DANA POINT, Calif. – Any grassroots Republican activist thinking of going to the party’s winter meeting to lobby members ahead of Friday’s presidential election should check their credit card limits.
Rooms at the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach resort, where the Republican National Committee has holed up this week, start at $1,283 for Wednesday night, with AAA discounts, and $881 for Friday night. These rates do not include the mandatory $55 nightly resort fee.
“It costs $75 just to park the car!” complained conservative radio host John Fredericks as he sat in the lobby bar, adding that breakfast for two had set him back $120. “And we’re supposed to be a party of the working class? This is like the Politburo going to the Black Sea.
The hotel is located on a cliff with a beautiful view of the Pacific and has a 30-meter swimming pool and easy access to a quiet beach. It offers guests a golf course, a spa and several high-end boutiques, including Cartier jewelry. Rooms have deep jacuzzi tubs and come with copies of luxury lifestyle magazine Robb Report alongside hotel brochures.
Fredericks, a frequent guest on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast and a supporter of the attempted coup of former President Donald Trump, said it was obvious why the party chose the most expensive hotel for miles around.
“Why are they holding it there? So you can’t go,” he told Bannon in a recent broadcast. “The roots are sick and tired of being educated by arrogance and elitism … I’m trying to give basic access to what’s going on.
RNC members and staff pointed out that, thanks to the block rate negotiated with hotels, members, invited guests and party staff who pay the basic rate of only $ 250 a night.
Although the discount makes the room affordable for members — many of whom are not wealthy and often pay their own expenses to attend meetings — it still leaves them with substantial costs for food and incidentals.
“It’s ridiculous,” groused one RNC member who spoke on condition of anonymity about restaurant prices. “I’m looking for every free meal I can get.”
An RNC official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the party is limited in its options. A hotel should have at least 350 rooms and enough meeting space for the various committees and subcommittees to gather together, be able to cater various meals for hundreds and, most importantly, be willing to handle potential protests and negative publicity. “Most hotels don’t want to deal with Republican events,” the official said.
However, that level of blocking is only available to those who want to be a party or one of the 168 members.
And, by definition, it excludes precinct- and state-level “anti-establishment” party activists most interested in preventing incumbent chairwoman Ronna McDaniel from winning a fourth two-year term.
“Re-electing him would destroy the party,” Fredericks said.
Choosing an expensive hotel also has the effect of preventing some media from attending meetings.
Previously, security staff hired by the RNC had worked to limit reporters’ access. In 2021, at the winter meeting in Amelia Island, Florida, the party’s contracted security restricted the movement of journalists in the public area of the Ritz Carlton. A year later in Salt Lake City, RNC security actually demanded that reporters show their room keys at the Great America Hotel or be kicked off the property.
If the purpose of choosing such an exclusive venue is to avoid theater and controversy, it is unlikely to succeed.
Fredericks, working with Bannon, held a candidate debate Wednesday at the nearby Marriott Residence Inn, but only election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell, the main sponsor of the podcast, was present.
A meeting room of 50 Bannon fans, many in Trump gear, filled the room as Fredericks, who used hundreds of thousands of Hilton Honors points to cover his room rate, told them he would not be welcome at the Waldorf Astoria.
“Good luck walking down the hall with Mussolini’s Gestapo over there,” he warned.
Paul Bersebach/Orange County Register via Getty Images
Caroline Wren, a former fundraiser for Trump who is now backing Harmeet Dhillon’s challenge to McDaniel and who appeared in the debate to represent Dhillon, said: “If we won the election, that would be great. But we didn’t.
On Wednesday evening, failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake intervened in the lobby, and the Head of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk is also expected to visit. Both are supporters of Dhillon.
Meanwhile, former Arkansas governor and potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson attended the meeting for attendees. Potential candidate and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did not attend but sent copies of the new book to distribute to members. Trump, who has announced his candidacy for 2024, did not appear in person but sent three of his staff.
The RNC’s 168 members are scheduled to elect officers, including the chairman, on Friday. The closed and members-only candidate forum began on Wednesday and will conclude on Thursday.