Without much backlash
It looks as if Trump won’t be able to make it to his own party tonight, but at least he will still get to make a big profit from it.
President Trump’s posh Mar-a-Lago Club is set to host a high-priced gala on Saturday night intended to celebrate Trump’s first year in office and raise money for his reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee.
Tickets start at $100,000 per couple, Bloomberg News reported.
Posh. Hm. I don’t really think of anything connected to Trump as posh. Expensive, yes, but posh, no.
The guest of honor, however, may not be there. With the government shut down and Congress in negotiations, Trump postponed his scheduled departure from Washington on Friday afternoon. But he will still make money.
By holding the event at his own club, Trump will be able to collect tens of thousands of dollars in fees for food, ballroom rental and other costs. In effect, he will have transformed his supporters’ political donations into revenue for his business.
Again.
Since Trump began running for president in summer 2015, he has repeatedly used his hotels and golf courses as venues for his campaign events — and paid himself for the privilege.
During the 2016 election cycle, Trump’s campaign spent at least $791,000 to hold events at 12 Trump-branded venues: three hotels, seven golf courses, a condo building and Mar-a-Lago, federal campaign filings show. That was on top of millions more that Trump’s campaign paid his businesses for other expenses such as hotel stays, meals and rent for office space at Trump Tower.
The experts say that doesn’t break the relevant laws unless the campaign is paying more than fair market value. It’s not illegal, but is it sleazy and gross? Oh yeah.
At any rate, word is he’s livid that he doesn’t get to go.
Multiple people close to the White House told me this morning that Trump is absolutely furious he hasn’t been able to leave for Mar-a-Lago yet. Now they are trying to figure out a way for him to get to Florida without much backlash. I don’t think that route exists. #TrumpShutdown
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) January 20, 2018
But I read somewhere that Trump magnanimously declined to draw his official Presidential salary while on the job.
If true, that needs a better brain than mine for an explanation; particularly in the light of this stuff.
You’d think even supporters would feel squeamish about putting their money directly into his bank account, but I guess not.
I remember all the pre-emptive consternation that the Clinton Foundation would have to be shut down if Hilary won, because of the potential for corruption if people were able to curry favor with the president just by donating to a charity with her name on it.
I also remember the morons who thought that Trump wouldn’t try to cash in on the presidency because he’s just soooo rich already that he’s immune to corruption.
Gives him plausible deniability. See, he’s not making money, he’s even working for free because he’s a noble guy. Plus, how can we begrudge him making a bit of money when he’s not drawing a salary?
Why bother with a measly Presidential salary when you can rake in billions from the government over a 4 (or 8, please no) year term by just using your own businesses for government business?
That would have to be pretty covfefe. In short, it shows the covfefevity of the Trump administration pretty clearly.
No bull.
Posh? Not remotely. They had a bowl of caviar and — wait for it — plastic spoons to eat it with. Not even fancy plastic. That super-cheap kind you get at the boy scouts’ picnic.
I hear tell that the $100,000 a plate customers were “traumatized” by the plastic spoons.