Lisa Korbatov is a longtime GOP donor with deep ties to Donald Trump and his inner circle. Her family has a history of business dealings with Trump, most infamously involving a Rodeo Drive mansion bought from the Gabonese dictator Omar Bongo and later funneled through a Trump shell company in a deal riddled with red flags. A zealous opponent of LA Metro’s Purple Line subway, Korbatov spent years warning of terrorist attacks and methane explosions beneath Beverly Hills High, leading the district into repeated failed lawsuits that drained $16 million in public school bond funds. To stop the subway, she tried to leverage her connections to Marc Kasowitz (Trump’s former personal attorney), GOP power broker Elliott Broidy, and even Ivanka Trump and Kevin McCarthy, attending donor galas and personally handing letters to Trump himself. Her campaign ultimately collapsed under legal defeats and political scandals, but it stands as a remarkable case of local obstructionism powered by national cronyism.