Trump to visit Palm Springs area next week for fundraising event at Oracle chairman Larry Ellison's estate

Related: Porcupine Creek, site of Trump's upcoming fundraiser, one of the desert's most intriguing golf properties

President Donald Trump will attend a campaign fundraising event at Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison's Rancho Mirage, Calif., estate on Feb. 19, less than two weeks before California's Super Tuesday primary election.

Ellison will host supporters on a golf outing at his Porcupine Creek home. For $100,000, supporters can join a golf outing and have their photo taken with the president. For $250,000, contributors get a photo, golf outing and can participate in a round-table discussion. Both options are for two guests.*

The contributions will go to "Trump Victory," a joint fundraising committee formed by the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and state GOP chapters. The large contributions will be distributed to Trump's primary and general election accounts, the RNC, state parties, and also go toward bankrolling the Republican National Convention, according to the invitation.

The Rancho Mirage fundraiser is part of a larger California sweep that has the president scheduled to appear in Los Angeles, Bakersfield and Beverly Hills. After Rancho Mirage, he'll jet to Phoenix for one of his trademark rallies Wednesday evening.

Ellison, who supported Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in the 2016 Republican primary is a valuable convert for the Trump campaign. The California billionaire has personally contributed $9.5 million to federal candidates and political action committees since 1993, according to Federal Election Commission filings. As of the end of 2019, he had never contributed to Trump’s campaign or associated PACs.

Ellison’s Coachella Valley footprint expands beyond Rancho Mirage. The billionaire purchased the Indian Wells Tennis Garden and BNP Paribas Open for $100 million in 2009. The 2020 tournament is coming up in early March.

In the fall 2017, Ellison backed a host of Republicans in the midterms, maxing out at $5,400 for Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.; Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; and Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas. That same cycle, he gave $44,300 to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s Victory Fund and almost $34,000 to the National Republican Senate Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Trump does not have a rally scheduled during his visit to the Coachella Valley, but Riverside County Republican Party Chair Jonathan Ingram said having the president visit the region has "immense" meaning for local Republicans.

"It's showing that he understands that California actually matters in respect to being a Republican and a conservative," Ingram said.

California may not be known as a Republican stronghold, but the state has almost 5 million registered Republican voters and a bounty of conservative campaign financiers who, in the past, haven't hesitated to open their wallets for the GOP's presidential candidates. Trump's approval rating may only be 31% among Californians, according to a January poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California, but in 2019, the president's reelection campaign raised $12.2 million from California contributors, more than any other candidate.

The president's Coachella Valley ties span back to 1991, when he celebrated his then-wife Marla Maples' 28th birthday at Melvyn's in Palm Springs. After Prop. 1A passed in 2000, allowing the state to enter into gaming compacts with tribes, Trump Hotels & Casinos Inc. partnered with the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians on the tribe's casino expansion project in Coachella. The tribe severed its relationship with Trump in 2004.

In 2016, he said the windmills bordering Interstate 10 made Palm Springs look like "a junkyard" on 2012 presidential candidate Herman Cain's radio show.

"You know, you’re driving into Palm Springs, California, and it looks like a poor man’s version of Disneyland. It’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen," he told Cain.

USA TODAY Network Data Editor Mike Stucka contributed to this report.

Sam Metz covers politics. Reach him at samuel.metz@desertsun.com or on Twitter @metzsam.

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Clarification: Event organizers say the $100,000 and $250,000 tickets for a photo, golf outing and round table discussion will be for two people.