President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club hosted a dog rescue fundraiser just days after he booted out a dog killer from his administration.
Wine Women & Shoes held a three-day fundraising event at the president’s private club to benefit Big Dog Ranch Rescue—the nation’s largest cage-free, no-kill animal shelter—starting on Friday.
The day before, Trump, 79, announced that his Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, had been replaced by Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin.
“It’s a wonderful organization and a cause that is close to our family’s heart, that’s why I allowed them to use Mar-a-Lago,” Trump said in a pre-recorded video shown at the event, shared in a clip posted to Instagram on Saturday by fitness trainer and lifestyle influencer Renata Beokovic.
“You know, I’m pretty busy right now putting out wars and doing good things for the country,” he said, explaining why he was not in attendance. Trump was seen playing golf at the Trump National Doral on Sunday morning, wearing the same hat he wore during Saturday’s dignified transfer of remains at the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware the day before.
At the event were actress and animal advocate Katherine Heigl, “Dog Whisperer” Cesar Millan, and the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who serves as the event’s honorary chair. Jeanine Pirro, the Fox News personality whom Trump appointed as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, was also in attendance.
“We’ve got three more years with this president in our White House, and I would say things are going pretty well,” Lara said in a speech at the event, according to another video shared on Instagram by Beokovic.
The event also held a “celebrity doggie fashion show” that featured 12 rescue dogs, according to CBS12.
The Daily Beast reached out to the White House for comment.
Noem, nicknamed ICE Barbie by the Daily Beast for her love of dressing up as different law enforcement agencies, revealed in her 2024 memoir No Going Back that she had shot and killed her 14-month-old puppy, Cricket, and dumped her corpse into a gravel pit. She wrote in her book that Cricket had an “aggressive personality” and that she “hated that dog.”
After she claimed at a congressional hearing that Trump approved of her spending $220 million on an advertisement for DHS that prominently featured her, something he later denied, Noem was reassigned to a new role as the Special Envoy to the Shield of the Americas.
Trump announced the new initiative that Noem would oversee during a summit in Doral, Florida, on Saturday. Noem attended the event with her top aide and alleged lover, Corey Lewandowski.
The Daily Beast reached out to DHS for comment.
