--- title: Donald Trump's Sons Offer Inauguration Access for $1 Million description: A new Texas nonprofit led by Donald Trump’s grown sons is offering access to the freshly-minted president during inauguration weekend. canonical: https://time.com/4607439/donald-trump-inauguration-sons-nonprofit-texas/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-20T00:55:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:49.590Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump's Sons Offer Inauguration Access for $1 Million og:description: Donors to unnamed charities will get to meet the president. og:url: https://time.com/4607439/donald-trump-inauguration-sons-nonprofit-texas/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9107f899f14a2f3e/6988b28486f68e725c6e2e94/gettyimages-618307108.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Holds Ribbon Cutting Ceremony For The Trump International Hotel In Washington, D.C. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump's Sons Offer Inauguration Access for $1 Million twitter:description: Donors to unnamed charities will get to meet the president. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9107f899f14a2f3e/6988b28486f68e725c6e2e94/gettyimages-618307108.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Nonprofit Run by Donald Trump's Sons Offers Inauguration Access for $1 Million > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: TIME 2016 Person of the Year: Donald Trump [Watch (HLS stream): TIME 2016 Person of the Year: Donald Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Q0tBuF3M.m3u8) (4:12)  _Published 2016-12-07. The 2016 Person of the Year is Donald Trump, the President of the divided states of America._ by [Carrie Levine / Center for Public Integrity](https://time.com/author/center-for-public-integrity/) ## Carrie Levine / Center for Public Integrity Dec 20, 2016 12:55 AM UTC  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (C) delivers remarks with his children (L-R) Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump during the grand opening ceremony of the new Trump International Hotel October 26, 2016 in Washington, DC. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (C) delivers remarks with his children (L-R) Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump during the grand opening ceremony of the new Trump International Hotel October 26, 2016 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Carrie Levine / Center for Public Integrity](https://time.com/author/center-for-public-integrity/) ## Carrie Levine / Center for Public Integrity Dec 20, 2016 12:55 AM UTC A [new Texas nonprofit](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3243182-BUSINESS-ORGANIZATIONS-INQUIRY-VIEW-ENTITY.html) led by Donald Trump’s grown sons is offering access to the freshly-minted president during inauguration weekend — all in exchange for million-dollar donations to unnamed “conservation” charities, according to interviews and documents reviewed by the [Center for Public Integrity](http://www.publicintegrity.org/politics). And the donors’ identities may never be known. Prospective million-dollar donors to the “Opening Day 2017” event — slated for Jan. 21, the day after inauguration, at Washington, D.C.’s Walter E. Washington Convention Center — receive a “private reception and photo opportunity for 16 guests with President Donald J. Trump,” a “multi-day hunting and/or fishing excursion for 4 guests with Donald Trump, Jr. and/or Eric Trump, and team,” as well as tickets to other events and “autographed guitars by an Opening Day 2017 performer.” Website [TMZ.com](http://www.tmz.com/2016/12/16/donald-trump-inauguration-party/) first published [a brochure](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3243183-Opening-Day-2017-Redacted.html) hyping the happening. The brochure says that “all net proceeds from the Opening Day event will be donated to conservation charities,” but it does not name the charities or detail how net proceeds will be calculated. Who’s behind the get-together? Walter Kinzie, chief executive officer of Texas event management company [Encore Live](http://www.encorelive.com/about/), confirmed to the Center for Public Integrity that a nonprofit group called the Opening Day Foundation hired his firm to manage Opening Day 2017. A Center for Public Integrity review of Texas incorporation records found the Opening Day Foundation was created less than a week ago, on Dec. 14\. Unlike political committees, such nonprofits aren’t required by law to reveal their donors, allowing sponsors to write seven-figure checks for access to the president while staying anonymous, if they choose. The paperwork for the Opening Day Foundation listed four directors: Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Dallas investor Gentry Beach and Tom Hicks Jr., the son of a Dallas billionaire. Beach and Hicks are reportedly [close friends](http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2016/11/11/two-young-dallas-guns-helped-deliver-white-house-trump) with Donald Trump Jr., and both men helped raise millions of dollars for Trump’s campaign. “The event is being put on by the Opening Day Foundation,” Kinzie confirmed, adding: “There are a number of different individuals who are part of the foundation.” Kinzie also said the information in the brochure posted by TMZ.com was not entirely accurate — he did not specify what was incorrect — and he added that the participation of Trump family members is not confirmed. The Trump Organization, a spokeswoman for President-elect Trump and the presidential transition team did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Hicks and Beach also did not immediately respond to phone messages requesting comment. The [brochure](http://tmz.vo.llnwd.net/o28/newsdesk/tmz%5Fdocuments/Opening%5FDay%5F2017%5FRedacted.pdf) for “Opening Day 2017,” an event described as “honoring President Donald J. Trump,” offers sponsor packages ranging from $25,000 to $1 million. The