“As unfortunate as it is, I understand the quagmire,” Mr. Trump said in an interview Wednesday evening. “You do a good thing that backfires.”
That's not the PEOTUS, that's his son Eric talking. The context is an offer to buy time with the PEOTUS, who will by then be POTUS, at the inauguration. The offer was floated (for a minimum 7 figure "donation") by a non-profit set up by son Eric, which listed him as one of the event organizers for this access pay for play.
What backfired is that he got caught, because his actions are now subject to scrutiny, not to a yawn because that noise in the walls is just the cockroaches, er, rather, the Trumps again. The "good thing" he was going to do? Something for himself, rather the way Daddy ran the Trump Foundation. This is a summary of the entire enterprise, almost up to the event of Eric's quoted lament:
The Trump sons and two longtime pals stand up a one-off 'nonprofit' to hold a fundraiser the day after the inauguration to sell access to the Trump Family. Nominally, the cause is 'conservation'. But they hadn't even figured out an explanation of what they were going to do with the money. The putative charity which stood to benefit said it hadn't decided whether it wanted to be involved. So much for that.Four more years.
I strongly suspect that Trump may be the first president who is impeached and removed from office, though it will be after the 2018 election. Either that or we are in for a long period of fascist government that will fall only after a violent civil war, if then.
ReplyDeleteI think the Trump regime may already stand as the most blatantly corrupt, apart from a few municipalities and states, in the history of the country.
Here are the things that I love about this story:
ReplyDelete1. The naked hypocrisy. This is ACTUAL pay for play, unlike what Trump and Republicans accused Hillary Clinton of with her foundation. People would have literally paid money to get direct access to in exchange for favor from the president of the United States. In the biz this is what is called "graft."
2. Eric Trump's "charity" does not have a rating on Charity Navigator. Why not? Because it does not meet their minimum requirements for being a charity. It spends far too much money on overhead and it's own expenses, pays huge sums directly to individuals - like Donald Trump, uses its money to purchase things like giant paintings of Donald Trump, and gives money to for-profit businesses that aren't charitable causes at all, like wineries - all the while paying money to Trump businesses for use of their facilities which should have been otherwise donated. And that's where the graft comes in.
3. The hunting trip was such a blatant pay for access scheme they didn't even bother to make it believable. The initial announcement said would be giving money to "Sportsmens charities." What the hell are Sportsmens charities?!? Google that phrase and you won't find it because it's not a thing anybody says! It's what rich entitled assholes pretending to be conservationists guess real sportsmen say to each other.
This was never about conservation, it was about selling access to the presidency; lining Trump's pockets under the guise of giving money to sick children while courting hunters and fisherman.
And while we're on the subject of Eric and Trump hypocrisy:
ReplyDelete"As Donald J. Trump, the man who’s entire campaign was predicated on bringing American jobs back to America, vows to keep his promise to the people, a Virginia winery owned by son Eric Trump is petitioning to government for the opportunity to hire foreign workers, the New York Post reports.
The request, filed by the Trump Winery on Dec. 2 and posted online by the Department of Labor Wednesday, show that the Trump-owned vineyard is requesting six foreign workers under the federal H-2 program, a temporary work visa that allows US employers bring foreign labor.
According to the application, Trump Vineyard will pay the H-2 workers $10.72 an hour for 40 hours a week, as well as an unpaid lunch break. It will run from January until June 2017.
ABC News reports the winery applied for the 19 visas through the H-2 program in 2016; it made similar requests in 2014 and 2015.
Trump ran on a pro-worker populist platform throughout his campaign, and maintained that image despite numerous reports indicating the president-elect hires foreign workers at his establishments, including his Florida estate Mar-a-Lago.
A New York Times report published in February revealed the Trump Organization rejected hundreds of US applicants in favor of hiring foreign workers.
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/trump-winery-begs-labor-department-to-hire-foreign-workers-over-americans/