Donald Trump to attend high-dollar Aspen fundraiser this week, California Republican group says

DENVER — Former President Donald Trump will attend a high-dollar fundraiser in Aspen on Saturday hosted by several wealthy GOP donors, according to the Republican Party of Orange County, California.

Saturday’s sold-out dinner costs $25,000 to attend, $100,000 to co-host and $500,000 to be featured as a host, according to an invitation on the Orange County GOP’s website. The fundraiser’s location in Aspen isn’t disclosed.

The event’s listed hosts include former ambassador and private financier Duke Buchan, billionaire oil and gas tycoon Jeffery Hildebrand, and Denver-based businessman and homebuilder Larry Mizel.

This week’s event was reported earlier by the Aspen Times. Messages sent to event organizers, the Trump campaign, the Pitkin County Republican Party and the Orange County GOP were not immediately returned Monday.

Trump is running against Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee after President Joe Biden withdrew from his reelection race two weeks ago.

Mizel hosted Trump fundraisers in both Aspen and Denver in 2016, when he co-chaired Trump’s Colorado campaign. Reached by phone Monday, Mizel’s office said that he “does not speak to the press.” Mizel has substantially backed other Republican candidates in Colorado and nationally, and last year he donated to Trump challenger Mike Pence — Trump’s former vice president — before Trump sealed the Republican nomination, federal finance data show.

Several other hosts are also established Republican donors. Hildebrand has already given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates across the country this cycle, according to finance data. He and his wife, who’s also listed as a host of the Aspen event, gave $1.2 million to Trump in 2020, according to Forbes.

Buchan, who was nominated by Trump to be ambassador to Spain and Andorra after Trump’s 2016 win, has given $162,500 to a pro-Trump PAC in recent months, election data shows.

He was tapped as the Republican National Committee’s finance chair in 2022, according to Politico, and he donated more than $940,000 to Trump’s campaign in the 2020 election. His wife is also listed as a host.

Other hosts include Drew McKnight, co-CEO of Fortress Investment Group; businessman Warren Lichtenstein; John Phelan, the co-founder of a Florida-based private investment firm, and his wife; Diane and Tom Smith, of Prescott Investors; and Andrew McKenna, the former chair of the Illinois Republican Party whose father was the chairman of McDonald’s and owned a stake in the Chicago Bears.

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