‘BIG CANDY’ LOBBY SWEET ON TRUMP
Group’s multiple events at president’s properties raise ethics concerns
As U.S. candymakers descended on South Florida for their industry conference this week, they were scheduled to plot lobbying strategy in the “Ivanka Trump ballroom.” A dessert networking event was planned for the “Donald J. Trump grand patio.” Between meetings, attendees were eligible to enjoy outings on a Trump-owned golf course and massages at a Trump spa.
The National Confectioners Association is doing a lot of business with U.S. President Donald Trump’s company.
In addition to this week’s gathering of 600 attendees at the Trump National Doral resort near Miami, the group has booked two upcoming meetings, in September and again in 2018, at the Trump International Hotel down the street from the White House.
At the same time, the organization, representing candy titans Hershey, Mars and Jelly Belly, among other companies, is optimistic about scoring big, early policy wins from the Trump administration. Among the industry’s priorities: a long-sought rollback of government sugar subsidies that candy firms say drive up the costs of making their products.
“We have a very narrow window of time now with the current administration and political dynamics to win this fight,” the group’s president and chief executive, John Downs, wrote to the board of trustees in the days before this week’s Doral meeting. The memo, which was posted on the group’s website, estimated that a victory on the sugar issue could save the industry US$280 million annually.
Downs added that the group has “significant opportunities to go on offence” on other matters, including its push to end Obama-era regulations on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and food labelling.
The group said it booked the venues in 2014 and 2015, long before Trump won the presidency. And a spokesman said the sites were chosen for their locations and amenities, not in any effort to seek political favours.
But the arrangement illustrates a repercussion of Trump’s decision to retain ownership of his business during his time in the White House — that he can become financially intertwined with a special interest that is simultaneously seeking to influence policy decisions by his administration.
By holding conferences at the Doral resort and the D.C. hotel, the confectioners group is making payments to businesses that directly benefit the president’s personal fortune at the time the candy group is seeking policy changes in the administration. In addition to the three events taking place during Trump’s presidency, the group also held two conferences last year at Trump properties when he was running for office — a winter gathering in Doral and a September forum at the Washington, D.C., hotel.
The group declined to disclose how much it has paid the Trump company, but according to meeting planners familiar with the Trump Organization’s prices, the price of the Doral events likely cost at least US$100,000 to US$200,000 each, not counting hotel rooms and extras such as spa services, while the D.C. hotel events likely run at least US$100,000 apiece.
Ethics laws forbid executive branch officials to participate in government operations that could benefit them or their families. Those restrictions do not apply to the president. Trump’s predecessors have typically abided by the same standard by putting their finances in blind trusts to avoid even the potential for a conflict, but Trump’s aides have argued that such a setup would be impractical for a real estate company.
Ethics experts have previously raised concerns about Trump profiting from other events booked at his D.C. hotel, such as a recent event held by an association of railroad contractors and a gala scheduled
We have a very narrow window of time now with the current administration and political dynamics to win this fight.
for September by an association of college athletic directors forming a new political action committee. A liberal watchdog group is suing Trump, claiming that some hotel events, such as a reception held last month by the Kuwaiti Embassy, violate a constitutional provision barring a president from taking payments or gifts from foreign governments.
The candymakers’ association is the first known example of an interest group with multiple events planned at Trump properties during the Trump presidency.
Christopher Gindlesperger, spokesman for the confectioners, said that the conference sites are “completely unrelated” to the group’s lobbying work.
“Our federal advocacy and regulatory agenda has remained the same as it has for years related to the sugar reform issue,” he said. “Anytime there is a new Congress or new administration there is a moment when the business community or other groups can tell their story about the jobs they can create, products they make, and the other contributions they make to the American economy.”
Gindlesperger said the two Doral conferences were booked in 2014, while the three D.C. meetings were booked in 2015. The venues, he said, were selected based on “the same criteria we always use: availability of lodging for a large group, quality of service, space to hold large meetings, and proximity to Capitol Hill.”
A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization declined to comment for this report. A White House official declined to be quoted by name but said that the White House Counsel’s Office provides routine ethics training.
Trump announced shortly before taking office that he was removing himself from management of his company, a global real estate and branding enterprise that includes luxury hotels, golf courses, office buildings and merchandise. His adult sons and a longtime executive are now running it.