It was the week in which Republicans suffered setbacks at the polls, the government shutdown became the most extended in US history, and countless individuals throughout the nation, encompassing three million residents in the Sunshine State, saw their nutrition assistance slashed.
However, in the alternative reality of Miami, where tickets to an overwhelmingly conservative business conference headlined by Donald Trump were priced up to nearly two thousand dollars, and billionaires from Saudi Arabia mingled with equally affluent American tycoons such as Jeff Bezos and Ken Griffin, those developments created barely a ripple.
Instead, in a gesture that appeared almost to highlight the growing disparity between the urban area's haves and have-nots, organizers of the America Business Forum cooked up a little treat for attendees: a fifty-dollar gift card to spend on meals to sustain themselves while they listened to their president praise himself for a era of prosperity he said his “economic miracle” had delivered.
Critics say the move, along with the high-budget extravagance of the event itself, was an ill-timed affront to over a 500,000 Miami-Dade county residents who just saw their own capacity to buy basic food items for their families curtailed by the reduction of the federal food stamp program.
“There’s just a massive cognitive dissonance between what real people are experiencing, and the privileged,” said a policy director, communications and policy director of State Voices Florida, a coalition of over a 100 non-partisan, democracy-focused and civic engagement organizations.
“The Amazon founder hardly requires a $50 food card. But we observed that with the Great Gatsby theme party last week. They just can’t seem to stop engaging in things that are shockingly disconnected.
“We have experienced government closures before, and while obviously the White House bubble is always fairly unrealistic, presidents are usually smart enough, they generally know not to display this type of stuff. But this government does not appear concerned.”
The president’s hour-long address on the event's second day had the tone of a campaign event, with well-known insults for old political foes including the Democratic leader and the West Coast leader, and a new one: the newly elected progressive mayor of New York.
The former president discussed his economic agenda, and praised a host of speakers from the realms of government, sport and business that populated the multi-day agenda, created primarily by the local official to highlight the region and its economic potential.
The soccer superstar, the Argentinian football icon and World Cup winner, provided celebrity glitz from the athletic world, along with grand slam winners the Spanish player and Serena Williams. A discussion between the Miami mayor and the Nobel laureate, the democracy activist who last month received the prestigious award, was favorably viewed on the opening day.
Yet in general it was a notable and unmistakably partisan event with a roster of supportive speakers on the podium, enthusiastically applauded by a crowd of predominantly younger and affluent supporters of the leader in the crowd, some combining professional attire with his signature red Make America Great Again (Maga) caps.
How else to account for the presence of the conservative South American leader, the country whose unstable financial system Trump helped shore up last month with a $20bn currency swap? Or that of Kingdom representatives Fahad AlSaif, head of its massive Public Investment Fund, and Reema Bandar Al-Saud, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the US, touting their country as an opportunity while the former first family's business connections and influence there come under greater scrutiny?
Additionally there was the leader of Fifa, dropping hints that the former president is being considered for the organization’s inaugural peace prize, a controversial honor that observers see created specifically for the leader as compensation for his Nobel snub.
Additional participants, including the chief executive of JP Morgan; the founder of the co-working firm; and the hedge-fund manager, have all in the past supported, collaborated with or backed the former president, providing more than a suggestion of a partisan roster.
The Miami mayor, predictably, saw it differently.
“Our aim was it to be a sort of a cross-section from different verticals, right?” he told reporters.
“We got in a room. We said, ‘Hey, what are the leading voices?’ People from different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different genders … sports, commerce, politics, technology, things that touch everyone’s lives.”
He pointed to conversations of upcoming, money-spinning notable events in the city, encompassing the Formula One grand prix, next year’s G20 economic summit at a leisure property, and games during the soccer tournament, which he called “a historic moment”.
“The intention is that Miamians are inspired by the event,” the mayor said. “We want them to leave believing, ‘I can be on that stage.’”
The representatives of State Voices Florida, on the other hand, believe numerous locals are more focused right now on other issues, especially soaring real estate and food costs. Florida’s Republican governor rejected a request from the group and others to declare an crisis over food assistance and tap state reserves to fund urgent food distribution.
“Any social studies instructor would tell you it’s his job to care for the residents of Florida, and he’s doing the reverse,” Hannan said, noting the juxtaposition of a conference of billionaires taking place in the same county in which almost 25% of families rely on food stamps to survive.
“There just seems to be this disconnection at the highest levels. I don’t think the answer is electing a Democrat or electing a Republican, I just think we have to have more empathy for people who are facing difficulties in this state.”
Empathy was in short supply in Miami from Trump, a president unrecognized for ever taking responsibility during a crisis.
“Opposition lawmakers are causing countless of citizens who rely on food stamps to go without support,” he said, attributing fault to the opposition political group for the government shutdown.
“My desire is to have a country that’s great again. Is that OK?”
