Tag: Trump graft

Inside the opulent Trump inaugural dinner designed as a glittery overture to foreign diplomats

President-elect Trump delivers remarks at the Chairman’s Global Dinner on Jan. 17, 2017. Credit: Kevin Dietsch, Getty Images

Three days before Donald Trump was inaugurated president in January 2017, he arrived at a remarkable scene inside an auditorium in downtown Washington designed in the style of a Neoclassical temple.

About 550 guests — diplomats, wealthy megadonors, members of Congress and Cabinet nominees — dined on filet mignon and black cod as they watched a performance by the country music band Alabama and a straight-from-Las Vegas musical extravaganza. Mounds of red roses were arranged on tables, and a calligrapher was on site to inscribe the names of last-minute guests on seating cards.

The gathering, which cost the inaugural committee about $8,000 per person, was one of the most opulent events of the five-day inaugural celebration — yet it was not designed to showcase the new president, who decided to attend at the last minute, according to internal documents and people familiar with the planning.

View the complete March 15 article by Michael Kranish, Rosalind S. Helderman, Mary Jordan and Tom Hamburger on The Washington Post website here.

EPA regulator skirts the line between former clients and current job

Bill Wehrum, the Environmental Protection Agency’s top air-policy official, in Washington earlier this month. Credit: Bill O’Leary, The Washington Post

Less than a month into his tenure as the top air-policy official at the Environmental Protection Agency, Bill Wehrum hopped into the EPA’s electric Chevy Volt and rode to the Pennsylvania Avenue offices of his former law firm.

There, he met with representatives of the nation’s largest power companies — including two groups that, shortly before, had been his paying clients — to brief them on the Trump administration’s plans to weaken federal environmental regulations.

The Dec. 7, 2017, meeting is just one example of interactions between Wehrum, a skilled lawyer and regulator, and former clients that ethics experts say comes dangerously close to violating federal ethics rules. Wehrum acknowledges that since joining the EPA in November 2017, he has met with two former clients at his old firm — without consulting in advance with ethics officials, even though they had cautioned him about such interactions. He also weighed in on a policy shift that could have influenced litigation involving DTE Energy, a Detroit-based utility represented by his former firm.

View the complete February 25 article by Juliet Eilperin on The Washington Post website here.

Saudi-funded lobbyist paid for 500 rooms at Trump’s hotel after 2016 electio

Trump International Hotel in Washington. Credit: Astrid Riecken, The Washington Post

Lobbyists representing the Saudi government reserved blocks of rooms at President Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel within a month of Trump’s election in 2016 — paying for an estimated 500 nights at the luxury hotel in just three months, according to organizers of the trips and documents obtained by The Washington Post.

At the time, these lobbyists were reserving large numbers of D.C.-area hotel rooms as part of an unorthodox campaign that offered U.S. military veterans a free trip to Washington — then sent them to Capitol Hill to lobby against a law the Saudis opposed, according to veterans and organizers.

At first, lobbyists for the Saudis put the veterans up in Northern Virginia. Then, in December 2016, they switched most of their business to the Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington. In all, the lobbyists spent more than $270,000 to house six groups of visiting veterans at the Trump hotel, which Trump still owns.

View the complete December 5 article by David Fahrenthold and Jonathan O’Connell on The Washington Post website here.

Pump and Trump

Donald Trump claims he only licensed his name for real estate projects developed by others. But an investigation of a dozen Trump deals shows deep family involvement in projects that often involved deceptive practices.

Since Donald Trump’s fortunes came surging back with the success of “The Apprentice” 14 years ago, his deals have often been scrutinized for the large number of his partners who have ventured to the very edges of the law, and sometimes beyond. Those associates have included accused money launderers, alleged funders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and a felon who slashed someone in the face with a broken margarita glass.

Trump and his company have typically countered by saying they were merely licensing his name on these real estate projects in exchange for a fee. They weren’t the developers or in any way responsible.

But an eight-month investigation by ProPublica and WNYC reveals that the post-millennium Trump business model is different from what has been previously reported. The Trumps were typically way more than mere licensors or bystanders in their often-troubled deals. They were deeply involved in these projects. They helped mislead investors and buyers — and they profited handsomely from it.

View the complete October 17 article by Heaather Vogell, ProPublica, with Andrea Bernstein and Meg Cramer, WNYC,and Peter Elkind, ProPublca on hte ProPublica website here. (This story was co-published with WNYC.)

‘The Swampiest Swamp In The History Of The Swamp’

Trump once said that he “could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it.” That’s one promise he kept. It is also one of the many reasons why Trump’s swamp is “the swampiest swamp in the history of the swamp.” Here’s the latest:

Since January 2017, Republican campaigns and political groups have spent more than $3.5 million at Trump’s properties.

McClatchy: “In 2014, Political Spending At Trump Properties Was $35K. In 2018, It’s $3.5M” Continue reading “‘The Swampiest Swamp In The History Of The Swamp’”

Trump Proposes New Rule To Implement His Tax Law That Would Benefit Himself

Trump and Republicans promised that the Trump tax law would benefit workers. That has not happened. Instead, Trump’s Treasury Department has proposed a new rule that could wind up benefiting Trump.  It’s no wonder Republican candidates have abandoned running on the Trump tax law.

Trump’s Treasury Department proposed a new rule to implement the Trump tax law that could wind of benefiting Trump’s business and the wealthiest Americans.

New York Times: “A new 20 percent tax break included in last year’s $1.5 trillion tax overhaul could wind up benefiting President Trump’s real estate empire given how the Treasury Department plans to implement the provision, several tax experts said.” Continue reading “Trump Proposes New Rule To Implement His Tax Law That Would Benefit Himself”

Corporations that have donated to Trump’s racist PAC get ridiculous returns on their investments

The following article by Rebekah Entralgo was posted on the ThinkProgress website June 1, 2018:

CVS and Southern Co. among them.

Pres. Trump gestures during a roundtable discussion on the advancement of women business leaders Credit: Kevin Dietsch, Pool via Bloomberg

Campaign finance watchdog MapLight published a report Thursday that exposed three major corporations for their contributions to America First Policies — a pro-Trump “dark money” PAC established last year by Trump officials that has been criticized for its use of a racist, xenophobic, and sexist phrase.

America First Policies received $1 million from gas and electric utility corporation Southern Co., $100,000 from Dow Chemical, and $500,000 from pharmaceutical retail chain CVS Health. According to disclosure forms, all three have reported lobbying on the Republican tax bill passed in December that dramatically cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent. Continue reading “Corporations that have donated to Trump’s racist PAC get ridiculous returns on their investments”

Donald Trump Jr. comes to India to hawk apartments, and quickly edges into politics

The following article by Shashank Bengali was posted on the Los Angeles Times website February 20, 2018:

President Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. meets Feb. 20 with his company’s Indian partners in New Delhi. Credit: Manish Swarup, Associated Press

Landing in New Delhi on Tuesday to begin what was billed as an unofficial tour to promote his family’s real estate interests in India, Donald Trump Jr. wasted little time before veering into international politics.

Some of Trump Jr.’s first statements in India could be seen as crossing the line into geopolitics, showing how difficult it is to focus solely on business when you’re the son of the U.S. president and you haven’t been exactly shy about defending his political views, statements and policies while running his business empire. Continue reading “Donald Trump Jr. comes to India to hawk apartments, and quickly edges into politics”

Trump Jr: ‘Nonsense’ that family’s profiting from presidency

The following article by Muneeza Maqvi was posted on the Associated Press website February 22, 2018:

NEW DELHI (AP) — Donald Trump Jr. said any talk of his family profiting from his father’s presidency is “nonsense” during a trip to India that has raised ethical concerns about using the name of the American president to promote international business ventures.

The eldest son of President Donald Trump said his family is actually missing out on business opportunities because his father pledged to conduct no new foreign business while he was in office. Trump Jr. told Indian television channel CNBC-TV18 on Tuesday that when critics talk about them “profiteering from the presidency and all this nonsense” they forget about “the opportunity cost of the deals that we were not able to do.” Continue reading “Trump Jr: ‘Nonsense’ that family’s profiting from presidency”