The Daily Beast reported that Trump himself didn’t attend the festivities at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, but Donald Trump Jr. with his partner Kimberly Guilfoyle took in the show, as did Eric and Lara Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and Congressman Matt Gaetz. They were all part of a group of about 500 people who packed into a ballroom with an admission cost of up to $1,000.
Based on footage of the night, attendees appeared to have not worn masks.
Donald Trump Jr. was also celebrating his 43rd birthday last night. He shared a video on Facebook with the accompanying message: “Ok this is amazing. Vanilla Ice is playing the Mar-a-Lago New Years Eve party. As a child of the 90s you can’t fathom how awesome that is. Beyond that I got the birthday shoutout so that’s pretty amazing.”
Not everyone was as enthusiastic as Don Jr. Comedian Bridget Phetasy, for one, wasn’t impressed with the star’s presence at the event. On Twitter, she called watching the “Ice Ice Baby” rapper on New Year’s Eve “rock bottom.”
Screenwriter Randi Mayem Singer (Mrs. Doubtfire) also questioned the value of putting your health in danger “to dance badly to Vanilla Ice and one Beach Boy.”
Like many others, Singer was referencing the fact that it wasn’t a version of the Beach Boys’ classic lineup at the event. Instead, it was the current incarnation led by the Trump-supporting Mike Love, minus Brian Wilson, the frequently-cited genius behind the group’s creative heyday.
Comedian/actor John Fugelsang saw some similarities between Love and Trump, noting that people who think Love is the Beach Boys also believe Trump is president.
One writer commented while referencing the Beach Boys’ hit from the 1980s, “Kokomo.”
While many people joked about the event, actor Kirk Acevedo expressed anger about the apparent carelessness of those who attended.
Political divisions between Love and his former bandmates goes back for some time. In 2020, the two other living original members of the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, expressed dismay to Variety through a spokesperson about Mike Love’s Beach Boys headlining a campaign benefit for Trump in Newport Beach, California.
In February, Wilson and Jardine publicly announced they had signed a Change.org petition urging a boycott of the Beach Boys after Love agreed to play at the Safari Club International Convention. Donald Trump Jr. was a keynote speaker at the same in Reno, Nevada, event.
Newsweek contacted the White House, Mike Love, and Vanilla Ice for comment, but didn’t hear back at the time of publication.
