Vice President JD Vance rakes in $3M for GOP at Nantucket fundraiser
The fundraising dinner, hosted at a private residence by Laura and Rob Reynolds with Dave Kelsey and Ozzie Palamo, raised a record amount of money for any donor event on the Massachusetts island for the Republican National Committee, according to a source.
'Vance as RNC finance chair has been a difference maker already,' one GOP strategist said.
3 Vice President JD Vance headlines a notable big-ticket fundraiser taking place at Nantucket, Massachusetts, on Tuesday.
Ron Sachs/CNP / SplashNews.com
'If you look at the DNC, there is no one with a similar stature headlining event after event for them.'
The RNC has already surpassed the Democratic National Committee in contributions in 2025, racking up more than $96 million in donations and holding a war chest of nearly $81 million.
DNC coffers currently include a little more than $15 million cash on hand, with fundraisers pulling down more than $69 million since the start of the year.
Admission to the dinner on Nantucket set each attending couple back a minimum of $100,000, with membership in the 'host committee' running a steep $250,000.
Reynolds serves as the President and CEO of Putnam Investments and Chair of Great-West Lifeco US, and has been credited with popularizing employer-sponsored 401(k) plans.
He spent years as an NCAA football referee, which he says 'sharpened [his] eye for spotting winning teams,' according to LinkedIn.
3 A source told The Post that the fundraising event raised a record amount of money for any donor event on the Massachusetts island for the Republican National Committee.
Ahead of the 2022 midterms, the GOP fundraising power couple hosted a 'Take Back the Senate Reception & Dinner,' which drew a number of big name Republicans to the Reynolds residence, including Vance, who was a GOP Senate candidate in Ohio at the time.
Palomo is a founding partner and managing director of Chartwell Strategy Group, a lobbying firm specializing in communications, government relations and risk management.
He was a former Haley fundraiser, but has now switched his focus to bundling for the RNC.
Kelsey is a managing principal at Hamilton Point Investments, a real estate private-equity company that owns and manages multifamily apartments.
3 A GOP strategist also mentioned, 'Vance as RNC finance chair has been a difference maker already.'
REUTERS
Kelsey is a longtime GOP donor and founded a political action committee, CT Truth PAC, to help elect Republicans to Connecticut political offices.
Demonstrators ended up picketing the event and berated Vance for mocking 'childless cat ladies' during the 2024 campaign.
The feline-loving protesters, led by Miranda McGonigle, the creator of the viral 'Cats on a Couch' Instagram page, swarmed the island, which they dubbed 'Meowtucket.'
McGonigle created her account during the run-up to the 2024 election, taking inspiration from the resurfacing of his remarks against 'childless cat ladies' in the federal bureaucracy — and an absurd canard that the VP admitted to engaging in erotic behavior with couch cushions in his 2016 memoir 'Hillbilly Elegy.'
The demonstrations were co-sponsored by the lefty groups Indivisible, Mass 50501, and Cape Cod Women for Change.
