Money Train

President Donald Trump will hit Dallas in October for fundraiser event

President Trump is planning an invite-only get-together here in September.

Photo courtesy of The White House

OCT 5 UPDATE: The trip has been rescheduled to October 25. Dallas is No. 3 on the list of cities that have given Trump money, behind Houston and Los Angeles.

AUG 17 UPDATE: In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, President Donald Trump has canceled his trip to Dallas on September 27. Roy Bailey, one of Trump's biggest Texas fundraisers, told the Dallas Morning News that the trip was off, and there was no information on whether it would be rescheduled. It would have been Trump's first fundraising visit to Texas as president.

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While President Donald Trump is still making headlines over the controversy surrounding Confederate statues, he's quietly planning a trip to Dallas to help raise funds for the Republican party.

According to the Texas Tribune, invitations to the event were sent out to Republican donors, with ticket prices ranging from $2,700 to $100,000. Trump's re-election campaign, named Trump Victory, gets some of the money off the top; the rest goes to the Republican National Committee.

Hosts of the event include Texas donors who supported Trump in the 2016 campaign: Dallas investor Doug Deason; Oklahoma oil man Harold Hamm; Laredo banker Dennis Nixon; Jeanne Phillips, a former U.S. Ambassador under President George W. Bush; and Fort Worth socialite Kit Moncrief.

Trump's previous visits to Dallas include a 2015 appearance at the American Airlines Center that September, and two rallies in 2016. This September 27 visit, which has not been officially announced by the White House, would be his first as President. The exact venue has not yet been revealed.

He's been at the center of a controversy over his comments following the death of a young woman who was run over and 19 others who were injured at a rally protesting the removal of Confederate-era statues in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Meanwhile, tickets will go on sale on August 18 for a rare joint appearance by former president Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, on November 17 at The Pavilion Indoor Theater at Irving Music Factory. It will include a Q&A session. Tickets go on sale at 10 am through Ticketmaster.com and start at $99.50 plus fees.

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E-Cigarette News

Dallas City Council places restrictions on vaping in public

Unsplash

Man vaping

Vaping will now be banned exactly like smoking, thanks to a new ordinance from the Dallas City Council.

At their December 11 meeting, the council passed an ordinance to ban vaping in all the same areas where smoking is not allowed. It'll go into effect on December 11, 2025 — giving everyone a year to get into compliance.

Proposed by City of Dallas Environmental Commission (EVC) and the Office of Environmental Quality and Sustainability (OEQS), the ordinance amends the definition of “smoking” in the Dallas City Code to include the use of vaping devices.

The ordinance does not ban vaping — it only bans where you can vape: no vaping in all indoor and enclosed spaces; within 15 feet of building entrances; and on park property. The ordinance also bans marijuana smoking in those same places.

In addition, the amendment requires restaurants, hotels, fitness centers and other businesses to update their signage to clearly state that both smoking and electronic smoking devices are prohibited.

The ordinance already earned widespread support from health organizations such as the Dallas County Health and Human Services, the American Lung Association, and the American Heart Association. These organizations, along with the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Surgeon General, have all raised concerns about the health risks of direct and second-hand exposure to vaping aerosols, particularly for vulnerable populations such as children and older adults.

Dallas is not the first city to impose such a ban: San Antonio enacted a similar ban in October. Theirs goes into effect on January 1, 2025.

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