Tag: Trump lack of ethics

Milley to Trump: “I don’t expect you to understand”

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The new book by The Wall Street Journal’s Michael Bender — “Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost” — pinpoints the moment that the relationship between former President Trump and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley began to disintegrate.

  • It came last year during a fiery Oval Office confrontation over Milley’s public apology for appearing in a photo op with Trump at St. John’s Church:

“Why did you apologize?” Trump asked him. “That’s weak.”

“Not where I come from,” Milley said. “It had nothing to do with you. It had to do with me and the uniform and the apolitical tradition of the United States military.”

Continue reading.

Trump Organization Seeking Aid From U.K., Ireland For Golf Resorts

Donald Trump’s dual roles as a president and a private businessman with his hand out to foreign governments raise ethics concerns.

In yet another mind-blowing business situation for an American president, Donald Trump’s company is seeking handouts from foreign governments for three struggling golf resorts.

The Trump Organization is after aid from the British and Irish governments to cover most of the wages of employees who have been furloughed because of COVID-19 lockdowns, Bloomberg reports.

Ironically, the 2,000 Trump employees laid off in his own country won’t get the same government help. Continue reading.

Ex-Trump Aide Is Expected to Return to White House

New York Times logoThe aide, John McEntee, had been dismissed in 2018 on the orders of the chief of staff at the time, John F. Kelly.

A close aide to President Trump who was dismissed last year by the White House chief of staff at the time is expected to rejoin the West Wing, according to three people familiar with the move.

John McEntee, who shadowed Mr. Trump as his body man, is slated to come back in a similar role, the people with knowledge of the move said. His return will mean a familiar presence with whom Mr. Trump is comfortable as he heads into the 2020 re-election campaign, and he is likely to divide duties with one of his successors, Nick Luna.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment, and Mr. McEntee could not be reached for comment.

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Experts Say White House‘s Conway Response Raises Major Ethical Questions

The White House asserted this week that broad swaths of federal ethics regulations do not apply to people who work in the Executive Office of the President. Ethics experts say this sets the Trump White House apart from past administrations.

The administration‘s assertion was made in a letter that White House Deputy Counsel Stefan Passantino wrote regarding the controversy over White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway‘s recent ethical issues.

Passantino‘s letter said that “many regulations promulgated by the Office of Government Ethics (“OGE”) do not apply to employees of the Executive Office of the President.”

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Checking In at Trump Hotels, for Kinship (and Maybe Some Sway)

New York Times logoTo ethics lawyers, the most extraordinary aspect of the daily merging of President Trump’s official duties and his commercial interests is that it has now become almost routine.

WASHINGTON — At a table in the lobby bar of the Trump International Hotel this week, the final details of a black-tie, 40th anniversary gala for the Concerned Women for America were being worked out by the conservative group’s staff.

There was the contract with the president’s hotel to be reviewed. And there was also unfinished business with the White House — logistical issues posed by two guests from the administration, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and most important, the status of the video message and letter from President Trump himself that the group wanted for the dinner.

“That is the gold standard,” said Kenda Bartlett, Concerned Women for America’s executive director. “If we can get that, the rest of this is just dressing.”

View the complete September 7 article by Eric Lipton and Annie Karni on The New York Times website here.

 

President Trump has made more than 5,000 false or misleading claims

On Sept. 7, President Trump woke up in Billings, Mont., flew to Fargo, N.D., visited Sioux Falls, S.D., and eventually returned to Washington. He spoke to reporters on Air Force One, held a pair of fundraisers and was interviewed by three local reporters.

In that single day, he publicly made 125 false or misleading statements — in a period of time that totaled only about 120 minutes. It was a new single-day high.

The day before, the president made 74 false or misleading claims, many at a campaign rally in Montana. An anonymous op-ed article by a senior administration official had just been published in the New York Times, and news circulated about journalist Bob Woodward’s insider account of Trump’s presidency.

View the complete September 13, 2018, article by Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly where.

President Trump has made 4,713 false or misleading claims in 592 days

The following article by glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly was posted on the Washington Post website September 4, 2018:

The Fact Checker is keeping a running list of the false or misleading claims Trump says most regularly. Here’s our latest tally as of Sept. 3, 2018. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

In the 592 days since he took the oath of office, President Trump has made 4,713 false or misleading claims, according to The Fact Checker’s database that analyzes, categorizes and tracks every suspect statement uttered by the president.

That’s an average of about eight claims a day.

When we first started this project for the president’s first 100 days, he averaged 4.9 claims a day. But the average number of claims per day keeps climbing as the president nears the 600-day mark of his presidency.

View the complete article here.

Tracking the President’s Visits to Trump Properties

The following in an embed of an article by Karen Yourish and Troy Griggs posted on the New York Times website and updated July 16, 2018.  Remember, when the president travels, he travels with a large entourage all of whom are fed and lodged at these Trump properties.  When he stays overnight, they stay overnight, with taxpayer monies going directly into the president’s businesses.

Giuliani works for foreign clients while serving as Trump’s attorney

The following article by Josh Dawsey, Tom Hamburger and Ashley Parker was posted on the Washington Post website July 10, 2018:

Rudolph W. Giuliani continues to work on behalf of foreign clients both personally and through his namesake security firm while serving as President Trump’s personal attorney — an arrangement experts say raises conflict-of-interest concerns and could run afoul of federal ethics laws.

Giuliani said in recent interviews with The Washington Post that he is working with clients in Brazil and Colombia, among other countries, as well as delivering paid speeches for a controversial Iranian dissident group. He has never registered with the Justice Department on behalf of his overseas clients, asserting it is not necessary because he does not directly lobby the U.S. government and is not charging Trump for his services.

His decision to continue representing foreign entities also departs from standard practice for presidential attorneys, who in the past have generally sought to sever any ties that could create conflicts with their client in the White House.

View the complete article on the Washington Post website here.

National Enquirer sent stories about Trump to his attorney Michael Cohen before publication, people familiar with the practice say

The following article by Sarah Ellison was posted on the Washington Post website June 21, 2018:

During the presidential campaign, National Enquirer executives sent digital copies of the tabloid’s articles and cover images related to Donald Trump and his political opponents to Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen in advance of publication, according to three people with knowledge of the matter — an unusual practice that speaks to the close relationship between Trump and David Pecker, chief executive of American Media Inc., the Enquirer’s parent company.

Although the company strongly denies ever sharing such material before publication, these three individuals say the sharing of material continued after Trump took office. Continue reading “National Enquirer sent stories about Trump to his attorney Michael Cohen before publication, people familiar with the practice say”