Our view: Who pays for Trump’s contempt for ethics? USA. USA.
Leave it to President Trump to take influence peddling to a whole new level in Washington.
There have always been ways to try to gain access to presidents or influence them, typically through huge campaign contributions. But never before has the money flowed into a trust that directly benefits the president.
Now, lobbyists, corporations, foreign investors or anyone else looking to curry favor with Trump can go the direct route. They can join one of Trump’s luxury golf clubs where he holds court on many weekends. Or purchase a condo from the Trump Organization, or stay at the Trump International Hotel down the street from the White House.
And you don’t have to be a Washington insider to figure it out. In September, for example, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak made ample use of the Trump International Hotel. While hotel staff wouldn’t say whether Najib stayed there, he emerged from the hotel in the morning and returned there at night.
All this is the logical outcome of Trump’s decision not to put his assets in a blind trust, as have most recent presidents. In January, Trump announced that his businesses would be put in a trust run by his sons and a Trump Organization executive. The trust still benefits the president.
Three USA TODAY investigations underscore how many potential conflicts that decision has fostered:
Members of the clubs that Trump has visited most frequently — in Palm Beach, Bedminster, N.J., and Sterling, Va. — include CEOs of defense and technology contractors, lobbyists representing energy companies and foreign governments, and the leader of a pesticide trade group that persuaded the Trump administration not to ban a controversial insecticide. Club initiation fees can exceed $100,000, so all paid plenty for the privilege of potential face time with the president.
Five Trump club members now have “senior roles in his administration,” according to a USA TODAY review. “Never in modern history has a president awarded government posts to people who pay” his companies.
Since the president clinched the GOP nomination, 70% of the buyers of Trump properties have been shell companies that allow buyers to obscure their identities while paying out anywhere from $220,000 to $10 million. That’s more than 17 times the number of secret buyers in the two years before.
While there’s nothing illegal about buying property or belonging to a posh golf club, it is unseemly for people — especially those who seek to shape or even make federal policy — to be adding to the president’s wealth.
While much of what is going on remains secret, we have learned the president’s contempt for ethical standards is costing taxpayers. Americans are paying salaries for 10 Justice Department lawyers and paralegals “to work on lawsuits related to President Trump’s private businesses,” according to information obtained by USA TODAY under the Freedom of Information Act.
Taxpayers are paying the legal bills so President Trump can continue to sell the White House with impunity.