Trump Visit Shrouded In Secrecy As Stars Shun Fundraiser

LOS ANGELES, CA — Though Donald Trump is making his first presidential visit to Tinseltown Tuesday, an ultra-secret high-priced fundraiser for the former reality TV star isn’t expected to draw the usual cross section of A-listers and politicos.

Unlike his predecessor President Barack Obama or even his rival Hillary Clinton, who hobnobbed with celebrities at fundraisers held in the private homes of the likes of George Clooney, Tuesday’s Republican National Committee fundraiser for Trump will lack other marquee names. It’s location and participants are also being kept secret unlike the well-publicized visits of his predecessors. The event is expected to take place on LA’s Westside at the home of Edward Glazer, co-chairman of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Los Angeles Times discovered just hours before the event.

The Los Angeles Police Department tied the need for secrecy surrounding Trump’s visit to the large protests anticipated.

“While the Department is well rehearsed at dealing with presidential visits, every administration brings with it unique challenges and new protocols, and unfortunately out of an abundance of caution many details about this visit are being withheld for security reasons,” the department announced. "The LAPD will be heavily deployed throughout the city to ensure the safe transport of the president and secure locations he will be visiting. The Department will also be available to accommodate any residents who may feel a desire to exercise their First Amendment rights.”

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A "Trump Out of L.A” protest is expected to draw thousands. One protest is being planned for 5 p.m. at Beverly Gardens Park, 9439 Santa Monica Blvd. Organizers said they are gathering to express "Southern California's opposition to the attacks on civil liberties launched by the Trump Administration."

Trump is scheduled to arrive at Los Angeles International Airport at 3:30 p.m. in advance of the fundraiser in what the Los Angeles Times dubbed “enemy territory.”

The Hollywood Reporter Tuesday attempted to gauge the fundraiser’s star power with little success.

"This fundraiser could have been held in St. Louis," one person invited to the party told the magazine. "What an insult to Hollywood that it's being treated as nothing special."

Another said secrecy is necessary because of the entertainment industry’s animosity to the Trump administration.

“The atmosphere in Hollywood is so toxic — you wouldn’t know unless you were on the receiving end of it,” one industry invitee explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “We’re not talking about classy people like Cary Grant and Lauren Bacall, they’re worried that some nobody actor will scream...at the president.”

The fundraiser, which is being held in a secret location near Bel Air or Beverly Hills, runs from $35,000 per ticket to $250,000 for donors wanting to join a roundtable talk with the president. Trump is scheduled to fly into Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego County at 11:30 a.m., then head to Otay Mesa to view the 30-foot-tall border wall prototypes that have been erected there.

"I think that this is an important thing that the president has talked about -- the safety and security of the country -- and strongly feels that the wall is a big part of that," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during a Washington, D.C., briefing Monday. "And he's going to look at those prototypes."

After viewing the wall prototypes, Trump is expected to make a speech to members of the military back at Air Station Miramar. He will then fly to Los Angeles and likely be flown via military helicopter to the West Los Angeles area for the RNC fundraiser.

The fundraiser is being hosted by RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, national finance chairman Todd Ricketts and deputy national finance chairman Elliott Broidy, The Times reported.

The visit is Trump's first as president to California, a state with which his administration has clashed on issues of border security and immigration. But Sanders pushed back against the notion that Trump is unpopular in California.

"While California may not have -- he may not have won that state, there is certainly a lot of support for this president, not just there but across the country," she said. "And he looks forward to being there and presenting a lot of the specific policies."

City News Service contributed to this report. Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from the media after the firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson before departing from the White House on March 13, 2018 in Washington, DC. President Trump is traveling to California to view prototypes of a proposed border wall. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)