After a nonprofit told TPM Wednesday that it was pulling out of a strip club’s golf tournament at President Donald Trump’s golf course in Doral, Florida this weekend, Trump’s business announced the entire event would be cancelled.
“The event was originally booked with the understanding that it would be raising money to support a local charity benefiting underprivileged children,” a Trump Organization spokesperson told TPM in an emailed statement. “Now that the charity has removed its affiliation, the event will no longer be taking place at our property and all amounts paid will be refunded.”
The Washington Post first reported the event’s cancellation Wednesday.
The director of the youth-oriented South Florida nonprofit Miami All Stars told TPM Wednesday that he hadn’t known when he signed on that the event was organized by a local strip club and would feature exotic dancers as caddies. He only learned of the club’s involvement when The Washington Post called for an interview, he said.
Over the phone Wednesday, Miami All Stars director Carlos Alamilla told TPM, “I didn’t know there was a strip tease club involved in this.”
“You can’t mix kids with sex,” he said. “It just doesn’t jibe.”
The strip club behind the event, Shadow Cabaret, didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment. But in a statement on its Facebook page Wednesday night, it said it had “decided to cancel this event” due to the surrounding “climate,” and apologized “to anyone that may have been offended by the tournament.” The club said it wouldn’t let the cancellation “detour us from continuing to work with different charities and to give back to the community.”
Promotional material for the event advertised the “caddy girl of your choice” for early registrants — and an auction on Friday for remaining caddies — as well as hotel rooms in the the Trump Doral and, for big spenders, a half hour in the “VIP Room.”
This post has been updated.
