An invite from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club asked prospective guests to pay $1 million each for a seat at a candlelight dinner event on March 15. The President joined the dinner and also in attendance was Elon Musk, who was seen with Shivon Zillis.
To the uninformed, Zillis is the mother of 4 of Elon Musk’s 14 (known) children and is also an executive at Musk’s neurotechnology company, Neuralink.
President Donald J Trump at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend with Elon Musk!!! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸⛳️🌴☀️ pic.twitter.com/FkIykGusHL
— Michael Solakiewicz (@michaelsolakie) March 18, 2025
Videos taken at the dinner show that Elon Musk donned his standard black sports coat over a black t-shirt while Shivon Zillis was seen in a floor-length dress gown.
Accounts of the million-dollar dinner at Mar-a-Lago state that the tech mogul and presumed head of the Department of Government Efficiency sat by Donald Trump’s side while dining. However, this event was not mentioned in the President’s public schedule.
The candlelight dinner was held over the same weekend as the Palm Event, a yearly celebration of motorsports in Palm Beach, Florida. Many of the cars that were due to participate in the Palm Event were seen at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, with some of the dinner attendees posting pictures of them.
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This is the second million-dollar candlelight dinner that was held at Mar-a-Lago this month. A similar event was held on March 1 and was mentioned in the President’s public schedule with a note that read, “The President attends the MAGA INC. Candlelight Finance Dinner.”
Excerpts from the invitation (that had a MAGA INC. header) to the March 1 dinner read, “You are invited to a candlelight dinner featuring special guest speaker President Donald J. Trump.”
The price for the dinner was explicitly mentioned in the invite as “$1,000,000 per person.” A note at the bottom read, “Donald J. Trump is appearing at this event only as a special guest speaker and is not asking for funds or donations.”
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To those unaware, MAGA INC., or Make America Great Again Inc., is a super Political Action Committee (PAC) that backed Donald Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign.
As per reports, business leaders can secure one-on-ones with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago for a price of $5 million. An insider claimed that these 5-million-dollar meetings have been labeled as a “hot ticket” in the business community, as per WIRED.
The same publication has reached out to the White House, requesting a comment on the March 15 dinner or why the event was mentioned in the President’s public schedule, but in vain.
Commenting on the unusual nature of these dinners, professor of public policy at the University of Michigan Don Moynihan said, “I can’t recall a sitting president in the first weeks of his administration asking for millions of dollars in fundraising.”
“The concern is less about fundraising and more about access and influence. People hoping to get favorable treatment view it in their interest to donate money to Trump,” Moynihan added.
