First one over the line.


“This is an enterprise. This is not your grandmother’s Easter Egg Roll where people lined up outside the gate and go and roll an egg and get a little gift bag and walk out,” said a former official involved in planning the event, which has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years.

The White House, through an outside event production company called Harbinger, is soliciting corporate sponsors for this year’s Easter Egg Roll, which is prompting major concerns from ethics experts and shock from former White House officials from both parties.

The sponsorship offers range from $75,000 to $200,000, with the promise of logo and branding opportunities, according to a nine-page document sent to potential sponsors and obtained by CNN.

But the solicitation for sponsorships marks an unprecedented offering of corporate branding opportunities on White House grounds running counter to long-established regulations prohibiting the use of public office for private gain.



It is unclear what social media channels would be used for the promised “mentions in official event communications and social media posts,” and whether they would be sent from official White House accounts. It’s also unclear whether the White House Counsel’s Office signed off on the solicitation document.

Painter argued the move runs counter to free enterprise. The Trump administration, he said, “just have a different attitude… that ‘America First’ somehow requires the United States to pick winners and losers in the private sector.”