On Saturday, Donald Trump announced his selection of Bill White — a gay businessperson and Republican donor who dropped Hillary Clinton the night she lost the 2016 election — as Ambassador to Belgium.
White, 57, along with his husband, Bryan Eure, were once fixtures among Manhattan’s liberal elite; now White is one of a tiny coterie of gay supporters that the president-elect has recruited to the second Trump administration as evidence of his LGBTQ+ bona fides.
Related:
Trump’s pick for Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, is another.
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White is the founder and CEO of Constellations Group, a Manhattan-based consulting firm. He previously served as president of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York. He was forced to resign that post in 2010 after his alleged involvement in a New York State pension fund pay-to-play scandal – he was allegedly “lining his own pockets,” in the words of then-New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. He paid a $1 million fine and avoided prosecution.
The power couple has helped raise millions in support of the once and future president and are regulars at Mar-a-Lago. They describe their pet causes as fighting for veterans and gay rights.
“Bill has worked tirelessly to support Great American Patriots who have given everything for our Country by raising over $1.5 Billion Dollars for our fallen heroes, catastrophically wounded, and severely burned Service Members,” Trump said Saturday in a post on Truth Social. “He is a twice recipient of the Meritorious Public Service Award for extraordinary service from the U.S. Coast Guard, and for outstanding support from the U.S. Navy.”
This fall, White joined a gay “barnstorming tour” at several sparsely attended “Trump UNITY” events organized by the Log Cabin Republicans, who are on their own search for proximity to power and cocktail parties among the MAGA faithful.
Speakers included White and Richard Grenell, Trump’s gay Ambassador to Germany in his first administration, who lost his campaign for Secretary of State this year to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R). Trump handed Grennell an “at large” post, instead, as envoy for special missions overseas.
White and Eure’s allegiance switched quickly to Trump, despite years supporting Democrats — President Obama was the guest of honor at a $39,500-a-plate truffle risotto fundraising dinner the couple hosted in their Chelsea townhouse.
On Election Night in 2016, White and Eure were with Clinton supporters at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center as the returns came in and Trump’s victory looked ever more likely.
White got in his Chevrolet Suburban, he told The New York Times, and drove to the New York Hilton in Midtown, where Mr. Trump was celebrating his win.
“I didn’t want to be part of that misery pie; I’m not a wallower in self-pity,” White said. “I really believe that once that decision is made, you have to get behind your president.”
The couple has dismissed accusations that they’ve betrayed the LGBTQ+ community with a president and party openly hostile to it.
“I don’t like identity politics,” White’s husband says.
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