Jr. sleaze ball in India making millions for Trump name
at taxpayer's expense
Main
article here from the Washington Post highlighted parts below as published in part here (The Daily Beast):
The DHS responding
to a Freedom of Information request released 47 pages of purchase orders,
requisition forms, and planning work sheets showing Trump Jr.’s February trip
cost more than $97,805 for hotel rooms, airfare, car rental, and overtime for
Secret Service agents.
The costs were
incurred on a February tour of four Indian cities: New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune,
and Kolkata — where the Trump family has licensed its name to luxury high-rise
projects.
Significance and
Impact: Jr. walked
the red carpet, attended a ribbon cutting at a high-rise overlooking the
Arabian Sea in Mumbai, hosted
champagne dinners for buyers, and had a private tete-a-tete with India’s Prime
Minister, Narendra Modi.
Full-page glossy newspaper ads offered those who put
down a $38,000 deposit of a new luxury project outside Delhi a chance to dine with the president’s son, prompting
charges of conflict of interest.
His team boasted to reporters they had sold $100
million worth of the pricey flats, including $15 million in a single day.
The Secret
Service is authorized by law to protect the president and his immediate family,
although Trump Jr. briefly waived his protective guard last fall while on a moose-hunting trip to the Yukon. The
idea that the U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill for Secret Service travel
while the Trump children are on trips to promote the family’s brand overseas
has prompted criticism from both Capitol Hill and watchdog groups.
Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW),
says that because the president has not placed his assets in a blind trust, as
other presidents have done, he still effectively controls his real estate
empire and benefits from his children’s travels (Jr. and Eric Trump have traveled
widely to promote the Trump brand, e.g., Dubai
& Vancouver).
“The issue is that essentially the president still
owns his businesses, and these trips are being done to make the president
money. Essentially the government is spending money for the president’s private
businesses,” CREW says.
The Trump
Organization did not immediately respond to emails or return calls for comment.
In a statement, Jeffrey Adams, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said for security
reasons the agency could not discuss “the means, methods, resources, costs, or
numbers utilized to carry out our protective responsibilities.”
The Trump
family will face tighter scrutiny going forward now that the Democrats have
regained control of the House of Representatives, experts say. Rep. Elijah E.
Cummings (D-MD), who has been a frequent critic of the strains Trump’s large
family have placed on the Secret Service’s budget, is expected to assume
control of the powerful House oversight committee next year.
Democrats
began investigating the costs of Trump’s family travel last year, but the
effort did not get far. They are now awaiting the results of two reports from
the GAO — (1) on the costs of presidential travel and (2) one on the security
at Mar-a-Lago (Trump’s private club in Palm Beach).
During the nearly week-long trip protecting Trump Jr.,
Secret Service agents following Trump crisscrossed the country, staying in a
variety of luxury hotels, including the Oberoi in New Delhi and the Four
Seasons in Mumbai, where rooms range from $150 to nearly $500 a night. The
promotional events were for properties where the Trumps have licensing deals,
not properties the Trump Organization owns.
The
government spent a similar amount — about $97,830 — for hotel stays for Secret
Service and embassy staffers for Eric’s trip last year to Uruguay.
CREW also released
a report in July that shows the Secret Service spent $200,000 on airfare, hotel
rooms and other expenses when Trump Jr. and Eric went to the UAE to open a golf resort last year.
My 2
cents:
All this may be legal,
but very questionable on common sense and ethical side. For example, since all
this IS NOT official government business or even close to being official, why
can’t the Trump organization pay for them?
In short: This must stop. Taxpayers are not
supposed to pay for things that make the Trump Empire, Inc., rich, right?
Their motto seems to be: “Get
government power and resources, get as much money and benefits as possible to build
on the Trump name, and then get out before the public wakes up.” Trump's gamble: The public won't give a darn - and he wins (again) or so it seems.
All this corruption by Trump Empire, Inc., is SOP and regular news but what is the outcome? I suspect: More of the same.
Thanks for stopping by.
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