Donald Trump expressed his belief that there has been a positive shift worldwide since his election and confidently forecasted events for 2025 in anticipation of his return to the White House.
Following a hiatus of four years from office, supporters of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement gathered at Mar-a-Lago for Trump’s annual New Year’s Eve celebration, which included attendees such as family, friends, and members of the upcoming administration.
As he walked the red carpet with wife Melania in tow to enter the party, he was asked what he looked forward to in the coming year.
‘Just a great year, I think we’re gonna do fantastically well as a country,’ Trump predicted.
‘We’re gonna bring it back. It has to be brought back. People are not respecting our country very much and they’re gonna respect us a lot.’
He then talked about the hard work that has gone into the transition with the inauguration just a few weeks away.
‘I think a lot of progress has been made over the last five weeks. It’s been pretty amazing when you look at what’s happened,’ he said.
Trump believes that the entire planet has been uplifted following his victory over Kamala Harris.
‘There’s a light over the whole world, not just our country. There’s a lot of very happy people,’ Trump said.
When asked, aside from the election, what his highlight of 2024 was, it was ‘the fact that we’re gonna’ have a great nation again.’
‘We’re gonna’ bring it back better than it ever was,’ he concluded.
He was also asked for his New Year’s resolution but politely deferred, saying: ‘I just want everybody to be happy, healthy and well.’
Trump briefly held court the press on several topics, including rumors President Joe Biden believed he would’ve beaten him.
While reflecting on his successor, Joe Biden, Trump conveyed well-wishes towards him but also highlighted Biden’s trailing position in polls and the challenges faced during the Georgia debate. Trump, accompanied by Melania Trump, mentioned Biden’s missed opportunity during the debate and its unfavorable outcome.
The president-elect also expressed confidence in his Cabinet nominees and demanded Hamas’ Israeli hostages be freed.
He reiterated his support for House Speaker Mike Johnson, explaining the current leader would be the only Republican who could get the votes in a speakership fight.
Trump also confirmed that he would be attending Jimmy Carter’s funeral but would not say if he had spoken to the late president’s family.
‘I’d rather not say,’ Trump told the journalists, including DailyMail.com.
During his first term, Trump attended the funeral of former President George H.W. Bush but not that of Sen. John McCain, who didn’t want him to be there.
The largescale Washington event will likely bring Trump face-to-face with Biden and the other living Democratic presidents including Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Former President George W. Bush will also likely attend.
That same group is expected to attend Trump’s second swearing-in 11 days later.
Things briefly got testy when Trump denied that he’d changed his position on H-1B visas after the subject fractured the MAGAverse in recent days.
‘I didn’t change my mind,’ Trump pushed back. ‘I’ve always felt we have to have the most competent people in our country.’
He added, ‘we need competent people, we need smart people coming into our country and we need a lot of people coming in, we’re going to have jobs like we’ve never had before.’
‘But sir, you changed your position!’ the journalist responded.
Trump ignored the reporter, choosing to answer the question about whether he would attend President Jimmy Carter’s funeral instead.
Upon entering, the president-elect gave a brief speech onstage and was later that night presented with a lifetime achievement award.
Trump was surrounded by friends and family at the annual gathering, including son Donald Jr. and his new girlfriend, socialite Bettina Anderson, making their most public appearance together to date.
Father Donald joined the crowd in singing happy birthday to his son, who turned 47 on Tuesday.
DOGE co-chair and ‘First Buddy’ Elon Musk alongside son X and mother Maye, Vice President-elect JD Vance and his wife Usha, longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone and lawyer Alina Habba walked the red carpet before Trump arrived.
Musk carried X on his shoulders past waiting reporters.
Trump Jr.’s brother Eric and sister Tiffany were both there with their spouses, former RNC co-chair Lara Trump – who sang Tom Petty’s ‘I Won’t Back Down’ onstage at the party – and Michael Boulos.
Tiffany’s baby bump was starting to show in her black dress. She announced her first pregnancy in October.
Trump’s ex-wife, Marla Maples, also walked the red carpet.
Melania Trump wore a slinky and stylish black dress.
Her father, Victor Knavs, wasn’t far behind.
Asked by a reporter if she had a new year’s resolution, the former and future first lady responded, ‘we all know what we want … world peace.’
She also stopped for a quick snap with Paolo Zampolli, her former modeling agent – and the man who introduced her to the president-elect.
Zampolli discovered the future first lady in the 1990s in Milan and helped secure her H-1B visa. He held a party for the president after he won the election in 2016.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz walked the red carpet, with his wife Heidi – whom Trump once insulted – not far behind.
Linda McMahon, the nominee to lead the Department of Education, was also in attendance.
Female violinists on pedestals and wearing all-black lined the way for the guests as they entered the ornate Florida property.
They played tunes including ‘Jolene,’ Led Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir’ and Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing.’
Trump has been hosting the New Year’s fete for years.
This year’s event, according to the Palm Beach Post, is expected to draw as many as 300 guests.
Past VIPs have included Sylvester Stallone, Jason Aldean, Lou Dobbs and Fabio. During the 2020 party, held amid the COVID-19 pandemic and after Trump’s bruising election loss to President Joe Biden, ’90s rapper Vanilla Ice perked up the crowd.
Palm Beach Police Department spokesman Capt. William Rothrock told the Palm Beach Post that no fireworks are expected outside.
Inside, however, Trump’s crowd will be coming together after a major rift among his top allies on the subject of H-1B visas.
The fight pit Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy – selected to run the newly created Department of Government Efficiency – against traditional MAGA mainstays like Steve Bannon.
As tech industry insiders, Musk and Ramaswamy were pro the visas that bring in high-skilled laborers, while Bannon and the MAGA right argued those jobs should go to Americans first.
Trump ended up siding with Musk and even posted publicly to Truth Social about his desire to see the X owner at the New Year’s shindig.
‘Where are you? When are you coming to the ‘Center of the Universe,’ Mar-a-Lago,’ Trump wrote. ‘We miss you and x! New Year’s Eve is going to be AMAZING!!!’
Trump signed the post ‘DJT,’ indicating he had penned the post himself.
Ramaswamy was not spotted on the red carpet at the event, which featured Musk and son X on his shoulders near the president-elect at all times.
However, Trump Jr. out with Anderson in public at a Trump event is likely to be the headline of the evening.
Born in Palm Beach with a twin sister, Anderson’s late father was Harry Loy Anderson who became the youngest bank president in the country when he took the helm of Worth Avenue National Bank at the age of 26.
Mother Inger, 74, still lives in an $11.5million home in an exclusive section of the mega-rich enclave.
Statuesque Bettina co-founded The Paradise Fund with her two brothers in 2005.
She attended Palm Beach Day School followed by St Andrews School in nearby Boca Raton where fees range from $30,885 a year for lower school to $72,420 for the most senior boarders.
Next it was a BA in Art History, Criticism and Conservation from Columbia in New York City, where she lived for a further three years before returning home and starting her ascent to become an essential part of Palm Beach’s exclusive social circuit.
Her social media is crammed with glamorous professional modeling shots and vignettes of her life – including spearfishing in the Bahamas where she claims to be the happiest.
Her profile with online designer store Moda Operandi – which features her modeling outfits – gushes: ‘Her style, like her personality, blends flirty femininity with a spicy sense of humor and embraces a broad range of brands.
‘Whether she’s headed out for a night in a show-stopping Oscar de la Renta mini, sporting a Zimmerman one-piece poolside, or hosting at home in a matching set from Cult Gaia, she’s a walking paragon of style.’
