Kayleigh McEnany advertised tickets for Donald Trump’s Christmas party that cost $10,000 each

President Donald Trump leaves his Merry Christmas Rally at the Kellogg Arena on December 18, 2019 in Battle Creek, Michigan.
President Donald Trump leaves his Merry Christmas Rally at the Kellogg Arena on December 18, 2019 in Battle Creek, Michigan.

  • Kayleigh McEnany touted $10,000 tickets for a Trump Christmas party in Naples, Fla.
  • Now a Fox News co-host, the former White House press secretary linked to the pricey event’s website.
  • McEnany’s tweet drew swift mockery from Melania Trump’s ex-best friend, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff.

If you want to attend Donald Trump’s Christmas party this year, be ready to pay up.

Tickets for Trump’s holiday fundraiser in Naples, Florida on Friday are going for a cool $10,000 each, according to the fundraiser’s website.

Trump’s former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday tweeted a promo flyer for the event, which called the party “An Evening of Merrymaking with Donald Trump.”

“Only a few more hours to get tickets for Florida’s greatest Christmas party with President Trump!” she wrote

The hefty donation gets guests into the fundraiser and a photo with the former president. Families of up to four can pay $30,000 to get into the event.

The flyer said there will be festive cocktails and dinner, too. 

McEnany recently released a new memoir about her time in the Trump White House, claiming that she didn’t lie to reporters because she went to top universities and is a Christian. 

During her time behind the podium, the Fox News co-host was caught in several lies, ranging from false claims that Trump never downplayed the coronavirus to him being the first president to put a red ribbon on the White House for AIDS awareness.

McEnany’s tweet drew swift mockery from Melania Trump’s best friend turned tell-all author, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff.

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Kayleigh McEnany says she didn’t lie in the White House briefing room because she went to Oxford, Harvard, and Georgetown and is a Christian

Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany holds up a copy of the New York Post in the briefing room.
Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany holds up a copy of the New York Post in the briefing room.

  • Former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany claims she didn’t lie in the White House briefing room.
  • She writes in her upcoming book that she never lied because she went to Harvard, Oxford, and Georgetown.
  • She also writes that she was not deceptive because she’s a Christian and a mother.

Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany writes in her new memoir that she didn’t lie to reporters and the public while serving in the Trump administration because she was trained at elite universities and is a Christian.

McEnany recalls being asked by the White House press corps during her first briefing as Donald Trump’s fourth press secretary in May 2020 to pledge to never lie from the podium. She promised she would not and writes in, “For Such a Time As This,” that she’s a truthful person by nature and training. 

“Of course, I would never lie,” she writes. “How do you get through Oxford, Harvard, and Georgetown without sourcing? Without truthful, well-sourced, well-researched information? More importantly, as a woman of faith, a Christian, and a new mother, telling the truth was in my nature and central to my family life and faith walk.” 

Throughout her book, McEnany is highly critical of the press, aside from conservative outlets, and repeatedly accuses outlets of having a liberal bias and reporting unfairly about the administration. She writes that her assurance that she wouldn’t lie “did not stop some in the press from spinning things wildly out of context, twisting my words, assuming the worst, and engaging in ad hominem attacks—like falsely calling me a ‘liar.'” 

During her time as press secretary, McEnany falsely claimed, among other things:

  • Trump never downplayed the risk of the novel coronavirus.
    • He admitted to the veteran reporter Bob Woodward on tape that he lied about the severity of the virus so the public wouldn’t panic. Multiple reports have since corroborated that.
  • Trump won the 2020 presidential election.
    • He lost to Joe Biden by more than 7 million votes and lost the Electoral College by a margin of 232 to Biden’s 306.
  • The Mueller report concluded with “the complete and total exoneration of President Trump.”
    • The special counsel’s team declined to make a judgment on whether to charge Trump with a crime because of decades-old Justice Department legal guidance. But they specified, “If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment.”
  • One million people attended the “Million MAGA March” after the November 2020 election in support of Trump.
    • As Insider previously reported, multiple news outlets estimated that attendance was more somewhere in the thousands, and Politifact added: “It’s mathematically impossible for more than 135,000 people to fit in the location that McEnany tweeted a photo of.”
  • Democrats facilitated widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
    • McEnany’s claims were so outlandish that Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto cut away as she was speaking in the briefing room on November 9, days after news outlets called the election for Biden. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he said. “I just think we have to be very clear: she’s charging the other side as welcoming fraud and illegal voting, unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continue to show you this.”
  • Biden “[admitted] to voter fraud.”
    • In October 2020, McEnany sent out a tweet saying, “Biden admits to voter fraud,” accompanied by an edited and out-of-context video of the then-incoming president doing an interview on Pod Save America. In the full interview, Biden was answering a question about what he would say to those who had not voted in the 2020 election and didn’t plan to. He said: “The Republicans are doing everything they can to make it harder for people to vote. We have put together, I think, the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics.”
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Kayleigh McEnany deletes tweet blaming Biden for a 2020 spike in murders that occurred under Trump

Former President Donald Trump and Kayleigh McEnany, former White House press secretary.
Former President Donald Trump and Kayleigh McEnany, former White House press secretary.

