Maybe he meant that Trump is really very dense.
Maybe he was running out of characters in his tweet.
Of all the Trump photos that make me feel like puking (which is all of them, really), this one from the above cited article (which I’ve seen published several times already), really makes me the pukiest of all. Is this the pic that gives meaning to jizztrumpet ?
Yeah. What’s he got against Florida, anyway?
You laugh now, but just wait till he shows up with a yuuuuuuge American flag sewn to his lapel! One that’s bigger than Crooked Hillary! Then we’ll see who’s laughing!
Actually, if his companies DIDN’T charge him for the services at market value it might be considered an illegal campaign contribution - depending on the total value and how it was reported. I’m not sure what his recourse would be. I suppose he could stop using Trump planes and Trump facilities for the sake of appearances, but he relies so heavily on his brand that might be a mistake.
I’m not even sure if he could pay his companies out of pocket for these services. Do the laws regarding campaign contribution limits apply to donations to your own campaign?
Well, you do if you own the joint. And maybe you can try writing off those payments to yourself.
IMHO there is no way to spin this that doesn’t pose an ethical conflict and potentially a legal one, too. A campaign – or any enterprise spending donor money – has an ethical obligation to negotiate competitive rates for major services like event venues and transportation, and to do so literally in a competitive fashion and above all to avoid conflicts of interest in how they do it. The Donald has done none of those things.
Either his companies are benefiting from a financial windfall by charging list-price rates for bulk bookings, or the campaign is benefiting from preferential below-market rates that constitute illegal campaign contributions. The only way to avoid the ethical dilemma is to either avoid his companies entirely or have them engage in anonymous competitive bids that are independently audited. But since The Donald is a self-serving slimeball with all the ethics of a sewer rat, he’s happy to just funnel the donor money back to himself. It ought to be a hoot to see what he does with the Treasury Department if he’s ever the chief executive of the nation.
I had to go through this before (not for rooms) for taxation purposes.
If you wanted to, it’s not all that difficult to show / prove. If you’re worried about the appearance of collusion - the way I would personally do it would be simply to take the nearest event in size / bookings and give that rate.
I should have been clearer. My point in “the only way to spin this …” was with regard to what Trump is actually doing, not what is possible. I did suggest several ways it could be legitimized and admittedly, as you point out, those are not necessarily the “only” ways if there are other ways to establish fair market value.
The issue seems to be that the FEC is only concerned that his companies not provide what would effectively be campaign assistance by undercharging for services. This seems to be the last of Trump’s concerns, and there are no regulations governing the opposite situation, of overcharging and hence using donor money to enrich himself and his family members. According to the New York Times, when he was contemplating a run in 2000, he stated that “It’s very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it.” It seems to be part of a long premeditated scam. The Times goes on to say:
[The Trump campaign] paid at least $1.1 million to his businesses and family members in May for expenses associated with events and travel costs …
“He could end up turning a profit if he repaid himself for the campaign loans,” said Paul S. Ryan, a campaign finance expert with the Campaign Legal Center. “He could get all his money back plus the profit margin for what his campaign has paid himself for goods and services.”
While most candidates list an array of vendors providing goods and services on their filings, Mr. Trump’s is packed with payments to his various clubs and buildings, his fleet of planes and his family.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/22/us/politics/donald-trump-self-funding-payments.html?_r=0
I’m inclined to concur with what others have been saying – that Trump has no expectations of actually being elected, and he’s playing the fools for what they are for fun and profit. It wouldn’t really surprise me if he was elected and then resigned or tried, as a long shot, another scam so outrageous that he was impeached for it. But I think his expectation is that his presidential run will immensely enhance his brand which is his major asset, plus make a bunch of money along the way. From his standpoint, what’s not to like?
Trump is a lot like his pal Sarah Palin – intellectually dumb as a brick, but with a certain instinctive cunning when it comes to scamming the rubes. Honestly, if a few decades ago someone had written a novel featuring a presidential candidate like Trump, it would have been dismissed as immature comic-book fantasy.
As a liquid, jizz can’t be compressed. Therefor Trump is a trumpet of (or for?) incompressible jizz. Makes perfect sense to me.
Not only is Trump Sr. a crook, but Donald J Trump Jr. worked for a sleazy outfit called Cambridge Who’s Who (Times story ) which sold expensive plaques and crap to people with no need for them.
When Trump Jr. joined they already had 400 BBB complaints. And the CEO of this company was barred from the securities industry when he had someone else take the licensing exam.
Scum finds scum, doesn’t it?
:D:p:D
I’ll just mention this briefly, since I made a few longer posts in Donald’s Election thread with links and all -
-
Wapo says Donald’s been stiffing charities for years
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-promised-millions-to-charity-we-found-less-than-10000-over-7-years/2016/06/28/cbab5d1a-37dd-11e6-8f7c-d4c723a2becb_story.html -
For the last week, Donad’s campaign has caught Brexit fever and is spamming Members of Parliament with fundraising emails
UK Pols To Trump: Stop Clogging Our Inboxes With Your ‘Intemperate Spam’! - TPM – Talking Points Memo
Is any of those things legal?
Well, not giving money to charities when you’ve said you are going to give money to charities may be selfish and dickish, but it’s not illegal.
Fundraising from British MPs, on the other hand, I have no idea.
Are you sure? The linked article mentions, for example, that Trump “pledged to give away royalties from his first book to fight AIDS and Multiple Sclerosis.” If people who wouldn’t have purchased that book did so because of a deceptive claim, is there a false advertising law that’s relevant?
Hmmmm. I am not sure, and I am not a lawyer either, but I’d be surprised as hell if any voluntary “pledge” on Trump’s behalf to do something in particular with his own royalty income constituted any kind of legal commitment on his part.
Authors make all sorts of half-assed promises about their future endeavors. If George R. R. Martin never actually finishes another GoT book after promising fans he would, do the fans who wouldn’t have bought the existing books if they’d known the series would never be completed have a case against him? I have to doubt it.
Eh, who needs a book when we can have President Littlefinger?
I would have thought that raising money on the promise of donating it to charity and then keeping the money for personal use, would be fraud. Maybe it’s one of those frauds that’s only fraud if the little people do it.
As far as asking foreign people to donate - I don’t think it’s illegal for Trump to ask. It would be illegal if the foreign MPs actually donated directly. It’s mostly another example of thoroughly Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing.