Mar-a-Lago School for Ambassadors
I don’t think I knew that Trump actually gave important government jobs to members of his expensive golf resort.
Trump is making available four new and rarely available memberships at his exclusive Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he mingled freely with unvetted patrons during his first term of office and accepted policy advice from guests scrawled on cocktail napkins.
The $1m cost of each membership, which will open for applications in October, exactly one month before the presidential election, also represents a 43% hike from the current initiation fee of $700,000 – an eye-popping increase given the former president has railed against Joe Biden for what he sees as out of control inflation.
Yeah but that’s not inflation, it’s price gouging plus advantage-taking plus corruption.
“Trump is the ultimate grifter,” said Robert Weissman, president of the Washington DC-based pro-transparency group Public Citizen.
…
Weissman pointed to several episodes during Trump’s term in which Mar-a-Lago members received plum appointments.
They include Lana Marks, the luxury handbag designer, who became US ambassador to South Africa with no diplomatic training or experience; Adrian Zuckerman, a lawyer and Trump’s golfing buddy who served the same role in Romania; and David Cornstein, the jewelry magnate, a longstanding Trump friend sent to Hungary as ambassador to woo strongman prime minister Viktor Orbán.
The 500-member Mar-a-Lago roster is traditionally kept secret, but in 2019 USA Today identified eight past or present members of Trump’s clubs picked for roles in his administration.
Well at least they can play golf.
Update: H/t Acolyte of Sagan
Sadly, Trump isn’t the first president to reward donors and allies with ambassadorships, nor was he the last — Biden continued this tradition. Though as with so many things, Trump takes it to the most vulgar extremes.
I’m deeply, deeply offended by this complete lack of regard for traditional standards and precedent. Everybody knows that cocktail napkins (and the backs of envelopes) are reserved exclusively for the ispired scrawling of ingenious, seat-of-the-pants inventions, or for extemporaneously calculating the nearest-order-of-magnitude solutions of thorny physics problems, not goddamn “policy advice.” I mean Geezus. Show some fucking respect.
Bruce,
Or for “documenting” business deals, because there’s no way you need to consult a lawyer, that napkin lays it all out clearly and everyone involved can be trusted, and this will in no way result in protracted litigation that will help pay for your lawyer’s next vacation.