed painter, and she\u2019s a great painter, but I think she\u2019s one of the great living artists,\u201d he went on. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018Do you think you\u2019d be able to stay and interrupt the music for a couple of minutes and show them something special? Draw something really special. I don\u2019t know what it is, but draw something really special.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The artist, Vanessa Horabuena, approached the large black canvas, her paintbrush aloft. She began rapidly spreading paint around as the band launched into a very slow rendition of \u201cHallelujah.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Trump watched on intently as worship music played. Ten minutes later, Jesus\u2019s face was staring out at the ballroom.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how you do that,\u201d he said, before getting his auction underway at $100,000. \u201cThese people are loaded with cash, just so you know,\u201d he explained to Horabuena.\n <\/p>\n
\n Half the money would go to St. Jude\u2019s, Trump said, and the rest would go to the local sheriff\u2019s department.\n <\/p>\n
\n The bids started coming: $200,000, $500,000.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cHussain?\u201d the president asked his billionaire guest, who bid $550,000.\n <\/p>\n
\n The bids kept coming, finally landing at a little under $3 million. The president invited the winning couple on stage.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe\u2019ll have a good time tonight,\u201d he told the winners, before pointing to the husband. \u201cGet this guy\u2019s number!\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Palm Beach, Florida \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Champagne and caviar? Anyone can do it. A massive portrait of Jesus Christ…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-214512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Rudy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/gettyimages-2253611282.jpg\")
<\/p>\n