TurningPoint USA ball at Mar-a-Lago attended by numerous mask-less conservative personalities
Gala held as Florida reports more than 8,000 new cases on Sunday
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Louise Thomas
Editor
Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's Florida golf resort, played host to a ball for the conservative college organisation Turning Point USA, where right-wing personalities rubbed shoulders with numerous mask-less attendees.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, disgraced former Trump adviser Roger Stone and MyPillow CEO and conservative darling Mike Lindell were the headliners of the evening.
Also in attendance were Trump loyalist Rep Matt Gaetz, Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota, Sen Rand Paul, former Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, Fox News host Laura Ingraham, and Trump campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley.
Photos from the gala show guests sitting at tables of 10, all without masks.
The gala followed TPUSA's annual December conference, which falls in line with Mr Trump's usual departure from Washington DC to Florida.
Donald Trump Jr, his wife Kimberly Guilfoyle, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka spoke at the conference.
Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to speak on Tuesday.
The conference apparently had to turn away between 500 and 600 students because the Palm Beach Convention Centre reached its maximum capacity limit of 2,000.
Palm Beach has reduced building capacity to 50 per cent of maximum in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Florida has been especially hard-hit by the coronavirus; on Sunday, the state's department of health recorded 8,401 new cases of the virus.
The state thus far has seen 1,201,566 cases and 20,861 total deaths.
Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, a Trump loyalist, came under fire recently when The South Florida Sun Sentinel uncovered evidence that he had directed the department of health to withhold health information about the virus in the weeks leading up to the election.
Mr DeSantis faced further criticism after a judge he appointed ordered a raid on the home of a former department department of health worker who has been acting as a whistleblower. She has been running an alternative coronavirus information website after she alleged the state was not reporting accurate information about the virus.
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