Near the top of a winding, aspen-lined road above Park City, President Joe Biden wrapped up a four-day trip to three western states with a high-dollar fundraiser, where he told supporters in crimson Utah that “I want to restore the soul of this country.”
“My MAGA Republican friends are trying to take us back to places that the majority of Republicans don’t even want to go,” Biden said in front of a crowd of wealthy left-leaning Utahns and Democratic political operatives and officials. Biden is in the second half of his first term as president and was vice president from 2009-2017.
In the crowd were Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson and Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, some of the highest-ranking Democrats in the state, who accompanied Biden for the majority of his Utah stop. Also present were state Democratic lawmakers.
In 2020, 58% of Utahns voted to reelect Donald Trump, with only 38% casting a ballot for Biden. But in Summit County, where Thursday’s Park City fundraiser was held, Biden flipped the vote. Of the 26,086 ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election in Summit County, Biden received 15,244 votes, or around 58%, to the 10,252, or 39%, votes that were cast for Trump.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) President Joe Biden acknowledges supporters as his motorcade passes through the Park City area following a private fundraiser in The Colony at White Pine Canyon on Thursday, Aug 10, 2023.
Tickets for the event started at $3,300 and ran up to $100,000 to be a “host.” Although the next Federal Election Commission contribution reporting deadlines aren’t until Oct. 15, upwards of 100 people packed into the multimillion-dollar home.
The event was at the home of former ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa Mark Gilbert — who also had a brief stint as an outfielder for the Chicago White Sox — and his wife Nancy. They previously have welcomed Democratic figures into their living room for fundraisers. John and Kristi Cumming, whose family are longtime Democratic donors in Utah, also sponsored the gig.
“The best way to make sure that they’re able to live in places like this, and … the wealthy to do very well, is if the middle class does well and the poor have a way up,” Biden said to his backers, after telling them that he’s “never been a big fan of trickle-down economics,” to laughs.
The president asked the crowd to raise their hands if, when traveling internationally, they meet people who want to see former President Donald Trump, who is running again for the Republican ticket, back in office. They resoundingly said, “no.”
“What we don’t need is an America first policy,” Biden told the audience, criticizing Trump’s handling of international affairs.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Supporters of of president Joe Biden cheer as his motorcade passes through the Park City area following a private fundraiser in The Colony at White Pine Canyon on Thursday, Aug 10, 2023.
Biden said he’s had several congressional Republicans tell him they agree with some of his actions, but that they can’t publicly say so because it will lead to them being challenged and defeated in primary elections.
“This division is really, really hurting,” Biden said.
As he drove from Salt Lake City to Park City, some onlookers stood on the side of the road — or got out of their cars while traffic was stopped for the motorcade — and cheered, waved or held up signs supporting his 2024 reelection campaign. Others held their thumbs down and made makeshift signs that said “Let’s go, Brandon!” — an anti-Biden taunt often used by Trump supporters.
During his speech, he described driving throughout the country and seeing pro-Trump political flags with an expletive the president spelled out “and little kids standing there.” Some children, Biden said, have held up their middle fingers at him as he passed.
[READ: President Joe Biden says he’s ‘proud’ that PACT Act has helped more than 2,000 Utah veterans]
The president spoke earlier in the day at the Salt Lake City Veterans Affairs health center about the PACT Act and new benefits that have been extended to military veterans to combat the health concerns of burn pits and other toxic exposures. The father of an Army officer who died of brain cancer, Biden paused several times to regain his composure when discussing Beau and veterans’ health.
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) President Joe Biden departs Salt Lake City on Air Force One, Aug. 10, 2023.
The president’s quick stint in Utah was part of a three-state tour of the West. Earlier this week, he designated over 917,000 acres of federal land in northern Arizona as the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni — Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument.
[READ: Provo man killed in FBI raid suspected of threatening Biden ahead of Utah visit]
And just hours before Air Force One landed in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, the FBI shot and killed a Utah County man while serving an arrest warrant. That man, Craig Robertson of Provo, had threatened to kill Biden, according to a federal criminal complaint.
After Biden left the Park City fundraiser, the president’s motorcade weaved its way down Parleys Canyon to Roland R. Wright Air National Guard Base.
Air Force One began the trip back to Washington at around 4:35 p.m. on Thursday afternoon.
