Diplomats, lobbyists and grifters celebrate with sequins, jollof rice and prayer.

JANUARY 24, 2025

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This week, Amanda Sperber reports from Washington, D.C.

Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th president of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts as Melania Trump holds the Bible during the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, Pool)

I thought the entrance of the Arbor Ballroom at the headquarters of The Washington Times, a right-leaning newspaper, would feel like an airport. But it is easy to get into the Multicultural Coalition U.S. Presidential Inaugural Ball in honor of President Donald Trump.

The event is billed as an opportunity for “people from diverse backgrounds” to honor the new administration and celebrate “unity, diversity, and the spirit of Conservative American.” Jon Voight, an American actor, is a headline speaker and Roger Stone, one of Trump’s political advisers, publicly promised to make remarks. General Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser who resigned after 22 days for his connections to Russia, Bob Barr, former representative from Georgia and the head of the National Rifle Association of America, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece, Dr. Alveda King, are honorary co-chairs.

The building’s electric doors part and I walk through. The new U.S. president may have campaigned on “America First,” closed borders and mass deportations, but the game of Trump’s America, this event seemed to announce, is for anyone who wants to play.

The lighting is muted, the walls an effervescent off-white that seem to curdle to baby pink. The marble floor is cream and olive green. The room is dotted with women in tulle and sequins; the men wear tuxedos and MAGA baseball hats. There are fur coats and stoles, army medals and ribbons. A group of men wear kippahs, black hats and payes. Among them is Yaakov Flitchkin, another one of the co-hosts of tonight’s event. Flitchkin is the executive director of the Alliance for Global Cooperation, an organization that says it “promotes international peace & security” (their website is currently inaccessible). Archbishop Prince Hampel of Ghana wears a pastel cape and stands for a picture with Flitchkin, who suggests that they pose as if the archbishop is blessing him. Earlier in the afternoon, Flitchkin joined friends, New York Mayor Eric Adams and venture capitalist Brock Pierce in the Capitol Rotunda to watch Trump take the oath of office.

Other guests include members of Ugandan royalty, the politician Lily Tang Williams, who ran for Congress in New Hampshire last November, the founder of Philcoin, a philanthropic blockchain platform “that rewards you for using it” with a “donate-and-earn ecosystem,” and representatives from Hindus for America First PAC and the Black Americans for Trump coalition.

In the main ballroom, people have hit the dance floor in earnest. One woman in a sparkling black number is wearing a MAGA hat and holding a clutch shaped like a gun. Another has put her sunglasses on inside. Her clutch has dollar signs on it.

“My philosophy is whoever becomes the leader you just follow them — that’s the core principle of any democracy,” says Nick Gumer, director of regulatory finance at the Office of the People’s Counsel, an independent agency of the District of Columbia government that advocates for the rights of energy consumers in the city. Gumer was born in India and came to the U.S. as a teenager. He declines to tell me who he voted for but says that while he disagrees with Trump on climate change, he agrees with him on many other issues.

I look around. Everyone is handing out business cards and taking photos of themselves in front of the event posters, one of which explains that the event is organized by MPAC USA, which claims to be a registered 501(c)(4) organization “dedicated to accessing, celebrating, and promoting diversity within the American political process,” supporting minority Republican and Conservative candidates and their values and advancing economic growth. The event is organized by televangelist Pastor Mark Burns, whom TIME called “Trump’s Top Pastor” in 2016 and who was endorsed by Trump for his unsuccessful 2024 Congressional run in South Carolina.

Waiters serve cabernet from Argentina and California, and cans of Diet Coke and ginger ale. Double doors open to the ballroom. A band is playing reggae covers. I flash an expired press pass at the VIP section, and I am in.

This side has food. Tables with jollof rice (Africa’s most popular dish, a label explains), grilled tilapia, beef and mixed vegetable medley. A side table has potato knishes, two types of mustard, grilled zucchini and carrots, pita bread (no dip).

In the main ballroom, people have hit the dance floor in earnest. One woman in a sparkling black number is wearing a MAGA hat and holding a clutch shaped like a gun. Another has put her sunglasses on inside. Her clutch has dollar signs on it.

A woman wearing a “Mrs. Brazil 2021” sash is surrounded by a contingent from her country. Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, known as “Trump of the Tropics,” FaceTimes in, and event guests cheer. The band stops playing and a woman translates his statement, her voice quavering with what I assume are nerves and excitement as someone holds the phone to the mic. “It’s Bolsonaro, Trump and no one else,” she proclaims gleefully. Bolsonaro was invited to attend the inauguration but could not leave the country because Brazilian courts took his passport when he allegedly plotted a coup after losing reelection in 2022. The woman translates the former president saying, “I want to congratulate all of you that are living this very special moment in America, electing a president who is a patriot, that defends the freedom of his own people, and that is subjected to God.” Bolsonaro says it is great that the people who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 have been pardoned and that he would like to give amnesty to the people who attacked Brazil’s central government buildings on January 8, 2023 in response to his loss.

I meet two women who were in D.C. on January 6; they are sitting on the couches in the restroom, talking about how Democrats have weaponized the label “domestic terrorists.” One of them, Ceci Truman, ran to represent California's 25th Congressional District in 2024 and lost. She hands me her card, which informs me that she has been endorsed by Tom Homan, the former director of I.C.E and Trump’s new “border czar,” and that she is running again next year. She sensed I was a reporter, she said — the Lord told her.

A woman wearing bright red tells me she isn’t political. I ask her whether she finds it strange that this “multicultural” ball is celebrating a president and administration open in their distaste for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies. She tells me that America is a place where if you “hustle hard enough” you can get ahead; DEI undermines this work ethic.

The plates of half-finished dinner are piling up. More and more people in jeans have filtered in, shoveling food into their mouths. It feels like it’s time to leave. I take a final spin around and wander into a back room, where King Jude Mike Mudoma III and Queen Sarah Harriet Wayabire — Ugandan royalty who, according to Linda Lee Tarver, who accompanies them, govern alongside the country’s president — are sitting, drinking champagne. The caterers seem to be using this spot as a staging area and are scurrying around them.

Tarver is a part of the Black Americans for Trump coalition and says she plans to make sure African countries are no longer punished for taking a stand against LGBTQ rights as they were under the Biden-Harris administration. Homosexuality is criminalized in Uganda and that law needs to be respected, she says. “While we may not always agree, we certainly need to respect cultures, customs and priorities of people,” she says firmly. “Equal [treatment] is good,” she says. “Extra is not.” According to Tarver, Ugandan refugees and asylum seekers who say they are gay on their visa application are getting prioritized over others. Asked whether this is because they need protection from Uganda’s draconian laws, she remains steadfast.

Her colleague, a Ugandan-American who lives in Georgia and tells me she is speaking on behalf of the royal family says, “We love President Trump, particularly his policies related to gender issues and anchoring his policies in Christian faith. I see a lot of relationship there with our cultural values as Africans.”

Additionally, the king chimes in, through his translator, there’s a lot of opportunity for investment in coffee in his region.

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