  • Kayleigh McEnany deleted a tweet blaming Biden for a spike in murders that occurred under Trump.
  • “The U.S. murder rate under Joe Biden…” she wrote about a graphic showing an increase in 2020.
  • The graphic, from The New York Times, shows the number of murders increased by nearly 30%.
  • See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Former White House press secretary and Fox News contributor Kayleigh McEnany deleted a tweet blaming President Joe Biden for a spike in U.S. murders that occurred under her former boss, then-President Donald Trump.

As CNN’s Brian Stelter noted, McEnany quote-tweeted a post Thursday morning from Axios reporter Lachlan Markay that highlighted a New York Times graphic showing a significant surge in the number of US murders in 2020 to her 1.1 million followers.

She wrote: “The U.S. murder rate under Joe Biden…” about the graphic before deleting the tweet, presumably after realizing that Trump was president that year.

The underlying data behind the Times’ graphic and article, from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, which is set to be published in full on Monday, showed the number of murders in the United States spiked by nearly 30 percent from 2019 to 2020.

That stat represents the largest year-over-year increase in murders documented since the FBI began collecting yearly data on murders and far surpasses the previous record of 12.7 percent increase in the number of murders in a year, set in 1968.

The US murder rate, defined by the number of murders per 100,000 people, still remains lower than the all-time peak in the 1990s.

The data show that 77% of the murders in 2020 were committed with firearms, The Times said, reporting that the rise in murders was not driven by any particular regions but was nationwide. Overall crime, however, slightly declined.

McEnany, who served as press secretary from April 2020 to the end of the Trump presidency, was accused many times of stretching the truth or outright lying from the podium.

Before becoming press secretary, McEnany wrongly predicted that “we will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here.”

McEnany lied to the press at least five times during her tenure, including about Trump downplaying COVID-19 (he had), the crowd size of a pro-Trump march, and whether Trump was the first to put a red ribbon on the White House for World AIDS Day (he wasn’t).

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Kayleigh McEnany said Trump finds it ‘kind of freeing’ to be off Twitter since he was banned

Kayleigh McEnany
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany takes off her face covering before speaking with reporters outside the West Wing of the White House on October 2, 2020 in Washington, DC.

  • When Donald Trump got banned from Twitter, he went “ballistic,” according to a Politico report.
  • But now, two months later, he finds it “kind of freeing,” former press aide Kayleigh McEnany said.
  • At the time of his ban in January, Trump tried tweeting from other White House–affiliated accounts and threatened to establish his own social media platform.
  • Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.

Ex-White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Friday said former President Donald Trump is “doing just fine” without Twitter, a stark contrast to his behavior after initially learning he was banned.

Trump was banned from Twitter in January because of his potential to incite further violence following the deadly siege on the US Capitol, the platform said. 

At the time, the former president was infuriated by the move. A senior administration official told Politico that Trump went “ballistic.”

Trump even tried to tweet from different avenues.

Shortly after Twitter removed his @realDonaldTrump account, the president tweeted from the official @POTUS and @TeamTrump handles. But Twitter immediately deleted those posts as well. 

One of his now-deleted tweets said the former president had begun “negotiating with various other sites” and hinted at a big announcement. His team would “look at the possibilities of building our own platform in the near future,” he said.

His frustration spread to other Republicans, who attempted to start a movement to get people off Twitter.

Immediately following his permanent suspension, many high-level and prominent Republicans expressed solidarity with the former president, urging their followers to flock elsewhere. They began sharing their Parler accounts on Twitter.

Parler is a social media app used prominently by Republican and conservative figures, who’ve dubbed it the “free speech” platform.

Despite all the commotion, Trump finds it liberating to be off Twitter these days, said McEnany, now a contributor for Fox News.

“He said it was kind of freeing not to have Twitter,” she said. “He had a lot of time on his hands. So I think he’s doing just fine without social media.”

Twitter banned Trump after insurrectionists stormed the US Capitol building on January 6, leading to five people dead. His tweets, the platform said, violated Twitter policies of civic integrity. 

“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” the company said in a tweet.

Leading up to the days of the riot, Trump frequently used his Twitter account to espouse and spread false information about the 2020 elections to millions of his followers. 

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Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany joins Fox News

Kayleigh McEnany
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Friday, May 1, 2020, in Washington.

  • Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany will join Fox News as an on-air commentator.
  • McEnany gave her first public interview on Tuesday since leaving the White House.
  • She previously worked at Fox News and CNN.
  • Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.

Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany will join Fox News, the network announced Tuesday.

Fox News host Harris Faulkner shared the news with viewers during her show and welcomed McEnany to the team.

“It is my distinct pleasure today to welcome Kayleigh McEnany to the Fox family,” Faulkner said. “We will be seeing much more of her in the future.”

A Fox News spokesperson told Insider that McEnany will serve as an on-air commentator. 

