On a whirlwind visit to the South Fork on Saturday, President Trump was set to raise a reported $15 million for Republican campaign coffers and his own re-election campaign with events at the billionaire John Paulson's estate in Southampton and at the Bridgehampton home of his son Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle.
The president was fresh from signing executive actions on federal pandemic relief that included one drawing ire from governors because it would offer $400 per week in enhanced unemployment benefits but make states already predicting massive budget shortfalls responsible for paying a quarter of that.
Mr. Trump landed at Southampton High School in a military helicopter and went from there to Mr. Paulson's estate on Lake Agawam. Tickets for the event started at $50,000, according to CNBC, which obtained a copy of the invitation, and those who contributed $100,000 got "a seat at a roundtable discussion with Trump." Mr. Paulson, a former hedge fund manager, has been a longtime supporter of Mr. Trump, having served as an economic adviser during his 2016 run for president and then advising him on economic policy on his transition team.
The president's motorcade then traveled to his son's house in Bridgehampton, passing cheering supporters and jeering protesters along the way. Tickets to that event, a dinner, went for up to $500,000 per couple. It was not the first fund-raising event of the weekend for the younger Mr. Trump and Ms. Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host who is the national chairwoman of the Trump Victory finance committee.
The couple also joined in a fund-raiser last Thursday evening and were among the members of the Trump family to take part in a TrumpStock boat parade from Noyac Bay to Orient to Montauk on Friday organized by Boaters for Trump and other groups.
The flotilla of some 80 or so boats decked out in patriotic and Trump regalia ended the day with a tie-up in Fort Pond Bay. They were greeted by about two dozen protesters on the beach carrying bullhorns and Black Lives Matter flags, who sparred verbally with boaters and a few Trump supporters scattered along the shore.
The boat bearing the best decorations was to win a chance to join the president for a photo op the next day. That honor went to Capt. Chuck Morici, a fisherman from Montauk whose 60-foot steel trawler, Act I, was decorated to the hilt.
"I started with a couple flags and then all my friends that are Trump supporters came down with more flags and then more flags," Captain Morici said yesterday. "I had the decorations from the Blessing of the Fleet, which we didn't have." He added those, too, with help from his daughter Megan Morici and her boyfriend, Capt. Jason Carey. "We did go all out," Captain Morici said. He also helped organize the smaller boats that joined in the flotilla as they proceeded from Montauk Point to Fort Pond Bay.
Organizers of the flotilla contacted Mr. Morici through his daughter's boyfriend, a sportfishing captain out of Montauk and Florida, and told him not to make any plans for Saturday night because he would be meeting the president at the younger Mr. Trump's house.
"I bought all brand-new clothes, a new suit and everything," said Captain Morici, who took his daughter along as his guest. "It was a big deal to me . . . a once-in-a-lifetime experience." He got to talk with the president for three minutes and told him he was a commercial fisherman "and that the industry needs help, and I told him Montauk's behind him, and the fire department; the firemen told me to say hello."
"I hate to see everybody bashing him. It's a thankless job," Captain Morici said. "I think he's doing a good job for what he has to deal with."
As for the hosts, the president's eldest son and his girlfriend, "They're very nice people; they're just like ordinary people," he said.
"It was really an honor to meet him," Ms. Morici said. "The moment was surreal. My father and I when we were waiting to meet him, we just looked at each other like, wow, where are we? The president couldn't have been any nicer. It was an amazing night I will remember forever."
"It made my summer," said Captain Morici, who plans to leave the biggest flags up on his boat for the rest of the season.
While the president had been trailing his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, in his fund-raising efforts earlier in the summer, his campaign announced last week that it had outraised Mr. Biden and the Democratic National Committee in July, with Mr. Trump and the Republican National Committee raising $165 million last month and Mr. Biden and the D.N.C. raising $140 million.
With Reporting by Paul Gansky and Doug Kuntz
