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Official Trump Swamp Thread: Still Corrupt as Fuck

Remember when the Obamas took a trip to New York for date night to see a Broadway play and Republicans had a conniption?

I don’t think that was about taxpayer funded travel.
 
THE SELF-DEALING ADMINISTRATION


For anyone attempting to understand Donald Trump’s presidency — to really grasp its essence — the place to look isn’t the White House or the federal agencies or even the Supreme Court, with its expanded conservative majority. The lurid heart of Trumpist Washington lies within the grand, Romanesque-revival building at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 12th Street, Northwest: the Trump International Hotel.

Built at the close of the 19th century, the structure originally served as the city’s main post office, a towering tribute to public service. Under Mr. Trump, it now stands as both a monument to and a tool for advancing the endless spectacle of self-dealing and corruption that has come to define this president, his family and much of his administration.

On any given day, a glut of lobbyists, lawmakers, foreign agents and other favor-seekers come through the Trump International, schmoozing with administration bigwigs — on occasion the president himself — and spending gobs of cash. This ritual not only strokes the president’s ego — What a swank place you have here, sir! — it enriches his family business, ownership of which Mr. Trump has refused to divest himself.

We aren’t talking about a few overpriced martinis or breakfast meetings but, rather, some serious, high-dollar hobnobbing. In the six months ending in March 2017, the government of Saudi Arabia spent at least $270,000 at the hotel. The National Shooting Sports Foundation dropped at least $62,000 there in 2018, according to a Times report last weekend, which also noted that the National Automobile Dealers Association has used it as a base for meetings with policymakers, spending close to $80,000. Groups hosting posh events there range from the Philippine Embassy to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association to the FLC Group, a Vietnamese conglomerate. (Those who responded to The Times’s inquiries denied inappropriate motives.)

The appearance of impropriety is not confined to the family’s Washington hotel. From Scotland to New Jersey to Florida and beyond, Trump properties have raked in tens of millions of dollars from those seeking to curry favor with, or at least express their appreciation for, the president.

“An investigation by The Times found over 200 companies, special-interest groups and foreign governments that patronized Mr. Trump’s properties while reaping benefits from him and his administration,” the paper reported, concluding that the president has “built a system of direct presidential influence-peddling unrivaled in modern American politics.”

Some of Mr. Trump’s more egregious self-enrichment projects have failed. Most notably, his plan to host this year’s Group of 7 meeting at the Trump National Doral resort near Miami met with so much political blowback that he quickly abandoned the idea. But at this stage, his clan’s routine self-dealing barely raises an eyebrow.

The president’s campaign contributors, large and small, also do their share to support the first family...

[a number of examples]


... With so much grift and graft and self-enrichment swirling about, it’s amusing — and yet horrifying — to recall that Mr. Trump ran in 2016 as a tough, independent outsider who would bring in the “best people” to help him clean up political corruption. Today, as election night looms, the president’s campaign has reportedly booked the Trump International Hotel in D.C. for a victory party. Rooms sold out months ago.

Forget draining the swamp; the president slapped his name on it and began charging admission.
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But...something something Hunter Biden...:rolleyes:
 
I’m 100% sure that Republicans will defend legitimate investigations of a Trump’s swamp by saying Democrats are just retaliating against their “investigations” of Hunter Biden.
 
 
WakeForestRanger said:
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That’s what happened after Watergate.
 
By the way, I heard on NPR this weekend that that guy is still running the BLM despite the court order for him to vacate the position. Career BLM employees must be really confused on how to proceed.
 
Nothing to see here. Both number include 2 and 1.

"Elections have consequences." - sailor
 
 
WakeForestRanger said:
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I would like to congratulate Trump and the GOP on creating a wonderful socialist giveaway program for American agriculture. If Trump gets a second term, maybe they'll introduce collectivization and a government takeover of the industry. Apparently, expensive welfare programs are only bad if they go to unworthy minorities and blue-state areas.
 
WakeForestRanger said:
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This is kind of a nothing in and of itself, aside from the socialism aspect of it. Of course a farm bill is going to help rural counties (which are predominantly Republican) over urban counties (predominantly Democrat). Looking at a single bill is worthless from that aspect. If there was an urban renewal program out there, I'm sure most of that money would go to blue counties. Now, if there were more applicants from blue counties that did not receive funds in favor of red counties, that would also be something to talk about.
 
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