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Inside Pro-Trump Women’s Group ‘Trumpettes USA’

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Behind Mar-a-Lago’s gates, a group of wealthy socialites turned their friendship with Donald Trump into a full-time political operation.

NBC News NOW correspondent Anna Schecter went inside “Trumpettes USA,” the high-society women’s group founded to mobilize affluent Trump supporters before the 2016 election. The segment follows founder Toni Holt Kramer, a former Hollywood entertainment reporter and longtime Palm Beach socialite, as members prepare goodie bags and logistics for one of the group’s lavish annual galas.

• Trumpettes USA was founded in September 2015 by Toni Holt Kramer along with Terry Lee Ebert Mendozza, Suzi Goldsmith, and Janet Levy — months before Trump officially became the Republican nominee.
• The group is not a formal campaign committee or fundraising arm; it functions as a social network that stages opulent events, most notably annual celebrations at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.
• Holt Kramer describes a personal, long-running friendship with Trump himself, which she says underpins her defense of his most controversial decisions.

Founding Before the Nomination

Toni Holt Kramer didn’t wait for Trump to lock up the Republican nomination before organizing. She and three co-founders — Terry Lee Ebert Mendozza, Suzi Goldsmith, and Janet Levy — launched Trumpettes USA in September 2015, betting early on a candidate much of the political establishment still treated as a long shot. That early timing is part of the group’s identity: members frame themselves as believers who showed up before it was fashionable, not late converts to the cause.

Holt Kramer’s own background gives the group its particular flavor. A former Hollywood entertainment reporter who became a fixture of Palm Beach social circles, she brought a Rolodex of wealthy, connected women rather than grassroots campaign volunteers. That distinction matters — Trumpettes USA was never built to knock on doors or staff phone banks. It was built to fill rooms with influential women who would talk about Trump favorably at dinner parties, charity boards, and, increasingly, on camera.

Galas Instead of Ground Game

The NBC News NOW segment catches Trumpettes members mid-preparation for one of their signature galas, assembling customized goodie bags for attendees ahead of an event at Mar-a-Lago. These aren’t rallies in the traditional campaign sense — they’re black-tie, high-dollar social gatherings that double as displays of loyalty, with past events including celebrations timed around Trump’s birthday and his inauguration.

Holt Kramer tells NBC News she and Trump have maintained a personal friendship for years — the kind of relationship, she says, that makes her defense of his administration instinctive rather than political.

That personal closeness is central to how the group operates. Rather than issuing policy statements or organizing voter drives, Trumpettes USA leans on member testimonials and social visibility — women speaking to reporters like Schecter, appearing at Mar-a-Lago functions, and using their social standing to normalize enthusiastic support for Trump among peers who might otherwise stay quiet about their politics.

Defending the Controversial Calls

Schecter’s reporting pushes Holt Kramer on why she and her fellow members stick by Trump even through his most contested decisions. Holt Kramer’s answer, consistent with the group’s founding ethos, is that loyalty isn’t conditional on agreeing with every headline — it’s rooted in years of personal history and a belief that his broader record justifies standing by him publicly, even when doing so invites media scrutiny or social friction in Palm Beach’s traditionally more discreet high-society circles.

That willingness to be visible is itself notable. Wealthy political donors and socialites have historically preferred to operate behind the scenes — writing checks, not sitting for network interviews. Trumpettes USA inverted that instinct, treating public, unapologetic advocacy as part of the brand from the day Holt Kramer and her co-founders started the group in 2015.

The Trumpettes’ next moves track Trump’s own calendar — another Mar-a-Lago gathering, another round of goodie bags, another chance for Holt Kramer to tell reporters the same thing she told NBC News: the friendship came first, and the politics followed.