A Trump fan club says it raised $50,000 for Rand Paul at Mar-a-Lago

A fan club for President Donald Trump said Monday that it expects to have raised about $50,000 for U.S. Sen. Rand Paul last week.

Paul, a Kentucky Republican, spoke at the Feb. 7 breakfast at Mar-a-Lago organized by the Trumpettes and hosted by the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr.

The event was attended by about 60 people, including Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Trump campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski, who led Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign during that year’s primaries.

“Why would people in Florida care about a senator from Kentucky?” said Toni Holt Kramer, founder of the Trumpettes. “Because they understand the political game, they understand the political system. Without the House and Senate going red, it will tie the president’s hands. We don’t want that. We want him to be able to run the country.”

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Holt Kramer said Paul spoke to the crowd about the need to defeat socialism and reach out to independent and non-Republican voters in the fall campaign.

Holt Kramer said she and co-event organizer Sher Kasun had fewer than three days to plan the event. She said numerous attendees told her they were galvanized by the sight of watching House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tear up a copy of Trump’s State of the Union speech three days before.

"I can’t tell you how many people have told me they were offended by that and how disrespectful they thought it was," Holt Kramer said. "She is third in line to president. That should scare the pants off everyone."