Donald Trump welcomes 2026 at Mar-a-Lago with $2.75m auction of Jesus painting

🚨 NOW: President Trump just had an artist paint Jesus Christ live at Mar-a-Lago on New Year’s Eve

America is a CHRISTIAN nation.

TRUMP: “Was that AMAZING!”

Faith. Tradition. Pride in who we are.
This is leadership that does not apologize. pic.twitter.com/lxHakrODmH

— ⁿᵉʷˢ Barron Trump 🇺🇸 (@BarronTNews_) January 1, 2026

Trump asked the artist to “draw something really special” as a band played Hallelujah. He opened the bidding at $100,000. He said, as reported by AP, that half of the auction money would go to St Jude’s children’s hospital and the other half to the local sheriff’s department.

The artwork was bought for $2.75m by a woman in a top hat.

People at the event included former adviser Rudy Giuliani, homeland security secretary Kristi Noem, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, Emirati businessman Hussain Sajwani, film-maker Brett Ratner, House Republican Tom Emmer and District of Columbia attorney general Jeanine Pirro.

‘We’re going to get to the bottom of all of it’

Earlier in the day, Trump posted a series of messages on social media. In several posts, he referred to investigations into alleged social services fraud in Minnesota. “We’re going to get to the bottom of all of it,” he said, adding that it was “a giant scam”, according to AP.

Trump also commented after reporters asked about reports of a strike in Venezuela linked to US intelligence. Tickets for the Mar-a-Lago New Year’s Eve event were $1,450.