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Mike Love performs for maskless guests at Trump's NYE bash, fans angry he’s being called The Beach Boys

The last time all surviving members of The Beach Boys toured together was for their 50th-anniversary trek in 2012

On New Year’s Eve, hundreds of maskless guests reportedly packed the Mar-a-Lago ballroom in Palm Beach, Florida, paying up to $1,000, reportedly to see Vanilla Ice and The Beach Boys co-founder Mike Love perform. The guest list reportedly included Republican luminaries such as Donald Trump Jr. and Kim Guilfoyle, Eric and Lara Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and Matt Gaetz. As per reports, more than 500 guests had secured reservations to Donald Trump’s annual New Year’s Eve bash, which began at 7 p.m.

Many shared clips from the event. A Twitter user shared screen-recordings on an Instagram story and wrote, “New Year’s Eve celebration at Mar-a-Lago during deadly pandemic,” adding, “In attendance were @TheBeachBoys, vanilla ice, @DonaldJTrumpJr, @SergioGor, @RudyGiuliani, @kimguilfoyle and others.” Another Twitter user wrote, “Vanilla Ice and The Beach Boys are magats?!! WTF? Singing to a maskless crowd at magalago, can’t get much lower than that. Next stop cameo.” One Twitter user said, “I wish I was committed to anything as Mike Love has been to trying to destroy the Beach Boys' reputation for the past 55 years.”

It appeared, however, that more people were angry about the insinuation that The Beach Boys performed at the event, as opposed to just Mike Love and other session musicians. “Your daily reminder that Mike Love is a douchebag and it's not the Beach Boys without Brian Wilson,” wrote a Twitter user. “Not The Beach Boys, just mike love. If you see Ringo you wouldn’t call him The Beatles,” said another Twitter user. One Twitter user said, “Mike Love is The Beach Boys like Melania Trump is a supermodel like Donald Trump has a tan like Jared Kushner is smart.”

In October 2020, it was reported that The Beach Boys would be the main attraction performing for Donald Trump and his supporters at a Newport Beach, California, campaign event, with tickets ranging from $2,800 per donor to $150,000 a couple for co-chair status. Following that The Beach Boys’ Al Jardine and Brian Wilson said in a statement, “We have absolutely nothing to do with the Trump benefit today in Newport Beach. Zero. We didn’t even know about it and were very surprised to read about it in the Los Angeles Times.”

The last time all surviving members of The Beach Boys toured together was for their 50th-anniversary trek in 2012. After its conclusion, Love and Bruce Johnston, who joined the band in 1965, chose to continue touring under the licensed The Beach Boys name with new touring members of the group, which has performed at Trump events in the past.

The fact that some people do not like Love is as much a part of The Beach Boys' legacy as their music. Love has time and again expressed his dislike for Wilson's work on what became ‘Pet Sounds’. “Who’s gonna hear this s***? The ears of a dog?” he is said to have said, though he has reportedly denied it. 

He has sued or threatened to sue Wilson numerous times. In 2005, Love sued Wilson for “shamelessly misappropriat[ing] Mike Love’s songs, likeness and the Beach Boys trademark” during the promotion of Wilson’s ‘Smile’ album. A judge dismissed all of the claims and said the copyright aspect “bordered on frivolous.”