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Yahoo
34 minutes ago
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Tourist Says He Was Denied Entry To U.S. Over A Seemingly Innocent Photo — And It Could Happen To You
Seeing Vice President JD Vance as a bald, shiny orb can make you laugh ― but can it get you denied entry at a U.S. border? According to one tourist, yes. Norwegian tourist Mads Mikkelsen told Nordlys that he was denied entry at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on June 11 after authorities searched his phone and found a Vance meme on his phone camera roll, and then proceeded to question him about right-wing extremism and drug smuggling. Mikkelsen later told Nordlys that he did tell border officials he had tried marijuana in Germany and in New Mexico, but did not think this was relevant because they are both places where it is legal. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin refuted Mikkelsen's allegations about the meme being the reason for his heightened scrutiny. 'Claims that Mads Mikkelsen was denied entry because of a JD Vance meme are FALSE,' she wrote on X. 'Mikkelsen was refused entry into the U.S. for his admitted drug use.' But regardless of Mikkelsen's story, can a political meme on your phone be the reason you get denied entry? Following President Donald Trump's executive order for 'enhanced vetting,' border agents have been using aggressive tactics on legal immigrants and tourists. We were made for this moment. HuffPost will aggressively, fairly and honestly cover the Trump administration. But we need your help. . 'It is absolutely possible that a meme, or an article, or a photograph can be used as the basis for the denial of entry,' said Petra Molnar, lawyer and author of 'The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.' 'Decisions at the border are highly discretionary, made all the more so by the recent push for border enforcement to scrutinize social media for so-called risky behavior,' she continued, citing the State Department's recent plans to screen people applying for visas to the U.S. for perceived 'hostility' toward America, and to ask them to make their social media accounts 'public' for review. 'In this current climate, what may appear as a silly joke can be used as the basis for detention, interrogation, and deportation,' Molnar said. Here's what you need to know when traveling feels riskier than ever. Border agents have wide discretion. U.S. citizens have more protections than tourists and visa holders. Yes, the U.S. government asserts the right to search your electronic devices when you cross U.S. borders, but if you are a U.S. citizen, you cannot be denied entry, no matter what absurd caricatures of Vance you keep on your phone. 'You're an American citizen. They cannot say, 'Oh, you're not coming into your own country.' That's against the law,' explained Sophia Cope, a senior staff attorney at Electronic Frontier Foundation. As a U.S. citizen, you can, however, face interrogations, travel delays or device confiscations for refusing to comply to device searches. 'It might be confiscated for several weeks or months,' Cope said to consider. Meanwhile, visitors and visa-holders have fewer rights than U.S. citizens when they travel to the U.S. and 'are particularly vulnerable to being denied entry, or at the very least may face an unpleasant interrogation with the possibility of having to hand over their devices indefinitely,' Molnar said. Cope said a border agent denying a tourist over a meme is 'ridiculous,' but the Norwegian visitor had no real recourse, because he's a not a U.S. citizen. 'Unfortunately, non-green card holders, non-citizens have almost no leverage to not comply with the request to grant access to their device,' she said. It helps to know what's in your power to refuse. In order to prepare for travel, know your rights about what border agents can and cannot do. Know that they are supposed to put your phone into airplane mode before they start to search it and are not supposed to be looking at cloud-based applications, although there have been reports of people saying their social media accounts were reviewed. 'Disable biometric identification like FaceID, limit automatic cloud access, set up disappearing messages and consider switching to applications like Signal,' Molnar suggested. You can also go one step further and 'consider getting a second phone or not bringing your laptop, or removing materials which could possibly solicit further scrutiny,' she noted. Know that you are not required to share your password to unlock your phone, but visa holders and visitors could be denied entry for their refusal. When asked, neither Customs and Border Protection nor the Department of Homeland Security answered HuffPost questions about Mikkelsen's claim that a border agent told him he would be imprisoned or fined for not sharing his phone passcode. When asked, DHS only redirected HuffPost to McLaughlin's public statement about Mikkelsen being denied entry over drug use. To be clear, Cope explained, there's no legal basis for Customs and Border Protection officials threatening a traveler with jail time and fines for refusing to share a passcode for a device search. 'It's basically, either you're denied entry or your phone gets confiscated,' she said. 'There's no crime there.' There are pros and cons to refusing a device search, and your personal risk is highly contingent on your immigration status. 'People have to balance the privacy invasion of a device search with, do they risk being denied entry? Or do they risk missing a flight or being detained?' Cope said. Ultimately, if you are nervous about what could happen when you travel to the U.S., you are right to feel this way. Consider that 'It seems like this administration is being very touchy about ... people who express opposition to the Trump administration in one way or another,' Cope said. 'And [this JD Vance meme] is the most benign kind of opposition.' 'People are rightly worried about the growing surveillance apparatus in the U.S., which now includes scrutiny over memes and social media content,' Molnar said. She noted that the right to privacy is not just about avoiding scrutiny over wrongdoing but about 'our fundamental right to personal autonomy and freedom from surveillance, rights which are increasingly coming under attack.' The one thing we know for sure: because of this story, Vance memes that make the vice president look childlike or absurd are going to be seen even more, and that's one action this administration does not have the power to control. Related... 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