WASHINGTON — The White House Easter Egg Roll is accepting corporate sponsors this year to defray costs associated with the event — which brought a record 40,000 guests to the South Lawn in 2024.
Sponsorships of between $75,000 and $200,000 will provide businesses with logo and branding opportunities, CNN reported, with The Post confirming the move.
The American Egg Board industry group typically funds the event, which features various booths to entertain children and requires significant after-the-fact lawn care.
The egg industry group will continue to provide money for the roll, but corporate sponsors will now be pitching in, too.
The production company Harbinger is producing the celebration, and leftover sponsorship proceeds will go to the White House Historical Association, a nonprofit that finances decorations and repairs at the executive mansion.
Critics of the sponsorships, including Richard Painter, a former ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, raised questions about their appropriateness.
“That would have been vetoed in about 30 seconds in my day,” Painter told CNN of the plan. “We’re not running this like a football stadium where you get all logos all over the place for kicking in money.”
It is unclear who pitched the idea of sponsorships for the egg roll this year.
There are prior instances of sponsored events on the White House lawn, though.
In 2016, President Barack Obama hosted a “South by South Lawn” tech policy and music event — modeled off the South by Southwest festival — and thanked corporate sponsors for making it possible.
“South by South Lawn was made possible thanks to support from National Geographic, Craig Newmark Foundation, DAQRI, Exelon Foundation, Hyatt, Obvious Ventures, Sara & Evan Williams Foundation, Simons Foundation, Starbucks, and Target,” the Obama White House said at the time.
In addition to the egg trade group’s usual sponsorship of the Easter festivities, the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardon, which draws a much smaller crowd, is put on in partnership with the meat industry National Turkey Federation.
Both Trump and former President Joe Biden have used the White House grounds to promote their favored electric carmakers — with Biden using the space to promote offerings by Ford, General Motors and Stellantis and Trump recently using the driveway to showcase industry-leading Tesla models.
