In a series of fundraising appeals, Trump offered his supporters a chance to appear with him on stage during an October 5 rally when he returned to the site of his attempted assassination, Butler, Pennsylvania. These solicitations were sent to the Trump campaign email list, which reportedly includes tens of millions of people. 

"I’d love to bring you up on stage for my Butler rally!" was the subject line of a September 2 fundraising email from Trump. "Can we take a picture together during my rally in Butler, Pennsylvania?" Trump asks in the body of the text. 

Trump sent emails promoting the contest on September 10 ("I want YOU right there by my side when we make history again"), September 28 ("I’ll be hand-selecting my VIP guest for this historic rally in just 72 hours, so if you want to be considered, please chip in $5 or more right away"), and October 1 ("[T]he crowd is going to LOVE YOU when you're introduced as my VIP guest). 

Trump held his rally in Butler on Saturday, and the only person he introduced on stage was Elon Musk. 

There was no sign of a contest winner at any time during Trump's lengthy appearance at the rally — from the moment Trump took the stage to when he left almost two hours later. 

It's possible, of course, that a winner was selected and met Trump privately. But that was not the prize that was promised in Trump's emails. 

Was it all a scam? The Trump campaign seems sensitive to this criticism. The bottom of Trump's October 1 email promoting the Butler contest invites supporters to "MEET OUR PREVIOUS CONTEST WINNERS." It includes a photo of Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and two supporters at the Miami Grand Prix held in May. 

But there could not have been a contest to meet Trump at the Miami Grand Prix because, according to USA Today, the race organizers "did not disclose before the race if Trump would attend for security reasons." A database of Trump's fundraising appeals contains no mention of the Miami event.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment. 

Trump's dubious contests during the 2020 campaign — and beyond

During the 2020 election cycle, Popular Information identified 21 contests to share a meal with Trump at various locations. The tactic was cribbed from former president Barack Obama's election strategy; Obama held a series of contests for "Dinner with Barack." Each meal with Obama generated extensive media coverage, with detailed information about the attendees. There was no information, however, about any of the winners of Trump's contests. Nor did any winners post pictures of their meal with Trump on social media. 

One contest promoted a meal with Trump in Chicago on October 23, 2019. Popular Information contacted the pool reporter traveling with Trump that day, the Washington Post's Anne Gearan, and asked if she had heard anything about Trump's meal with a contest winner. She had not and put in an inquiry with the campaign. The campaign never responded. 

Popular Information's report was picked up by Vanity Fair and other national publications. Soon thereafter, the Trump campaign began promoting an article from the right-wing Daily Caller that supposedly debunked Popular Information's reporting. 

But the Daily Caller article only addressed one contest for a meal. Joanna Kamis "won" a breakfast with Trump in New York City on September 26. She did attend a breakfast in New York City on that day but Trump did not attend. Instead, Kamis was "able to mingle with the likes of Donald Trump Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Elizabeth Pipko." In other words, that contest was a fraud. (Later, Kamis took a photograph with Trump.)

There is still no information about any of the other "winners" of the contests for meals with Trump during his 2020 campaign. The fact that the Trump campaign put the Daily Caller in contact with Kamis and no other contributors raises serious questions about whether anyone else won.

The Trump campaign did not comply with requests to release the names of the winners of its 2020 campaign contests — from both Popular Information and the New York Times — even in cases where disclosure was required by state law. 

Trump's political operation continued to promote contests for meals with Trump beyond the 2022 election cycle. In March 2022, the Washington Post reported that Trump's leadership PAC, Save America, "sent at least 15 emails in recent weeks offering small-dollar donors the chance to win a coveted prize if they gave money: dinner with Trump in New Orleans last Saturday." 

But, the Washington Post reported, "no such winner was flown to New Orleans last weekend, according to four people familiar with the matter." Instead, Trump met with "a handful of Republican Party donors who gave large checks, taking pictures with some of the party’s most well-heeled members and speaking to a larger group of donors who each gave tens of thousands of dollars." A Trump campaign spokesman said that "due to an administrative error in this individual circumstance, the contest winner was not properly notified for last weekend’s event in New Orleans."

The Washington Post also "asked Save America to provide winners for other contests it has held, which included meeting the president at a rally in South Carolina this weekend, meeting Trump at his palatial Florida club last year, playing golf with Trump and Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker in Palm Beach, or receiving commemorative memorabilia — such as a football signed by Trump and Walker, a College Football Hall of Famer." Save America "declined to comment."