Written by Aishwarya KhoslaUpdated: November 2, 2025 03:51 PM IST 5 min readPresident Donald Trump hosted a “Great Gatsby”–themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago. (Source: AP File Photo and Warner Bros)Donald Trump’s ‘Great Gatsby’ party: US President Donald Trump hosted a Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago inspired by F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby – dubbed The Great American Novel – complete with flapper dresses, tuxedos, and jazz-era décor. In throwing a “Great Gatsby” party, he was invoking one of America’s most enduring cultural myths: the illusion of limitless wealth and the seduction of reinvention.The event’s slogan – ‘A little party never killed nobody’ – echoed a song from the 2013 film adaptation of the novel. An unfortunate choice as the party unfolded just as federal food assistance funding (SNAP) temporarily lapsed amid a government shutdown.Gatsby’s parties sparkled with jazz and gin, but beneath the glitter lay despair and the stink of corruption. Gatsby’s society was one that was so obsessed with image that it mistook excess for virtue. Nearly a century later, that same blindness is alive and well, gilded in gold leaf and served on silver trays.Trump’s party and the timing of it distilled the novel’s most haunting irony. As guests in sequined gowns toasted beneath chandeliers, a federal shutdown left millions uncertain about their next meal. The president’s defenders called the criticism “partisan nonsense.” But the optics were unmistakable. Those who had everything throwing a party about having everything, while those with nothing are told to wait.Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s iconic symbol of excessive wealth and corruption of the American Dream, was the theme of @POTUS’s MAGA party at Mar-a-Lago. Need we say more? pic.twitter.com/QbgsQeQwdn— Dina Titus (@repdinatitus) November 1, 2025The images from the night — sequins, champagne, and 1920s excess — brought renewed interest in what a “Gatsby party” actually symbolises, and why it continues to resonate a century after the book’s publication.What is a Great Gatsby party?The idea originates with Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby, whose central character, Jay Gatsby, is a self-made millionaire who throws lavish parties in his Long Island mansion during the Roaring Twenties. His soirées, crowded with flappers, jazz bands, and endless champagne, become symbols of an age intoxicated by prosperity. Yet in Fitzgerald’s world, the parties are never purely joyful. They are performances, shimmering façades concealing loneliness, yearning, and the moral emptiness of a society obsessed with appearance.Don't Miss | 100 years of The Great Gatsby: Echoes of the American dream in modern IndiaWhy does America still care about Gatsby?The term “Gatsby party” now signifies an experience of escapism, dressed up as one is in another era’s luxury. In economic or political moments marked by anxiety, the Gatsby theme resurfaces as both fantasy and mirror. Its appeal lies in the promise that for one evening, anyone can inhabit the world of opulence once reserved Fitzgerald’s story reminds readers that the party’s glitter ends in emptiness, that the American Dream — built on ambition and reinvention — is also haunted by inequality and disillusionment.When public figures embrace the theme, the symbolism becomes even more layered. The Gatsby party represents aspiration and the belief that image can overwrite reality.To understand why a “Gatsby party” carries such symbolic weight today, it helps to recall the era that inspired it. The 1920s followed World War I, a decade of economic boom, Prohibition, and social upheaval. Jazz poured from speakeasies, and the modern American identity, embodying an enterprising and consumerist approach, took shape. But Fitzgerald’s novel exposed the cost of that dream. Gatsby’s wealth, acquired through bootlegging, could not buy him acceptance among the old-money elite or restore the love he lost. The glitter was always a mask.Story continues below this ad A century after F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, the “Gatsby party” remains a symbol of opulence. (Warner Bros)A century later, the “Gatsby” aesthetic has been reimagined through costume and cinema — from Leonardo DiCaprio’s 2013 portrayal to countless themed weddings and charity galas. Feathered headbands, sequined dresses, and champagne towers recall a version of the 1920s that feels glamorous but detached from its context.A hundred years after The Great Gatsby was published, the green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan’s dock still flickers in popular imagination. It stands for desire, for what lies just out of reach. It symbolises the American paradox: the longing to be seen, and the blindness that longing can bring.Aishwarya Khosla is a journalist currently serving as Deputy Copy Editor at The Indian Express. Her writings examine the interplay of culture, identity, and politics. She began her career at the Hindustan Times, where she covered books, theatre, culture, and the Punjabi diaspora. Her editorial expertise spans the Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Punjab and Online desks. She was the recipient of the The Nehru Fellowship in Politics and Elections, where she studied political campaigns, policy research, political strategy and communications for a year. She pens The Indian Express newsletter, Meanwhile, Back Home. Write to her at aishwaryakhosla.ak@gmail.com or aishwarya.khosla@indianexpress.com. You can follow her on Instagram: @ink_and_ideology, and X: @KhoslaAishwarya. ... Read More© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd