Step right up, rent a bed in Trump’s new hotel, Ambassador
This is completely astounding.
Friday evening, the Washington Post reported that about 100 foreign diplomats gathered at President-elect Donald Trump’s hotel in Washington, DC to “to sip Trump-branded champagne, dine on sliders and hear a sales pitch about the U.S. president-elect’s newest hotel.” The tour included a look at the hotel’s $20,000 a night “town house” suite. The Post also quoted some of the diplomats saying they intended to stay at the hotel in order to ingratiate themselves to the incoming president.
ARE YOU SERIOUS???
He is marketing his new hotel to foreign diplomats?
I’m out of swears, out of facial expressions, out of anything that can express my disgust.
“Why wouldn’t I stay at his hotel blocks from the White House, so I can tell the new president, ‘I love your new hotel!’” said one diplomat from an Asian nation. “Isn’t it rude to come to his city and say, ‘I am staying at your competitor?’”
No. No no no no no. No no no. What’s rude, and corrupt beyond belief, is for a new president to flog his new hotel to visiting diplomats.
The incoming president, in other words, is actively soliciting business from agents of foreign governments. Many of these agents, in turn, said that they will accept the president-elect’s offer to do business because they want to win favor with the new leader of the United States.
There’s a word for that. The word is “bribery.” Can you say “bribery”? I thought you could.
Trump should set up a catering business in the White House kitchen and make all visitors pay him for their meals. That would be dignified.
At least we won’t have to worry about Crooked Hillary, with all her famous corruption, pay-for-play, and public-vs.-private talking points!
This fool is already more corrupt than any president we’ve ever had, and he’s still got 2 months to go before he even takes office!
I see the swamp draining is continuing apace.
Yes, when you drain the swamp and build a shining new hotel over it. Then you have glitz where once you had a thriving ecosystem. Trump likes the glitz, and doesn’t care how many countries he has to tear down to get what he wants.
I’m not surprised by the venality or lack of ethics. I am surprised by the lack of imagination and ambition.
Usually, rich people who are striving to become ever-richer do so because they want more power or status. They know they can’t spend it all, but it’s a way of keeping score and of accumulating power and respect.
Trump has, however improbably, managed to turn his wealth and fame into real political power. He’s got the kind of power that much wealthier men like Sheldon Adelson and the Koch Brothers, or George Soros, would love to have. He has a claim to fame and history that Mark Zuckerberg and Warren Buffett and the Vanderbilts and the Rockefellers never will. And yet, the best way he can think of to (mis)use the awesome power of his office is… to fill more luxury hotel rooms? To squeeze out a few more dollars?
I never bought the notion that “Trump doesn’t really want to be President.” I mean, I think he knew it was unlikely, and had his eyes on raising his brand profile or setting up Trump TV as his consolation prize, but the notion that he actively didn’t want the job seemed silly. But now, he’s acting like the proverbial dog who actually caught the car, and doesn’t know what to do with it.
Oh, I definitely believe he’s in way over his head.
@Screechy Monkey – yes, it’s as if an evil Bond villain in his lair of a hollowed volcano was using his power to run a lottery scam. Dreadfully banal.
…though this Bond villain still has all the lasers and bombs at his disposal and wonders why he shouldn’t use them.