President Trump’s golf resort in Doral, Florida, is scheduled to host a golf tournament Saturday put on by a Miami-area strip club, which will allow golfers to pay for a dancer to serve as their “caddy girl” while they play at the president’s club.
The “Shadow All Star Tournament” is organized by the Shadow Cabaret, a strip club in Hialeah, Florida. Emanuele Mancuso, Shadow Cabaret’s marketing director, said in a telephone interview this was the first time the club had held a tournament at Trump Doral.
The Trump name and family crest are displayed prominently in the strip club’s advertising materials, which offer golfers the “caddy girl of your choice.”
Mancuso said the strip club did not intend to send a political statement by choosing Trump’s resort. Rather, he said, the choice was for luxury. These golfers are VIPs, Mancuso said. “They deserve a VIP environment.”
Mancuso said there would be no nudity at the resort. On the course, he said, the caddies would wear pink miniskirts and what he called “a sexy white polo.” Afterward, however, the golfers and the dancers would return to another venue – the cabaret itself – for what he described as a “very tasteful” burlesque show, which could involve nudity.
“They’re going to be clothed the whole time” at the golf course, Mancuso said. “At the venue is different.”
In a statement, the Trump Organization confirmed the event is happening and said it was for a “worthwhile cause” – a Miami children’s charity. A spokeswoman said the company had not approved the tournament’s advertisements before they were published.
Trump still owns Doral – and all his other businesses – while in office, but he has given day-to-day control to his sons Don Jr. and Eric.
Doral is better known for a different kind of golf tournament, a long-running PGA Tour event that was last played there in 2016. It is one of the jewels of Trump’s hotel empire – a legendary 57-year-old golf resort that Trump bought for $150 million in 2012.
After Trump entered politics, however, the club lost the famous tournament, and its revenue began to decline, according to documents that Trump’s company provided to Miami-Dade County in a tax dispute.
Those documents showed that the club’s net operating income fell 69 percent between 2015 and 2017. The club’s revenue rebounded slightly in 2018, according to Trump’s financial disclosure forms.
“They are severely underperforming” other resorts in the area, said a tax consultant for Trump’s company, arguing in a public hearing that the county should lower the resort’s tax assessment. She blamed the Trump name: “There is some negative connotation that is associated with the brand.”
Shadow Cabaret advertises that its strip club offers all-nude dancers, a laser light show and a decor inspired by the Miami drug epic “Scarface.”
It has been advertising the golf tournament at Doral online, on Facebook, on Instagram and via the industry website exoticdancer.com. It offers packages that claim to combine hotel rooms at Doral with services at the strip club: a $1,000 “VIP Upgrade,” for instance, includes three days at the hotel and “1/2 Hour VIP Room + Bottle @ Club.”
Mancuso, the cabaret’s marketing director, said the first event connected with the tournament will be a reception at the cabaret on Friday night.
“If you enroll before the 10th [of July], you are able to pick out your caddie girl,” he said. “Everybody that enrolled after the 10th, they’re going to have an auction” that night.
Mancuso said the dancers would drive a golf cart and not carry golf bags as some caddies do. “They’re actually going through training, most of the girls,” to be able to advise players on golf shots, he said.
Mancuso said the tournament would benefit a basketball-themed charity called Miami All Stars. Online advertisements for the tournament also include logos for the Jr. NBA and Jr. WNBA.
Carlos Alamilla, the charity’s director, said his group serves about 40 youths in Miami. “We provide everything. We provide fitness, nutrition, basketball and academics,” he said.
The charity’s website says it is “a non-profit organization under the laws of the State of Florida.” However, Franco Ripple, a spokesman for the state, said Tuesday that it is not registered as a charity in Florida. Alamilla did not immediately respond to questions about why his organization’s name was missing from state records.
A spokeswoman for the NBA and WNBA said that the leagues were not affiliated with the tournament and that their logos were used in the ads without permission.
Alamilla said it gave him pause to affiliate his charity with an event put on by a strip club: “It doesn’t jive with what we do, you know.” He said he also dislikes Trump because of the conditions in which his administration is detaining migrant children. “He’s contrary to everything we believe,” he said of the president.
Still, Alamilla said, he decided to accept the money – but also ban his charity’s child clients from attending.
“None of my kids are going to be participating in your event,” he said he told the organizers. But, he said, “if we can get some help, you know, for our programs starting now . . . it would be OK.”
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