Yahoo Lifestyle How Trump’s Birthdays Went From Golden Ticket to Fool’s Gold
There was a before.
Before the 34 felony convictions. Before those other three pesky ongoing criminal cases. Before he watched an insurrection in his name unfold live on Fox News. Before even the golden escalator ride and the time that Barack Obama made those mean jokes about him. Donald Trump was just a boy. And on one special day of every year, he was something even better—the birthday boy.
A Trump birthday party used to mean something. It meant a night of glitz and glamor, gaudiness and gold. It was a veritable who’s-who of the rich and famous schmoozing it up with the bright young things as the has-beens and also-rans loitered anxiously at the edges, wallflowers waiting to be asked to dance. Regis Philbin used to be there, man.
Regis and Joy Philbin are joined by two fans in Atlantic City as part of Trump’s “Billionaire Birthday Bash” in 2004.
Those days are long gone. The fleet of town cars that belched celebrities out next to titans of industry is no more. Everybody’s mad at him for some reason, and his fans keep passing out from heat stroke at his rallies. Even Philbin has passed on to the great talk show set in the sky. “Some birthday,” Trump grumbled last year, nursing still-fresh legal wounds.
This year’s celebration promises to be more of the same.
House Republicans gathered to grovel at his feet on Capitol Hill on Thursday, pulling their tongues back into their mouths long enough to present him with an American flag cake and caterwaul out the words to “Happy Birthday.” The cake, reportedly chocolate, was topped with “45” candles, as well as “47,” in a toadyish prayer for the future.
On Friday evening, Trump will whoop it up with hundreds of his closest fans at the Palm Beach Country Club, a short armored Suburban ride from Mar-a-Lago. The former president is slated to give a 7 p.m. speech in a city where the U.S. Census Bureau estimates the average age to be a polite distance north of 70.
Protesters marked the then-president’s birthday in 2017 outside Trump Tower—and have scarcely forgotten the date in the years since he first took office.
All in all, it promises to be a piddling display compared to his birthday celebrations of yesteryear.
In order to remind the septuagenarian of all he’s left behind to become a second-rate authoritarian laughingstock, we’ve taken a stroll down memory lane, calling back to some of the ritziest shindigs ever thrown in Trump’s name. Call it a birthday gift.
Donald Trump, Ivana Trump, and Preston Robert Tisch kick it at Trump’s 42nd birthday in 1988 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
LaToya Jackson and some kind of mutant Santa Claus turn up at Trump’s 42nd birthday celebration in Atlantic City.
Donald Trump was interested in media relations from a very young age. Here, the future president talks to reporters at his 50th birthday celebration in 1996.
Pictured: Eric Trump in his “cherubic” phase, at the height of his father’s birthday powers.
Donald Trump huffed and puffed and blew out all his candles on a New York City-themed birthday cake—part of his over-the-hill festivities in 1996.
Donald Trump celebrated his 59th birthday by getting awkwardly close to Pamela Anderson at his Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City.
Carmen Electra, right, poses with the Deal or No Deal Girls in 2007. Trump’s there, too, celebrating his 61st birthday.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore surprises a visiting foreign indignitary with a cake in 2018. Just look at that smile!
Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.
Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