McEnany’s first public interview since leaving the White House aired on Fox News on Tuesday. The former press secretary discussed the Capitol riot on January 6 and said that she was in “disbelief” over the scene.

“We had been to hundreds of rallies – I’ve probably been to hundreds at this point, certainly many dozens – and they were nothing but peaceful events, and we expected that day to be the same,” McEnany said. “And then as those events transpired, it was disbelief, shock, somber, sad, horrified by the violence, and it was a very hard, difficult day in the White House, there is no doubt.”

McEnany held her last press conference at the Trump administration the day after the deadly insurrection. She delivered a two-minute statement denouncing the violence “in the strongest possible terms” and then walked out of the White House briefing room without taking any questions from reporters. McEnany packed up her bags and left the White House on January 15, five days before former President Donald Trump’s term ended. She’d served in her role since April 2020.

McEnany is not new to the media world. Early in her career, she was a production assistant at Fox News and later became a commentator for CNN.

In 2017, McEnany served as the national spokesperson for the Republican National Committee. She then worked on Trump’s campaign as a national press secretary before joining his administration.

McEnany frequently blurred the lines between her government job and as a personal advisor to Trump. She made several appearances on Fox News and at campaign rallies on behalf of the former president during her last months as press secretary.

 

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Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany says she was shocked that Trump’s January 6 rally turned violent

kayleigh mcenany
Kayleigh McEnany, the former White House press secretary, on Fox News.

The former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said she was shocked that the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6 turned violent.

In her first interview since leaving the White House, McEnany told Fox News that she had expected the rally for then-President Donald Trump to be peaceful. Those events have a history of violence, and law-enforcement agencies had issued warnings about the rally.

“I think that at the beginning of the day, before everyone went to the rally, everyone was expecting peace,” McEnany said. “We had been to hundreds of rallies – I’ve probably been to hundreds at this point, certainly many dozens – and they were nothing but peaceful events, and we expected that day to be the same.

“And then as those events transpired, it was disbelief, shock, somber, sad, horrified by the violence, and it was a very hard, difficult day in the White House, there is no doubt.”

McEnany said the mood in the White House was a “synonymous feeling” of horror when the Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attack that resulted in five deaths, including the Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick.

McEnany said “everyone” was “just completely condemning the actions of that day.”

While multiple White House staffers and Cabinet members resigned after the riot, Trump was said to have been pleased with the violence. One former aide told CNN in early February that Trump was “loving watching the Capitol mob,” while officials told The New York Times that Trump was initially pleased with the violence and ignored aides’ attempts to get him to intervene.

McEnany’s final White House press conference was a two-minute affair held the day after the riot. She condemned the violence, calling it “appalling, reprehensible, and antithetical to the American way.”

She packed up her office a week later and reportedly finished out her days on the job working remotely from her home in Florida.

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Forbes editor issues warning to companies intending to hire Trump officials: ‘We’ll assume everything you talk about is a lie’

trump former press secretaries
Pictured: Sean Spicer, Kayleigh McEnany, and Kellyanne Conway

  • The editor of Forbes — Randall Lane — has warned companies that choose to hire officials from President Donald Trump’s administration that they will be heavily scrutinized, he wrote in an article.
  • Lane wrote that, following Wednesday’s attempted coup, there should be a “truth reckoning.”
  • The editor said that, as part of that reckoning, there would be “repercussions” for those who have lied on behalf of Trump.
  • Lane name-called Trump’s former press secretaries and said that companies that employ them could be viewed as a “potential funnel of disinformation” by the magazine.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

In the wake of Wednesday’s attempted coup, Forbes – the American business magazine – has issued a warning to companies hoping to hire former officials from President Donald Trump’s administration.

Businesses that choose to hire Trump administration alumni will, the editor said, be held to account.

“Forbes will assume that everything your company or firm talks about is a lie,” the magazine’s editor Randall Lane wrote.  “We’re going to scrutinize, double-check, investigate with the same skepticism we’d approach a Trump tweet,” Lane added.

In the article titled ‘A Truth Reckoning: Why We’re Holding Those Who Lied For Trump Accountable,’ Lane reflected on the lies that spurred rioters to ransack the US Capitol building.

The easiest way for American democracy to recover from the insurrection, he wrote, is to “create repercussions for those who don’t follow the civic norms.”

In the Forbes article, Lane name-called Trump’s press secretaries and a former senior counselor to the president – Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Stephanie Grisham, Kayleigh McEnany, and Kellyanne Conway – and referred to the group as “Trump’s fellow fabulists.”

This ultimatum follows the news that some White House staff are worried about securing their next job, according to Politico.

Administration officials told the media outlet that they fear Wednesday’s events will damage their reputations, finances, and future careers.

Lower-level Trump staffers are also “trying to save face for future employment,” a source told Politico.

In recent days, several high-profile Trump officials have resigned to distance themselves from the president.

On Thursday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos resigned as did Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

On Wednesday, Melania Trump’s chief of staff, Stephanie Grisham, Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews, and Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger all resigned.

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