It was the week in which GOP lawmakers suffered setbacks at the polls, the government shutdown turned into the longest in history, and millions throughout the country, encompassing three million residents in Florida, experienced their federal food aid slashed.
However, in the contrasting world of Miami, where tickets to an overwhelmingly right-leaning corporate gathering headlined by the former president cost up to nearly two thousand dollars, and ultra-wealthy individuals from the Gulf kingdom mingled with equally wealthy US magnates including Jeff Bezos and Ken Griffin, those developments generated scarcely any reaction.
Conversely, in a gesture that appeared almost to highlight the growing disparity between the city’s haves and less fortunate, planners of the corporate summit cooked up a small perk for participants: a fifty-dollar voucher to spend on food to sustain themselves while they paid attention to their leader praise himself for a era of prosperity he said his “economic miracle” had delivered.
Advocates argue the move, along with the high-budget opulence of the event itself, was an ill-timed affront to more than a 500,000 Miami-Dade county inhabitants who just saw their own ability to buy essential groceries for their families curtailed by the reduction of the federal food stamp program.
“There exists a significant cognitive dissonance between what real people are experiencing, and the privileged,” said a policy director, spokesperson of State Voices Florida, a coalition of more than a 100 non-aligned, pro-democracy and community involvement groups.
“The Amazon founder does not need a $50 meal voucher. But we saw that with the 1920s-inspired gala last week. They just appear unable to stop engaging in things that are shockingly out of touch.
“We’ve been through shutdowns before, and while clearly the White House bubble is always fairly insane, leaders are typically smart enough, they usually know not to display this type of stuff. But this administration does not seem to care.”
The president’s hour-long address on the event's second day had the flavor of a campaign event, with well-known criticisms for old political foes such as the Senate minority leader and the West Coast leader, and a new one: the recently voted-in democratic socialist mayor of New York.
Trump touched on his economic agenda, and praised a array of speakers from the worlds of government, sport and business that populated the multi-day agenda, created primarily by the mayor of the city of Miami to highlight south Florida and its investment opportunities.
The soccer superstar, the Argentina soccer star and global champion, offered star power from the athletic world, along with grand slam winners the Spanish player and the American athlete. A conversation between the city leader and the Nobel laureate, the democracy activist who last month received the Nobel peace prize, was favorably viewed on day one.
Nevertheless overall it was a notable and clearly politically charged event with a field of supportive speakers on the podium, loudly cheered by a crowd of predominantly more youthful and affluent supporters of the leader in the crowd, some blending professional attire with his signature red Make America Great Again (Maga) caps.
How else to explain the attendance of the rightwing president of Argentina, the country whose shaky economy Trump helped shore up last month with a twenty-billion-dollar lifeline? Or that of Kingdom representatives Fahad AlSaif, head of its $925bn Public Investment Fund, and the ambassador, Riyadh’s ambassador to the US, promoting their nation as an opportunity while the former first family's financial ties and influence there come under increased examination?
Additionally there was the head of world soccer’s governing body, suggesting that the former president is being considered for the group's inaugural peace prize, an unwanted new award that observers see created specially for the leader as compensation for his Nobel snub.
Other participants, including the CEO of the banking giant; the creator of the co-working firm; and the financial executive, have all in the past supported, worked with or voted for the former president, providing more than a suggestion of a partisan lineup.
The Miami mayor, predictably, had a contrasting view.
“Our aim was it to be a kind of a diverse representation from various sectors, right?” he explained to reporters.
“We convened. We said, ‘Hey, what are the prominent figures?’ People from different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different genders … sports, commerce, government, tech, things that touch everyone’s lives.”
He highlighted conversations of upcoming, lucrative major occasions in Miami, encompassing the Formula One grand prix, next year’s G20 economic summit at a golf resort, and games during the soccer tournament, which he called “a generational opportunity”.
“The intention is that local residents are transformed by the event,” the mayor said. “We want them to leave believing, ‘I can be on that stage.’”
The advocates of State Voices Florida, however, contend numerous Miamians are more focused right now on different concerns, particularly rising housing and grocery prices. Florida’s Republican governor declined a request from the organization and additional parties to declare an crisis over food assistance and tap public funds to support immediate food distribution.
“Every social studies instructor would tell you it’s his responsibility to look after the people of the state, and he’s doing the reverse,” Hannan said, observing the contrast of a conference of billionaires taking place in the same county in which nearly one quarter of families depend on food stamps to get by.
“It appears to be this detachment at the top. I do not believe the solution is electing a liberal or electing a conservative, I just think we have to have greater compassion for individuals who are facing difficulties in this state.”
Empathy was in short supply in Miami from Trump, a leader not known for ever accepting blame during a difficult period.
“The radical left Democrats are resulting in millions of citizens who depend on nutritional aid to go without benefits,” he said, attributing fault to the opposition political group for the government shutdown.
“My desire is to have a nation that’s great again. Is that OK?”
