Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission. Sign up here to get it nightly. The scandal started with a party, of course, because this was Palm Beach. It took place last year, during the winter season, when the rich men arrive on their jets with their third wives and the island swirls with charity benefits and gossip.
A few opulent venues compete to hold society events, including Mar-a-Lago, the estate Donald Trump runs as a private club. In February , a Jewish activist known for walking around Trump-campaign rallies in a Stars and Stripes—patterned blazer staged a big affair at Mar-a-Lago, which he promoted as an act of patriotic and financial solidarity with the president. It was called the Truth About Israel Gala. A well-known local rabbi, Leonid Feldman, was invited to give the invocation.
When the rabbi arrived, he encountered a strange scene. Many of the visitors spoke little English, but they were eager to network. They posed for photos with Ron DeSantis, now the governor of Florida. One man brandished marketing materials for a Chinese electric-toothbrush company.
The whole thing was bizarre. She had materialized that season in Palm Beach. First she started coming to Mar-a-Lago, then she started bringing friends. Sometimes Yang would buy party tickets in bulk, providing a welcome subsidy to organizers — and, indirectly, the president of the United States. Even as relations between Trump and China were taking a hostile turn over trade and other issues, Yang was acting as a for-profit goodwill ambassador.
There she was, posing with Don Jr. There she was with Eric. There she was with Trump himself in February, grinning in a party snapshot at his golf club in West Palm Beach. The occasion would turn out to be disastrously perfect: the Super Bowl. The answer, he adds, is self-evident: She paid.
