The number of charities that have pulled scheduled galas and other events from Donald Trump’s private club in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, has swelled to 18 after the Bethesda Hospital Foundation confirmed on its online events page that it had moved a November 9 fund-raising luncheon to the non-Trump-affiliated Boca Raton Resort and Club.
It’s the latest nonprofit group to back out of a booking at Trump’s club since the president came under fire for blaming “both sides” for the violence at a white supremacist and neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier this month.
“The leadership of the foundation and the events team decided late yesterday to move the event because they wanted to avoid any distractions on the event’s true purpose to honor outstanding women in the community,” Lisa Kronhaus, the foundations VP of public relations, told TheWrap.