Published 2024-03-03 20.11
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PALM BEACH, FLORIDA. She belongs to an exclusive core of wealthy women who want to see Donald Trump recapture the White House.
The Swedish Hollywood wife visits Mar-a-Lago several times a week – and likes to mingle privately with the ex-president.
– I know him personally very well, says Agnes-Nicole Winter, 67.
Agnes-Nicole Winter receives on the red carpet, and guides the guests towards the pool at Mar-a-Lago.
Hundreds of guests in gala attire crowd around her, sipping champagne or dancing salsa. Darkness has just fallen over Donald Trump’s famous peachy Disney castle, located on a narrow strip of land off the coast of Florida. Palm trees sway in the gentle breeze.
A grand gala party is being organized this very evening. The tension is in the air: In a couple of hours, the main character of the evening will arrive.
– Look, it’s absolutely wonderful here! says Winter, sweeping his hand over the sea of people.
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full screen Agnes-Nicole Winter by the pool at Mar-a-lago. Photo: Nora Savosnick
Member of the female fan club
She is one of the party organizers – one of the so-called Trumpettes – the super fan club for women who love Donald Trump.
The group boasts of having members all over the world – but the most dedicated core is here, in the stony top tier of Palm Beach.
It has been fourteen years since Agnes-Nicole Winter thundered into Swedish living rooms, as a new TV star in Swedish Hollywood Wives. Since then, Winter has traded Beverly Hills for Palm Beach. Or, rather, she still cruises diligently between three different coasts; New York – LA – Florida.
Here in Palm Beach, she lives a stone’s throw from Mar-a-Lago and “billionaire street”. In addition to having his home in the pink palace, Trump runs an exclusive private club in the house to which many neighbors are members.
Entry fee: equivalent to SEK 2 million. In addition, there is an annual fee.
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full screen Agnes-Nicole Winter gets a hug at Trump’s party. Photo: Nora Savosnick
Agnes-Nicole Winter is one of the members and spends time at Mar-a-Lago two or three times a week.
Sometimes it’s a party, like tonight. Other times she plays tennis, croquet, enjoys live music on the beach, or eats a light lunch at the club.
For the past five years she has lived here and been one Trumpette she has formed close ties with “The Donald”.
– I know him personally very well, says Winter, where she stands at the illuminated edge of the pool.
– He is absolutely wonderful, I like Melania too. We were at a wedding together last weekend and talked quite a bit, at the Breakers here in Palm Beach.
“In private, Trump is different”
When she has dinner at Mar-a-Lago, he happens to come over and settle down for a while. They often talk about illegal migrants, and Trump has expressed that he likes Sweden. He is “incredibly outgoing and easy to talk to,” says Winter.
– We have 800 guests here tonight. If someone approaches him, he will talk to them – he loves “regular people”, and tends to mingle with non-members as well. I think that’s the thing that makes him win over ordinary people on his side.
Winter says she doesn’t recognize the polarized image often painted of Trump. In private, he is a different person, she says; relaxed, helpful, responsive.
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full screen Guests arrive at Mar-a-lago on the red carpet. Photo: Nora Savosnick
Tonight’s party is organized to raise money for Trump’s presidential campaign. In recent years, Winter has become one of his most passionate supporters. Her driving force is the conviction that the United States has been drawn to the precipice of ruin since Biden came to power.
– We are very sorry for that. We have problems with immigrants and everything else. As in Sweden. You can’t hide it, and there are many other problems. So we’re trying to get Trump back in, and get the country back to the level it once was.
– I think Trump sees everything as black or white. If it’s bad, it’s bad, if it’s good, it’s good. While many other politicians…
She interrupts herself.
– … no, he is not a politician. He is a businessman. And I’m a business woman, so he sees things just like I do.
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full screen Another “Real housewife”, Siggy Flicker from New Jersey, hugs with Trump-loyal Republican Kari Lake. Photo: Nora Savosnick
Winter: “Migrants have no skills”
Later in the evening, guests wait for Trump to enter the grand ballroom.
Agnes-Nicole Winter zigzags between tables, handing out kisses on the cheek to other Trump-loyal TV celebrities; Siggy Flicker, from the Real Housewives of New Jersey, and Kevin Sorbo, the actor best known for his work on the television series Hercules and Xena – the warrior princess.
