Donald J. Trump, going through a money crunch that places him at a extreme drawback to President Biden, dined on Thursday night time with a small group of donors together with the hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, in keeping with two individuals with data of the occasion.
Mr. Trump’s dinner companions additionally included the entrepreneur Omeed Malik, the cosmetics agency founder Trish McEvoy and the actual property administration billionaire Richard Kurtz, one of many individuals stated.
The Mercers, Ms. McEvoy and Mr. Kurtz didn’t reply to requests for remark. A spokesman for Mr. Malik declined to remark, and a Trump spokesman didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The Mercers have been a essential supply of help behind Mr. Trump’s win within the 2016 presidential election. Along with giving donations, they pushed him to make adjustments to his political staff, together with making Kellyanne Conway his marketing campaign supervisor and Stephen Okay. Bannon his chief govt. The household was conspicuously quiet throughout Mr. Trump’s 2020 re-election effort.
However each Robert and Rebekah Mercer have lent their names for an invite to a high-dollar fund-raiser on April 6, together with Mr. Malik. And their look with Mr. Trump on the dinner is extra proof of a rekindled relationship.
The dinner got here on the finish of a day when Mr. Trump flew to New York Metropolis from Florida to attend the wake of the New York Police Division officer Jonathan Diller, who was shot and killed throughout a site visitors cease in Queens this week.
Mr. Trump’s go to befell on the identical time that Mr. Biden was getting ready for a fund-raiser with two of his Democratic predecessors, Barack Obama and Invoice Clinton, that raised a report $25 million at Radio Metropolis Music Corridor. Mr. Trump’s staff mocked the occasion as one for elites as he was acquired by Officer Diller’s household.