Even Gatsby Wouldn’t Want Trump in The White House
Trump’s face on Jay Gatsby from the 2013 movie adaptation. Source: The Daily Beast.
On October 31, President Trump hosted a “Great Gatsby”-themed Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago mansion, mere hours before millions of Americans were set to lose their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
Guests arrived dressed to channel the wealthy elites of the American Roaring 1920s—the very figures author F. Scott Fitzgerald critiqued in “The Great Gatsby.” On this particular night, the feather-laden showgirls and decked-out mansion didn’t feel as much like a celebration by the President and his administration so much as a mockery of America's most vulnerable.
The White House even confirmed the “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody” theme to the press, referencing the 2013 adaptation starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the great Jay Gatsby.
The party has not gone unscrutinized. Host of the Daily Show, Jon Stewart, said the party was evidence that Trump could not care less about the needs of non-elite citizens, mockingly calling the party “a wonderful celebration where the theme was apparently gross income inequality.”
The theme feels too on the nose to be accidental—and if anyone in the world should have a top-tier public relations team, it’s the leader of the free world. Trump’s timing feels both poorly judged and deliberate, especially as millions of America’s most vulnerable scramble to make sense of where their next meal might come from.
Trump’s administration knew this party would draw attention. The following Wednesday, the White House Spokeswoman Anna Kelly responded to the widespread criticism, saying, “These Democrats are full of it.” She also said that “President Trump has consistently called on [the Democrats] to do the right thing and reopen the government.”
Trump and his team have somehow managed to blame the Democrats for his Halloween party, as if it would be appropriate even if the government hadn’t been shut down. Government running or not, wealth inequality in the U.S. is rapidly growing, and Trump isn’t doing anything about it.
The original 2017 Trump tax law dramatically cut personal income taxes for top earners, and lowered the rate of tax for corporations to modern lows, and, most recently, the Big Beautiful Bill extended the same breaks. Yet, the President campaigned on the promise of cheaper groceries and affordable housing, without taxing the rich, I don’t know how he planned to go about this. I think the answer is that he never planned to fulfill his promises.
The President’s constant deflection is telling of his own political agenda. He and his team wouldn’t dream of issuing an apology, because who does a billionaire answer to? Donald J. Trump answers to no one—not even the American people he was elected to serve.
The fact that the President of the United States is a billionaire convicted felon says enough about his lack of accountability. Though Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts, for funneling hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels, he was given an “unconditional discharge.” Trump will not face time in jail for the crimes he’s committed like any regular citizen–because of the power he holds; and he came to power through a campaign fuelled by billions of dollars out of his own pocket.
Even Jay Gatsby had a rags-to-riches story–Trump ruled himself out of the self-made argument after famously describing how his father gave him “a small loan of a million dollars.” Ordinary Americans are asking for help from a nepo-millionaire. I don’t think it can get any more out-of-touch than our current situation.
The same kind of hollowing affluent lifestyle from the 1920s is precisely the kind of behavior which has created our current wage gap debacle. While Elon Musk is on his way to become the first trillionaire, working class Americans are struggling to pay their rent. The same culture Fitzgerald critiqued a century ago still dominates today.
Trump’s party of course is not just symbolic–real American lives are impacted by his administration daily. Whether that is through his inhumane immigration policies, or funding cuts to public education programs, the poor have suffered at the hands of the Trump administration.
At least Gatsby was motivated by the pursuit for love, and naively discovered his money, no matter the amount, could not buy the favor of his one true love Daisy. Trump, on the other hand, seems to be in the pursuit to make life for ordinary citizens harder, while giving tax breaks to the ultra wealthy.
Glitz, glamour and a false sense of fulfillment characterized the United States’ roaring 1920s. America’s most wealthy felt as though they’d reached the mountain top. Their houses were too expansive to navigate, and the parties were the size of a small island—yet the crash of the stock market hit America with a reality they were once unwilling to face: materialistic gains without purpose or passion are ultimately a waste.
Everything that goes up, must come down. While Trump has managed to sustain his base for now, this mockery of a party is only the beginning of his slew of scandals. With the media uproar over recently released Epstein files which explicitly name Trump, and violent ICE raids broadcasted for all to see, there’s only so much further the President can push before even the MAGA gang realizes this isn’t what they signed up for.
Fitzgerald says it best. “They were careless people–they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
Trump gets to retreat to his money–but what about the American people? We should not have to clean up the mess made by the elite. Politicians are elected to clean the mess, not make it. Every day under the Trump administration, we are shown more and more that it is going to have to be us who fight for the change we wish to see. The elites sure aren’t going to do it for us.