New details
about taxpayer costs at Trump properties show the shamelessness of his
“corruption” talk
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| AP Photo/Alex Brandon |
The Washington Post reported on February 7 that
Secret Service records obtained from a variety of sources show nearly $500,000
in payments to the president’s companies since he took office, including $650
per night charges for rooms at Mar-a-Lago and $17,000 a month above-market-rate
charges for a three-bedroom cottage at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, New
Jersey.
And it’s likely there have been
additional payments to Trump’s companies that aren’t public knowledge, as the
Secret Service has stonewalled efforts from Democrats to get a full accounting.
From the Post’s David Fahrenthold,
Jonathan O’Connell, Carol Leonnig, and Josh Dawsey:
Trump’s company says it charges only minimal fees. But Secret Service records do not show that. At Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, the Secret Service was charged the $650 rate dozens of times in 2017, and a different rate, $396.15, dozens more times in 2018, according to documents from Trump’s visits.
An elected official using his office
to financially benefit his family is basically the textbook definition of
corruption, and the Post’s new reporting is simply the latest chapter in the
ongoing saga of the Trump family normalizing self-dealing in a manner
unprecedented in American history.
But in an especially shameless
display, Donald Trump and his eldest son repeatedly attacked the Bidens for
their purported corruption on February 6, just hours before the Post’s report
dropped.
During his bonkers post-impeachment acquittal victory lap speech at the White House, Trump justified his efforts to strongarm the Ukrainian government into announcing investigations of the Bidens by saying, “I probably have a legal obligation to report corruption.” He unfavorably contrasted Hunter Biden’s lucrative role on the board of a Ukrainian gas company with what his own kids are up to, claiming “my kids could make a fortune” if they did the same.
The irony is that the Trump
children have made a fortune from foreign dealings,
and not just before their dad took office.
In October, Forbes reported that Eric and Donald Jr.
have sold more than $100 million of the family’s real estate since the January 2017
inauguration — including a $3.2 million deal in the Dominican Republic in 2018
that is “the clearest violation of their father’s pledge to do no new foreign
deals while in office.”
Foreign money has also poured into the Trump International Hotel,
located just blocks from the White House, which the president’s most recent
financial disclosure indicated made him $41 million in 2018 alone.
Shamelessness, however, appears to
be a trait Trump shares with his children. On Thursday evening, Donald Trump
Jr. went on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show and attacked Hunter Biden, saying,
“Hunter Biden can make millions from the Ukraine, but I’m pretty sure they’d
have a problem with Donald Trump Jr doing it.”
Many Democrats do indeed object to
the Trump family’s corruption. But with regard to Secret Service expenditures
at the president’s properties, they’ve been unable to get to the bottom of it
because Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has refused to disclose the pertinent records until
after the 2020 election.
Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) told the Post
that Trump has been “trying to hide the details from the public, because he
knows how bad it looks. That’s the truth of it. He’s a billionaire, but we’re
spending millions of dollars to support his for-profit clubs and for-profit
businesses.”
Not only are Republicans unbothered
by the Trump administration’s lack of transparency about taxpayer expenditures
at their properties, but in an especially ironic twist, they’re helping the
Trump’s family efforts to gin up a scandal about the Bidens.
Republicans Sens. Chuck Grassley
(IA) and Ron Johnson (WI) recently requested the Secret Service turn
over records of expenditures related to Hunter Biden’s protection when his
father was vice president.
And while the Treasury Department
has stonewalled Democratic efforts to get to the bottom of what it’s costing
taxpayers to protect the Trump family at properties they still own and profit
from, the Treasury Department immediately turned over the Hunter Biden records.