Republicans To Charge $88,600 For Photo With Trump At Midterm Convention

As Republicans head into a midterm election year that history says should favor Democrats, the party is leaning on its most reliable asset: access to Donald Trump himself. And it is charging accordingly. Invitations circulating ahead of the GOP's midterm convention, set for September 9-11 in Dallas, lay out a tiered menu of donor packages built almost entirely around proximity to the president and his vice president. At the top of the list, a single photograph with Trump runs $88,600 — a figure that is not arbitrary. Federal law caps individual contributions to a national party committee at $44,300 a year, so the RNC has simply split the fee in two: half flows to the National Republican Congressional Committee, half to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, letting one donor max out both committees in a single transaction for one photo op. >100 NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOS FROM JEFFREY EPSTEIN'S SECRET FILES – SLIDESHOW The rest of the price list escalates from there. A roundtable dinner with Trump in Dallas on September 9 costs $250,000 per person. A roundtable with Vice President JD Vance the following day runs $75,000, with a standalone photo with Vance available for $35,000. Simply walking into the convention costs at least $25,000. The urgency behind the push is not subtle. Trump has publicly acknowledged what every strategist in his party already knows: the incumbent president's party almost always loses ground in midterm elections. With Republicans defending narrow majorities in both chambers, the RNC is trying to convert star power into cash before donors' attention—and money—drift elsewhere. That strategy has drawn scrutiny, though, because the party's existing war chest is sitting idle. Trump's MAGA Inc. super PAC is reportedly holding roughly $400 million that has yet to be deployed in any midterm race, even as individual GOP candidates in competitive states struggle to raise money on their own. Critics, including commentators on the left, have seized on the gap: if the cause is really about protecting the majority, they ask, why does so much cash remain parked at a super PAC built around Trump rather than flowing to the candidates who need it on the ground? The fundraising blitz is unfolding alongside an increasingly combative campaign trail. In Michigan, Vance recently described Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed as 'very, very evil' — a charge El-Sayed batted back by pointing to Republican positions on health care and military intervention as the real markers of harm. In Texas, the convention circuit has also become entangled with Trump's fundraising efforts for embattled state officials like Attorney General Ken Paxton. Like Like Love Haha Wow Sad Angry Read more about: