Investigating rumor Trump spent $3.4M in taxpayer money on ‘Great Gatsby’ Halloween party

On Halloween, Oct. 31, 2025, a claim (archived) began circulating online that U.S. President Donald Trump spent $3.4 million in taxpayer funds on a “Great Gatsby”-themed Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. 

The claim circulated as a month-long government shutdown over budget disagreements meant that some 42 million Americans could lose their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, also known as food stamps. SNAP benefits help seniors, people with disabilities and families purchase household food staples. 

The reported party drew criticism for its alleged theme (archived, archived). “The Great Gatsby,” a 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, follows a self-made millionaire in the affluent, fictional society of West Egg, New York, in his pursuit of a woman he loved in his youth. The novel has been adapted in movies several times, all of which lean into the glitz and glamour of the Jazz Age parties hosted by the protagonist Jay Gatsby in the story.

One X user posted an image of Trump with the caption, “BREAKING: It turns out Trump blew $3.4 MILLION of taxpayer money on a lavish Great Gatsby-themed Mar-a-Lago party while 700,000 Americans go UNPAID his shutdown. Disgraceful.”

The claim also circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived) and Bluesky (archived). Snopes readers also wrote in, asking if the claim was true.

Trump did host a Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Oct. 31, 2025. White House correspondents from Agence-France Presse and NewsNation (archived, archived) reported that the theme was “The Great Gatsby” and “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody,” which appeared to be a reference to a song in the 2013 “The Great Gatsby” movie’s soundtrack.

While the cost of Trump’s transportation to and from the party in West Palm Beach, Florida, would have been covered by taxpayer-funded government departments, it was unclear whether taxpayer funds had contributed to the party itself. Therefore, we have left this claim unrated.

Snopes reached out to the White House and the Trump Organization, which owns Mar-a-Lago, to ask whether Trump spent taxpayer money on the party and await replies to our queries.

Parsing party costs

Online claims said the party cost $3.4 million that came from taxpayer funds. That figure may have come from a 2019 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), a congressional watchdog that investigates government spending, which found that four of Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago in early 2017 cost the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Secret Service $13.6 million to facilitate — about $3.4 million per trip. 

The report looked at the cost of transportation, security and other expenses related to four of Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago at the start of his first presidency.

The report noted that, as president of the U.S., Trump must travel on DOD aircraft and that the operating costs for aircraft like Air Force One and Marine Corps One made up the “majority” of the department’s $8.5 million costs across four trips.

The report also noted that across the four trips the GAO audited, the DHS, DOD and Secret Service paid Mar-a-Lago around $60,000 for operational space and lodging. Room costs were within government “per diem” rates, according to the report.

Neither the Trump Organization nor the White House had replied to queries about the cost of the 2025 party and who paid for it at the time of this writing. Trump has previously hosted parties at Mar-a-Lago with a $1,000 ticket price, according to the British tabloid the Daily Mail. Additionally, membership in the private members’ club reportedly costs up to $200,000 per year. Membership costs at private members’ clubs typically help cover operations and upkeep of the venue but could also go toward events.

At the time of this writing, a federal judge in Rhode Island had ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to pay SNAP benefits either entirely or in part using contingency funding by Nov. 5. Another federal judge, in Massachusetts, wrote that the court would “likely” find the USDA’s failure to fund SNAP benefits through contingency funds “unlawful.” The USDA had previously argued it could not legally use these funds. 

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