Overview
- Grindr hosted a pre–White House Correspondents’ Dinner bash Friday at a private Georgetown estate, drawing journalists and elected officials including Sen. Deb Fischer, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, and Don Lemon.
- Joe Hack, Grindr’s head of global government affairs, said before the event that unnamed Trump administration officials had expressed interest in attending.
- Photos showed a line down the block for the 500-person event, and MAGA-aligned commentators on social media mocked the turnout and the guest list.
- The party capped a year of Washington outreach that included roughly $1.6 million in lobbying on online safety, a push to move age checks from apps to app stores, and HIV prevention efforts that use the app to share testing information.
- Grindr has courted both parties with policy work and fundraisers, from a 2025 lunch for Sen. Susan Collins to a planned event for Sen. Tammy Baldwin, signaling a bid for cross-party access despite conservative backlash.