event will “celebrate the great American tradition of outdoor sporting, shooting, fishing and conservation,” the brochure states. Mike Ingram, an Arizona developer who is listed as one of the co-chairmen, said Beach approached him to help. “I’m honored to do it,” he said. “It’s not going to be a black tie event. It’s going to be boots and jeans and camouflage and it’s going to raise a lot of money to go to sportsman’s charities” and conservation charities, he said. Ingram said he could not confirm the Trump family’s participation. “This is problematic on so many levels,” said Larry Noble, the general counsel of the [Campaign Legal Center](https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1OPRB%5FenUS704US704&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=lawrence%20noble%20campaign%20legal%20center), a nonpartisan campaign reform organization. “This is Donald Trump and the Trump family using a brand new organization to raise $1 million contributions for a vague goal of giving money to conservation charities, which seems a way of basically just selling influence and selling the ability to meet with the president.” Noble cautioned that the details of the event and its association with the new nonprofit listing the Trump brothers as directors are still unclear. “It’s really hard to identify all the problems when they’re so vague,” he said. The Trump family has recently endured criticism for appearing to sell access to Trump’s adult children, who serve on the executive committee of Trump’s presidential [transition team](https://greatagain.gov/president-elect-trump-announces-new-transition-vice-chairs-executive-committee-members-f654cca0c9e9#.flwqityck) and have functioned as key advisers since he began his campaign. The family [canceled](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/us/politics/ivanka-trump-charity-auction.html) an auction for coffee with Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump last week after ethics experts said it was ethically questionable, according to the _New York Times_. The proceeds of the auction would have gone to the Eric Trump Foundation, an [existing nonprofit](https://www.erictrumpfoundation.com/welcome) whose mission is to support a children’s hospital. _This story is from the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative media organization in Washington, D.C. Read more of its investigations on the_ [_influence of money in politics_](https://www.publicintegrity.org/politics) _or_ [_follow it on Twitter_](https://twitter.com/publici)_._ ## Transcript MUSIC ] Every year we choose the Person of the Year who is the individual who has had the most influence on events for better or worse. The Tod argue that anyone had no influence that Donald Trump over the events of this year. [ MUSIC ] I didn't get Beyonce and Jay Z and Goose Bernstein to get crowds, I had just me. And ideas that people wanted to hear. But there is a profound argument about whether his influence was for the better or for the worse. And that really is the challenge that faces the country came through this election season more divided conspicuously publicly than at any time through any election cycle that most of us Can remember. [ MUSIC ] We're gonna have a lot of jobs put back. I think we're gonna have a lot of fuel companies leaving our country. I believed we will be successful with defeating ISIS or bringing them down to a level where it's almost the same thing. And I hope I'm judged from the time of the election as opposed to from January 20th because the stock market has had a tremendous bounce and people are seeing very good things for business in this country. [ MUSIC ] One of the things that was remarkable in going to see him, to interview him, is to be in that Penthouse which is the most austiontacious, imaginable marble and mirrors, and gold. And see him in the suit and the diamond cuff links. There is a kind of distance that repressed him about, of how is it that the billionaire is the tribune of the working man? He said, he thought that it had to do With that he wasn't a phony, that there have certainly been wealthy politicians before. Doing some cases would bend over backwards to make themselves appear like the common man, or do anything that they could, eating the corn dog at the Iowa State Fair, wearing a flannel shirt in New Hampshire. I think he had a very strong instinct that his wealth and that flamboyant display of his wealth Was not a liability that it was actually an asset. [ MUSIC ] Donal Trump is very comfortable sitting down and answering questions, although he very frequently does not remotely answer the question that you asked. In one sense it feels very undisciplined and in another sense maybe it's very disciplined in that He knows what he will and will not talk about and is unabashed in completely changing the subject. Do you feel changed by your election, and how you do think, if I play this tape back in four or eight years, the office will have changed here? Well, it's a It's a very humbling experience, I can tell you, as somebody that loves this country, it's a very large country, but it's also an even more powerful country than the numbers, because, if you look at China, and India, and you have others with more people, but, when you look at what we do in this country, it's The most incredible place on earth. [ MUSIC ] A lot of people think that Person of the Year just because the nature of the name is an honor. And certainly there have been years where we have recognized people's whose influence has been altogether, unassailably worthy. Normally, that's not the case. I know there are a lot of people who disagree with so much of what Donald Trump said and are very apprehensive about what his presidency means for them and for the country. I think I would challenge them to suggest that someone else this year had more influence than a way greater Surprise than what he did in 2016. 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