Several local businesspeople have flocked to President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club since he won the presidency in November.
Ryan Steelberg, co-founder and chief executive of Veritone Inc., said he met last month at the club for a gathering to discuss the future of technology. He spoke with Michael Kratsios and David Sacks, two of President Trump’s top advisors on areas like artificial intelligence and crypto currencies.
“We engaged in meaningful discussions about the future of our nation’s technical priorities and strategies under the incoming leadership of President-elect Donald Trump,” Steelberg told the Business Journal. “It was a privilege to contribute by sharing my insights and experiences in AI.”
Since Trump won the election, he has hosted several high-profiled executives like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg at his private club in Palm Beach, Florida. It’s a sea change from Trump’s first term when several business executives were standoffish.
“Donald Trump is a businessman and any business owner that doesn’t want to align with this administration will be left in the dark,” Sinan Kanatsiz, founder of San Clemente-based KCOMM, a PR consulting firm, told the Business Journal.
“There’s a general like-minded business in how he wants to run the country. Going to Mar-a-Lago will only give them an advantage.”
Local Supporters
Trump has the support of several well-known Orange County businesspeople who have hosted fundraisers for him, including Palmer Luckey, co-founder of defense company Anduril Industries, and John Word III, co-founder of insurance firm, Word and Brown Companies.
Troy Edgar, an IBM partner who was CEO and chairman at Irvine-based consulting firm Global Conductor, is on Trump’s transition team and has been tapped to be deputy secretary for Homeland Security. Edgar previously was mayor of Los Alamitos and served during the first Trump administration.
“Troy served for me previously as the chief financial officer and associate deputy under secretary of management for Homeland Security, where he did an outstanding job managing their $90 billion budget, resourcing critical immigration policy and funding Wall construction,” Trump announced in a statement. “I am very excited to have Troy on our team, as he will help us make America great again!”
Leigh Dundas, a former corporate lawyer for Western Digital, William Lyon Homes and others, visited Mar-a-Lago last month to attend a fundraiser aimed at fighting child trafficking, an area of focus for her in the past decade.
“It was quite lovely,” Dundas said. “It was for a charity gala to raise funds for vulnerable children.”
Dundas is considering a position in the incoming Trump administration to work on an area that’s her specialty — combating human trafficking and preserving civil liberties. At the fundraiser, she discussed possibly joining the administration with some of the other 750 attendees.
“I did make the rounds and spoke to a number of people,” said the resident of northern Orange County. “The response was awesome. The folks I spoke to thought I would be a good fit. Fingers crossed.”
Trump’s Tech Agenda?
Kanatsiz arranged for a group of 20 Orange County businesspeople—including Steelberg— to attend a meeting last month on artificial intelligence with talks by Sacks and Kratsios.
Sacks, who was an early investor in Facebook and Airbnb, was named by Trump to a newly created role of adviser on AI and crypto. Sacks has become famous for co-hosting a poplular “All in Podcast.” Kratsios was Trump’s chief technology officer during his first administration.
Another speaker was Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Invest, which has $6.7 billion in net assets. She told the group that advancements in AI, blockchain and life sciences could propel GDP growth from the current 3% to 6.8% range to as high as 10% by 2040. She described this shift as a “good deflation,” where technological breakthroughs drive down prices while simultaneously accelerating productivity and economic expansion, according to Kanatsiz.
While President Trump didn’t formally speak to the group of 80, he did stop by to
exchange pleasantries.
“Entrepreneurs and business owners want to know what Trump is going to do in their industry,” Kanatsiz said. “That’s the beauty of this administration. If Kamala (Harris) was president, you wouldn’t know what would happen.”
Among the 20 OC businesspeople attending was Tom Sauer, founder of the mental health focused MacArthur Group, Garth Andrus, director of Digital & Organization Transformation for Andersen Global, David Nazaryk, managing director of the Trammell Crow Co., and Chris Lay, founding partner of Leonid Capital Partners.
Kanatsiz, who has been involved with Republican politics for more than two decades, is also arranging tickets, sponsorships and experience packages for Trump’s inauguration.
The New Year’s Eve Party
Another OC businessman doing business with Trump is John McEntee, owner and CEO of Anaheim-based TEI Entertainment, which for the past several years has arranged the music for Trump’s annual New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago. Among singers McEntee arranged to perform were Lynyrd Skynyrd, Cee-Lo Green and Richard Goodall, winner of the TV show America’s Got Talent.
“When Lynyrd Skynyrd came out to sing ‘Sweet Home Mar a Lago,’ the place went crazy,” McEntee told the Business Journal. “It was the best show that I’ve ever done in my life.”
A group of 40 Orange County couples got the chance to attend that New Year’s Eve party.
“A lot of the people in our group are having fun and not here on business,” said Jolynn Mahoney, who along with her husband Patrick Mahoney own Anaheim-based West Coast Arborists Inc.
While the company, which won a Business Journal of the Year award for a family-owned business in 2021, is expanding to Texas, the Mar-a-Lago event led Mahoney to joke that the company may consider expanding into Florida as well.
“Florida has a lot of trees,” she quipped. “We love it here.”
McEntee also represents a key lead singer at the event, Matt Mauser, Founder and lead singer of Costa Mesa-based Tijuana Dogs.
“It has been an incredible honor to perform at Mar-a-Lago over the past five years,” said Mauser, an expert on Frank Sinatra songs. “I’ll admit, it’s also been a lot of fun!
Opportunities like this are rare, and when they come along, you simply have to say yes.”
