Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart, has been seen at Donald Trump's Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The event was a 1920s Great Gatsby-themed bash, attended by the former US president over the weekend.
Images posted on social media by Jeanine Pirro, a former US attorney for the District of Columbia, showed Rinehart speaking into Trump's ear while he read a piece of paper. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, was also pictured at the event.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson was reportedly among the guests, according to the Nine newspapers, which said she appeared in a private Instagram story. Hanson's office confirmed to Guardian Australia that the senator is in the US and absent from the upper house this week, but declined to confirm whether she attended the party.
The party coincided with a US federal government shutdown and Trump's attempts to suspend funding for an aid organisation that helps about 42 million Americans afford food each month. Trump wrote on Truth Social that he does 'NOT want Americans to go hungry just because the Radical Democrats refuse to do the right thing and REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT'. His plans for a $300m ballroom in the White House, privately funded by wealthy donors, have drawn comparisons to Marie Antoinette.
Since the Coalition's election loss in May, Rinehart has encouraged the Liberal party to adopt Trump-like policies. In a statement to the Daily Mail, she criticised the 'left media' for driving Liberals away from 'anything Trump' and argued for 'Trump-style make Australia great policies' involving cuts to government tape, bureaucracy and waste. She rejected claims that the Liberal loss was due to following Trump too closely.
