Trump Briefly Visits Georgetown, Ties Up Traffic
By • March 8, 2018 0 2002
President Donald Trump ventured several blocks from the White House Wednesday, March 7, to the home of C. Boyden Gray in Georgetown, the neighborhood often criticized by Republicans as being too cozy with the Washington establishment.
Trump’s dinner plans — while on the White House schedule with no details — closed parts of P, Q, 27th and 28th Streets, snarled traffic throughout the east side of Georgetown and surprised residents.
“The president will be having dinner with a small group of supporters at a private residence in town. No fundraising,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Lindsay Walters told the press.
Gray, who has offered his 28th Street home to the Georgetown Garden Tour and other community groups, was White House counsel to President George H.W. Bush and ambassador to the European Union. He served as special envoy to Europe for Eurasian energy under President George W. Bush.
Police blocked cars and pedestrians along a one-block perimeter around the Gray corner manse. Reported Tarini Parti of BuzzFeed News during the dinner: “Motorcade arrived at the private residence in Georgetown at 7:11 p.m. Your pooler could not see Trump. Pool is holding outside in a van.”
Inside the home with Trump were supporters, who run the political action committees, America First Policies and America First Action, that are raising big money for the upcoming elections.
Reported Kenneth P. Vogel of the New York Times: “Attendees included donors and operatives who are working to raise money for the America First groups, such as the Dallas financial executive Roy W. Bailey and the Oklahoma oil billionaire Harold Hamm, as well as the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., according to someone briefed on the list of attendees and published reports.”
Then, just as quickly as he arrived in Georgetown, Trump departed, and all the commotion was over before 9 p.m.
