After Insulting Hollywood, Trump Heads to Beverly Hills to Beg for Campaign Cash

Just weeks after Donald Trump told the press, “Hollywood is racist,” he’ll be slouching his way into Beverly Hills to grovel for money to support his 2020 campaign, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

And he chose his night carefully. On September 17, when most of Hollywood’s most connected players and influential creators will be celebrating Emmy Week, those who weren’t invited to, or who disdain such celebrations, can spend from $1,000 to $100,000 to party with Trump.

In the wake of the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings three weeks ago, Trump said, “Hollywood is really terrible. You talk about ‘racist.’ Hollywood is racist. What they’re doing, with the kind of movies they’re putting out, it’s actually very dangerous for our country. What Hollywood is doing is a tremendous disservice to our country.”

His statements come as no surprise to those familiar with Trump’s history. After repeatedly trying and failing to gain a foothold in the industry outside of his gig as host of The Apprentice, Trump grew resentful of the cool kids club. Though he had some standing as a real estate mogul in New York, the Hollywood elite saw him as a buffoon.

“No one cared about Donald Trump in Hollywood,” says Susan Winston, who produced the broadcasts of nine Trump-owned beauty pageants. “He was nothing. He didn’t mean anything. There were people in Hollywood who had much more power, much more money.”

So who in L.A. will be turning out to give Trump their money?

So far, that’s a secret.

It’s public record that the event is being hosted by Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, RNC co-chairman Tommy Hicks Jr., campaign manager Brad Parscale and Trump Victory finance chairman Todd Ricketts. But no one knows where the MAGA bacchanal is happening, or who is attending.

Will & Grace star Debra Messing, for one, wants the guest list to go public.

Please print a list of all attendees please. The public has a right to know. https://t.co/YV4UoxrPHI

— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) August 31, 2019

Messing’s co-star, Eric McCormack, followed up, “Hey, @THR, Kindly report on everyone attending this event, so the rest of us can be clear about who we don’t wanna work with. Thx.”

Hey, @THR, kindly report on everyone attending this event, so the rest of us can be clear about who we don’t wanna work with. Thx. https://t.co/7W3xPG3bI2

— Eric McCormack (@EricMcCormack) August 30, 2019

In response, Trump claims to recall a moment from an NBC event where, “It was announced that I was going to do The Apprentice, and when it then became a big hit, helping NBC’s failed lineup greatly, @DebraMessing came up to me at an Upfront & profusely thanked me, even calling me ‘Sir.’ How times have changed!”

I have not forgotten that when it was announced that I was going to do The Apprentice, and when it then became a big hit, helping NBC’s failed lineup greatly, @DebraMessing came up to me at an Upfront & profusely thanked me, even calling me “Sir.” How times have changed!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2019

Curiously, The Apprentice premiered in 2004, when Will & Grace was still doing great in the ratings. And The Celebrity Apprentice didn’t come out until 2008, when Will & Grace had been off the air for two years. So it’s anybody’s guess what meeting Trump is talking about, when or where it occurred, or who it was with.

RELATED: The Biggest Loser: Why Donald Trump Couldn’t Hack It in Hollywood

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