Bill White and his husband Bryan Eure raised money for both of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaigns -- but they switched sides on Election Night 2016 when it became clear she wouldn't win.
The 51-year-old White -- who runs the consulting firm Constellations Group -- left Clinton's downcast event and drove to the New York Hilton to celebrate Trump's win, reported the New York Times.
“I didn’t want to be part of that misery pie, I’m not a wallower in self-pity,” White said. “I really believe that once that decision is made, you have to get behind your president.”
The well-connected couple have alienated friends by backing Trump, whose dishonesty they excuse as "embellishing" and "exaggerations."
“He’s not a politician,” White said. “He’s not going to configure himself as anything other than what he is. I think that he has an authenticity.”
A spokesman for Clinton did not mince words, saying White and the 39-year-old Eure, a commercial insurance broker, had betrayed the LGBT community.
“They ran to the other end of the spectrum and then walked off the ledge,” said Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill. “This president is degrading our institutions. He is racist, he has no respect for women, he has no respect for minorities or for any community, including the L.G.B.T. community — it makes you wonder.”
“Our democracy has been set on fire by this president," he added, "and they want what, an invite to Mar-a-Lago?”
The couple say they felt slighted by Clinton and her family, including earlier this year, when Chelsea Clinton failed to acknowledge them at Ralph Lauren’s Polo Bar in Midtown Manhattan.
White said he pulled out his phone and called Donald Trump Jr. who immediately invited him over to his office.
“Trump picks up on the first ring," White said. "If you want to get to Chelsea Clinton, you have to call through five people.”
White also complained that a Clinton staffer blocked him from greeting the candidate at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, despite raising money for her, and Merrill again spoke out strongly against him.
“Some people give their time and resources to causes and candidates for the right reasons, some don’t,” Merrill said. “No better indication of which case this is than to watch a guy decide to embrace Trump and all he stands for because he couldn’t get his picture taken one night.”
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