SHOCKER: Trump to Trade Perks for Cash Donations to Inaugural
I hope readers appreciate the irony in the use of the term “shocker” in the headline. Sometimes these things don’t come across on the Internet.
The Center for Public Integrity reports:
Donald Trump’s inaugural committee is offering huge perks — prime tickets, luxurious lodging, access to the president-elect himself — in exchange for six- and seven-figure contributions from individual and corporate contributors.
Donors in the “$1,000,000+” category will receive four tickets to a “leadership luncheon” billed as an “exclusive inaugural event” for donors in that category and featuring “select Cabinet appointees and House and Senate leadership to honor our most generous inaugural supporters,” according to a brochure obtained by the Center for Public Integrity.
They’ll also get four tickets to a dinner with Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, and eight tickets to a “ladies luncheon” billed as “an opportunity to meet the ladies of the first families.” In addition, they’ll receive tickets to a series of other dinners and receptions featuring Trump, Pence and other officials, and eight “premier access” tickets to a black-tie inaugural ball attended by the president, vice president and their wives.
This is nothing new, of course. The piece notes that Obama, after banning corporate donations for his 2009 inaugural, gladly welcomed them for his 2013 version — just as Trump is welcoming them now, for his 2017 version. As a Public Citizen spokesman explains: “To throw a lot of money into a big party to welcome a new president, these corporations believe that is endearing them to the next administration.”
Here’s my favorite part of the report:
All the donor packages include “Priority Booking at Premier Inaugural Hotel(s),” allowing donors the chance to book prime hotel rooms (at their own expense, of course, and with a four-night minimum stay). . . . Not indicated on the brochure?
Whether one of those “Premier Inaugural Hotel(s)” might be the president-elect’s own newly opened Trump International Hotel, a luxury hotel located five blocks from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue and along the inaugural parade route.
You know it does, girlfriend!
Trading money for access has always been the way of Washington, and it always will be. If you voted for Barack Obama thinking he was going to change things, you were a chump sucker.
Sorry to say, the same applies to anyone who voted for Donald Trump for the same reason.
Status of swamp = Still Undrained.
[Cross-posted at RedState.]
Still not as bad as Ticketmaster.
This doesn’t look any different than GoFundMe, for instance, where people raising money for an independent movie might trade a donation for an hour of stand up (thinking of Adam Carrola here).
Pinandpuller (2d1af1) — 11/29/2016 @ 8:13 pmTrump doesn’t own it. The government does. Trump leases it, and spent $200 million on renovating it.
Gabriel Hanna (9b1f4a) — 11/29/2016 @ 8:21 pmUnder the 2008 redevelopment law, Congress had 30 days to disapprove the lease or it would become final.[130][131][132] Anticipating no problems from the legislature, GSA began relocating the existing federal tenants in the Old Post Office Building.[134]
Another major regulatory hurdle was cleared by The Trump Organization in early July 2013. The staff of the National Capital Planning Commission recommended to the agency that it approve the redevelopment plans.[135] The NCPC staff report suggested that GSA and The Trump Organization continue to work on exterior signage designs to ensure they are appropriate.[135] The full commission approved the staff report and gave preliminary approval to the company’s building plans. The NCPC asked the organization to return in fall 2013 with final plans.[141]
On August 5, 2013, Congress allowed the lease between GSA and The Trump Organization to go into force.[142] The Washington Business Journal reported that the lease called for a 263-room[143] (another source said 270-room)[117] hotel and for Trump to spend $250 million on renovations.[143] The D.C. Preservation League (the former Don’t Tear It Down) said it supported the Trump redevelopment of the site.[117]
The Trump Organization hired the interior design firm of Hirsch Bedner Associates to work on the interior aesthetics of the Old Post Office Building.[144] The company said it would retain many of the historic interior features of the building, including the wide upstairs hallways.[113] The interior design tentatively featured brass-and-crystal chandeliers and hand-woven rugs in the public areas.[114][138] Guest rooms were tentatively expected to have wool carpeting, 6-foot (1.8 m) long bathtubs, crystal lighting sconces,[114] and crystal chandeliers.[136] No room price had yet been set by September 2013.[113]
Development of the Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C., was expected to provide economic benefits for the city. D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray said studies by the city showed it generating $100 million in tax revenue over 10 years.[113][114][138] Construction would create 700 temporary jobs, and the hotel and retail businesses in the building would create 300 permanent jobs, he said.[114][138] The main floor of the nine-story atrium would also include a water sculpture and trees.[138]
The Trump organization began the $200 million renovation on May 1, 2014, with the closure of the clock tower. The renovation took two years.[145] The hotel opened to paying guests with a “soft opening” on September 12, 2016.[8] The hotel’s grand opening was celebrated on October 26, 2016.[146]
Gabriel Hanna (9b1f4a) — 11/29/2016 @ 8:23 pmLike other capitalists, I can think of no better method for allocating scarce resources than the price mechanism.
Some may differ.
ThOR (c9324e) — 11/29/2016 @ 8:30 pmIt’s not that politicians can be bought, its how cheaply.
Sounds like Trump is getting top dollar.
ThOR (c9324e) — 11/29/2016 @ 10:04 pmPublic Citizen should work to get their hands on a copy of one of Hillary’s Inauguration brochures — you know they had them made up in advance, so they do exist.
I can only imagine the exponential degree of laundering contributions that would have been demanded had she won.
shipwreckedcrew (56b591) — 11/29/2016 @ 10:09 pmI can just imagine those leftists who would defend her by saying Trump would have done the same.
Hacks, amirite?
Patterico (f0ce01) — 11/29/2016 @ 11:48 pmDo you think the Lincoln bedroom will be rented by the hour or overnight?
gbear (70736b) — 11/30/2016 @ 10:16 amThese are personal perks, not U.S. government policy, and a straight out sale of very specific goods that Trump’s inaugural committee has a right to sell, and once the people who buy them receive them there is no further obligation.
The tickets, the hotel rooms, the meeting/picture with Donald Trump, whatever, is all they get. I suppose you could suspect more, but he’s not Hillary Clinton, and Hillary Clinton didn’t crudely tradeoff things either. What mattered is if someone was or became a “Friend of Bill,” and that could not be bought with mere money.
It was not like putting a token into a turnstyle.
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/22/opinion/the-white-house-turnstile.html
I don’t believe Johnny Chung. I think he was lying. Not just anybody could buy influence. They had to be trusted, and any relationship went deep. Otherwise, an indictment would have been almost unavoidable after a while.
Sammy Finkelman (643dcd) — 11/30/2016 @ 10:33 am8. The Lincoln bedroom was never sold. That’s what the Clintons wanted people to believe. It was a small part of a much bigger relationship (and people got those sleep-ins it for a variety of reasons also)
Any relationship with someone who slept in the Lincoln bedroom before 1998 was much more than casual.
Bill Clinton deliberately made the list of visitors to the Lincoln bedroom public. This was not the sort of thing normally findable through the Freedom of Information Act even if that is the way a news organization obtained it.
Sammy Finkelman (643dcd) — 11/30/2016 @ 10:40 am