Three days before Donald Trump was inaugurated president in January 2017, he arrived at a remarkable scene inside an auditorium in downtown Washington designed in the style of a Neoclassical temple.
About 550 guests — diplomats, wealthy megadonors, members of Congress and Cabinet nominees — dined on filet mignon and black cod as they watched a performance by the country music band Alabama and a straight-from-Las Vegas musical extravaganza. Mounds of red roses were arranged on tables, and a calligrapher was on site to inscribe the names of last-minute guests on seating cards.
The gathering, which cost the inaugural committee about $8,000 per person, was one of the most opulent events of the five-day inaugural celebration — yet it was not designed to showcase the new president, who decided to attend at the last minute, according to internal documents and people familiar with the planning.