As Donald Trump arrives through the double doors, cheers erupt from the fans. They have paid big bucks to sit at the gala dinner and get close to the President of the United States, the 45th in the order – who they now hope will also be the 47th.
– We will bring about the largest mass deportation in the country’s history! Trump says, whipping up the energy at the party.
The migration issue engages his core voters the most – and will play a central role in the presidential election.
At rallies, Trump warns of an alleged invasion of illegal migrants, claiming that other countries are releasing prisoners from prisons and mental hospitals to send them to the United States. He also paints a picture of terrorists pouring across the border.
Rather, many are vulnerable families fleeing difficult conditions. However, the humanitarian crisis is real: illegal border crossings on the US southern border have risen to historic levels under Biden’s administration.
But when Congress recently tried to broker a cross-party deal on the border issue, Trump blocked it — he wants to save his winning issue for the fall election.
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full screen Excitedly waiting for Trump to appear after dinner. Photo: Nora Savosnick
Even for Agnes-Nicole Winter, the migration issue is most important. The arguments sound like an echo of Trump.
– We have received lots of migrants who do nothing good for America. They don’t speak English, they don’t have any skillsthey are not educated, she says.
She herself is also an immigrant. She came from small Borås, via Stockholm, to the metropolis of New York in the 80s for modeling assignments. The difference is that she came in legally, unlike those who pour in across the border to Mexico, she says.
– It took me five years to get citizenship – and I was legal all the way. It does not feel good to see what is happening in this country. It costs us a lot of money.
On a daily basis, she runs a skin care company and emphasizes that she pays a lot of tax “that goes to these people”.
“They want to destroy him”
Winter also says that immigrants cause crime to be rampant in the country.
The charges against Donald Trump then? He faces 91 counts of trying to overturn the 2020 election results, and for keeping classified documents after his time as president.
She sounds surprised at first.
– Criminal charges, against Trump? No, it’s only the Democrats who want to ruin it for him. We’re getting closer to the November election and they’re trying to do everything they can to destroy him. I think that’s what’s happening: It’s to smear him.
She, like many others at the Mar-a-Lago party, echoed Trump’s words that the charges he faces are politically motivated witch hunts orchestrated by opponents.
But, Winter says and pauses.
– I think that even Democrats are starting to see the truth now: That we must have someone who sees things in black or white.
Is it good to see things in black and white?
– We have big problems with immigration, huge debts. It has to turn around. We need someone like Trump, who sees things in black or white.
How do you mean? There are nuances, pros and cons to everything, right?
– I think the problem lies in the nuances. I grew up with a mother who was a mayor and a father who was a general. I understand that “if something is wrong, it is wrong, if it is right, it is right”.
It is precisely the binary worldview that Trump explains so well, she says.
The younger generation does not understand this, according to Winter, they complicate things. She does not specify exactly which factual issues she is referring to.
– I see college students, 17 to 20 years old, fighting for something like us vet won’t work, she says. We who are older have seen and been involved in everything – we know what works and what doesn’t.
“Trump has changed”
She is worried about what will happen if Donald Trump does not win in 2024.
– It is my sons’ future, my grandchildren’s future. I don’t want the US to become a communist country. Europe has also been drawn into that – they are trying to make one one world power.
One world power is something globalists advocate, according to her. Winter says Sweden has the same problem. With foreigners, she clarifies, but does not elaborate further.
Trump is often criticized for his polarizing rhetoric, about women and immigrants. How does that rhyme with an endorsement from a women’s fan club when he was caught on tape saying he grabs women by the vagina, “grab ’em by the pussy”?
– That happened several years ago. Trump has changed a lot, Winter defends.
All nicknames against political rivals, like most recently, chicken brain, “birdbrain” about Nikki Haley?
– He says exactly what he thinks. You can actually say it, and accept it.
– It’s just like I think you’re beautiful, but I’m not allowed to say it. I have to say ‘you’re okay,’ Winter replies.
She, like other Trump supporters, believes that progressives are too locked into political correctness and have created a corridor of opinion.
At the Trump parties at Mar-a-Lago, where like-minded people gather, however, they feel a sense of community. There they can express “the raw truth” – without having to worry about styluses.
Winter appreciates that openness.
– I am the same as Trump; I say exactly as it is.
