Tag: Trump profiting from being president

Trump campaign committees spent $1.1 million at Trump properties in the last days of his losing campaign

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President Trump’s campaign and its affiliated committees spent more than $1.1 million at Trump’s own properties in the last weeks of the 2020 campaign — continuing a pattern of self-enrichment in which Trump has converted $6.7 million from his campaign donors into revenue for his businesses since taking office, new campaign finance filings show.

The filings from Trump Victory — a fundraising committee managed by Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee — show $1.06 million in new spending at Trump properties in September, October and November. Trump’s own campaign, which files a separate spending report, reported spending another $66,000.

The filings don’t give much detail about the payments. Some appeared to be overnight stays at Trump hotels, costing a few hundred dollars each. There were several bills in excess of $100,000 for facility rental and catering — which likely included rentals of ballrooms for fundraisers or meetings at Trump properties. But the forms don’t say which Trump property was rented, or when. Continue reading.

Trump Hotel At Center Of RNC Festivities

The Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., is the place for Republicans to see and be seen during convention week.

WASHINGTON ― Republicans had to cancel their big convention celebration in North Carolina ― and then Florida ― this year, but that doesn’t mean the festivities were all called off. The center of gravity instead moved to Washington, particularly the Trump International Hotel, where donors are being treated to panels, receptions and even a bourbon tasting with their favorite Trump World personalities.

Much of the action of a convention goes on outside of the official proceedings, in the parties and fundraisers around town. At least some of those events are still going on this week, despite the coronavirus pandemic. 

The big event planned for Wednesday is a reception with Donald Trump Jr., his girlfriend and Trump fundraiser Kimberly Guilfoyle, Tiffany Trump, her boyfriend Michael Boulos, and John Pence, the nephew of the vice president.  Continue reading.

Trump’s campaign paid $2.3 million in donor funds to his private businesses: FEC filings

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When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he promised to “drain the swamp” and declare war on crony capitalism — and he insisted that if he was elected, there would be a strict separation between his presidency and his business interests. But Dan Alexander, in Forbes, reports that according to Federal Election Commission filings, Trump’s campaign has so far paid $2.3 million in campaign funds to his private businesses.

“The most recent expenses look familiar,” Alexander notes. “The president accepted $38,000 in rent last month through Trump Tower Commercial LLC, the entity that owns his Fifth Avenue skyscraper.”

In July, according to the FEC filings, Trump’s campaign paid $8000 to the Trump Corporation for “legal and IT consulting.” And Trump’s campaign also coordinated with the Republican National Committee to pay Trump Tower Commercial LLC $225,000.

In July, the FEC filings show, Trump Hotel Collection received $1000 from his campaign. And some of the $2.3 million went to Trump Restaurants LLC. Continue reading.

Another Trip To Bedminster Means More Taxpayer And Donor Money In Trump’s Pocket

The president is back at his New Jersey golf resort, bringing his taxpayer-paid golf tab to $142 million.

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump returned to his New Jersey golf course Friday to host a campaign event, meaning yet more donor and tax dollars flowing into his own cash registers.

New York City’s police union is set to endorse Trump’s reelection at his Bedminster resort Friday evening, allowing it to charge Trump’s campaign for the rental of the meeting space and catering. Taxpayers, meanwhile, must pay for rooms and food for Secret Service agents and other staff during his stay.

Neither the Trump campaign nor the Trump Organization, his family business that runs his hotels and golf resorts, responded to HuffPost queries about how much the campaign would be charged for Friday’s event. Continue reading.

Trump’s company has received at least $970,000 from U.S. taxpayers for room rentals

Washington Post logoThe U.S. government has paid at least $970,000 to President Trump’s company since Trump took office — including payments for more than 1,600 nightly room rentals at Trump’s hotels and clubs, according to federal records obtained by The Washington Post.

Since March, The Post has catalogued an additional $340,000 in such payments. They were almost all related to trips taken by Trump, his family and his top officials. The government is not known to have paid for the rooms for Trump and his family members at his properties but it has paid for staffers and Secret Service agents to accompany the president.

The payments create an unprecedented business relationship between the president’s private company and his government — which began in the first month of Trump’s presidency, and continued into this year, records show. Continue reading.

Secret Service paid Trump’s D.C. hotel more than $33,000 for lodging to guard treasury secretary

Washington Post logoThe Secret Service rented a room at President Trump’s Washington hotel for 137 consecutive nights in 2017 — paying Trump’s company more than $33,000 — so it could guard Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin while he lived in one of the hotel’s luxury suites, according to federal documents and people familiar with the arrangement.

Mnuchin, a financier from New York, lived in the Trump International Hotel for several months before moving to a home in Washington. Mnuchin paid for his hotel suite himself, a Treasury Department spokesperson said.

But during his stay, the Secret Service also rented the room next door at taxpayer expense, to screen Mnuchin’s visitors and packages, according to three people familiar with that arrangement who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Continue reading.

DOJ says Congress can’t stop Trump Org from taking foreign payments — despite Constitution’s emoluments clause

AlterNet logoThe so-called emoluments clause has been the center of a case that many legal scholars have been making that President Donald Trump is regularly violating the Constitution by continuing to accept payments from foreign governments via his businesses.

The Washington Post reports that an attorney from the Trump Department of Justice argued on Monday that the emoluments clause doesn’t actually prevent Trump from accepting payments from foreign governments, even though the clause specifically states that “no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”

The only role that the Constitution gives Congress with respect to the foreign emoluments clause is to allow them,” DOJ attorney Hashim Mooppan argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Continue reading

Trump heads to court in fight over emoluments

The Hill logoThe Trump administration is heading to court this week in two lawsuits charging that the president is violating the Constitution by profiting off of his hotels and other businesses while in office.

The cases revolve around the Constitution’s once-obscure emoluments clauses, which critics say President Trump has flouted, giving foreign diplomats an opening to curry favor with him by patronizing his businesses.

On Monday, a panel of judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments over whether members of Congress can sue the president for alleged emoluments violations, and on Thursday, the full 4th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments over whether state attorneys general can bring their own case.

Continue reading

Secret Service spent more than $250,000 at Trump’s properties in first five months of his term, records show

Washington Post logoThe U.S. Secret Service paid more than $250,000 to President Trump’s private businesses in just the first five months of his presidency — paying Trump’s company an average of nearly $2,000 per day, according to Secret Service records.

Those records, obtained by the group Property of the People after an open-records lawsuit, detail some of the revenue that Trump derives from U.S. taxpayers.

The president has set up an extraordinary arrangement: He kept ownership of his businesses — and then visited them repeatedly, bringing along aides and security officials, and charging the government for what they bought.

View the complete November 21 article by David A. Fehrenthold, Jonathan O’Connell and Joshua Partlow on The Washington Post website here.

‘Raw bribery’: House Dems investigating foreign governments’ mysterious no-show bookings at Trump’s hotels

AlterNet logoHouse investigators are looking into allegations that groups, including at least one foreign government, paid for rooms at President Donald Trump’s hotels but never actually stayed there.

That probe is part of the House Oversight Committee’s broader investigation into whether Trump broke the law by accepting money from U.S. or foreign governments at his properties, reported Politico.

The committee learned that a trade association and a foreign government booked a large number of rooms but used only a few of them, according to a person familiar with the allegation.

View the complete October 2 article by Travis Gettys from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.