Dines With Some of His Biggest Donors

By MAGGIE HABERMAN and KENNETH P. VOGEL
AUG. 18, 2017

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — President Trump dined on Thursday night at his Bedminster golf club with a handful of the right’s most generous donors, as he tried to build support for his hobbled legislative agenda amid mounting criticism from within his own party, three people briefed on the dinner said.

The dinner was scheduled weeks ago as part of a donor-outreach initiative by the Trump administration as it prepares an overhaul of the tax code, according to several people involved in the planning.

But it came as the White House is struggling to move past the racially charged controversy that Mr. Trump fueled in the wake of the deadly white supremacist rally last weekend in Charlottesville, Va. Mr. Trump’s response to the rally — including his casting of blame on counterprotesters and his defense of Confederate monuments — has created a rift between Mr. Trump and previously friendly elements of the business community, making support from donors like those gathered Thursday all the more important ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/us/politics/trump-dinner-top-donors-tax-reform.html