DAILY TRIFECTA: Trump Wants To Make You A Deal You Can't Refuse
He's the host and the contestant in his own gameshow
THE SET-UP: Today’s TRIFECTA will not come as a surprise. In fact, it may just stand to reason that the purveyor of Trump Steaks, Trump University and a Trump-branded Bible (for Christ’s Sake) is and has been leveraging his political celebrity for personal gain. The extent to which his party looks the other way is also unsurprising. However flawed the law may have been, the heady days of McCain-Feingold are a distant, hazy memory in the cash-soaked America bequeathed to us by Citizens United. And the GOP isn’t alone on that gravy train. The Dems are all-aboard the lucrative locomotive.
That said, few have poured more gravy on their biscuits than Donald Trump. During his time in the White House he turned his now-sold-off DC hotel into a money laundering machine for foreign powers seeking favors. The Saudis were big spenders at that property. They carried it over into his post-presidency through their takeover of professional golf, which became an excuse to spend lavishly on “hosted” events at Trump’s golf resorts. Like Kushner’s $2 billion slush-fund, it was a payment for services rendered (services I unpacked here).
Trump’s modus operandi is quid pro quo.
Flattery and filthy lucre will definitely get you somewhere with Don.
But now, thanks to some detailed reporting by CNN, we’ve also learned that Don is not just his name, it’s also his role in the GOP. That’s because political underlings, a.k.a. GOP candidates, appear to be to “kicking-up” to the boss … that is, of course, if they want to be “made-men” in the Trump syndicate. Being “made” means securing an all-important endorsement of one’s candidacy. In return, you pay the Don by laundering money through one of his properties. He is henceforth your patron and, as such, he demands absolute fealty. So much so, that you will no doubt find yourself publicly defending every indefensible thing your new Don says or does.
It’s a bond not born out of an arcane ritual imported from the Mezzogiorno. No, this is a bond forged with campaign cash raised by and essentially laundered through GOP hopefuls. Lots of it comes from billionaires and businesses. But a lot of it is also given by millions of “small donors” drawn from Trump’s legion of religiously committed voters. In many ways, Don the Don also closely resembles greedy televangelists who prey on their audience and, not coincidentally, also tend “preach” on his behalf. Either way he seems to sit atop the pyramid of a criminal scheme that is, according to the Supreme Court, perfectly legal.
TITLE: Republican Donors: Do You Know Where Your Money Goes?
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/26/opinion/republican-donors-money-ttump.html
EXCERPT: Anyone who has spent time reviewing Donald Trump’s campaign spending reports would quickly conclude they’re a governance nightmare. There is so little disclosure about what happened to the billions raised in 2020 and 2024 that donors (and maybe even the former president himself) can’t possibly know how it was spent.
Federal Election Commission campaign disclosure reports from 2020 show that much of the money donated to the Trump campaign went into a legal and financial black hole reportedly controlled by Trump family members and close associates. This year’s campaign disclosures are shaping up to be the same. Donors big and small give their hard-earned dollars to candidates with the expectation they will be spent on direct efforts to win votes. They deserve better.
During the 2020 election, almost $516 million of the over $780 million spent by the Trump campaign was directed to American Made Media Consultants, a Delaware-based private company created in 2018 that masked the identities of who ultimately received donor dollars, according to a complaint filed with the F.E.C. by the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. How A.M.M.C. spent the money was a mystery even to Mr. Trump’s campaign team, according to news reports shortly after the election.
All but 18 of the 150 largest expenditures on a Trump campaign’s 2020 F.E.C. report went to A.M.M.C. None of the expenses were itemized or otherwise explained aside from anodyne descriptions including “placed media,” “SMS advertising” and “online advertising.” F.E.C. rules require candidates to fully and accurately disclose the final recipients of their campaign disbursements, which is usually understood to include when payments are made through a vendor such as A.M.M.C. This disclosure is intended to assure donors their contributions are used for campaign expenses. Currently, neither voters nor law enforcement can know whether any laws were broken.
A.M.M.C.’s first president was reported to be Lara Trump, the wife of Mr. Trump’s son Eric. The New York Times reported that A.M.M.C. had a treasurer who was also the chief financial officer of Mr. Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign. Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, signed off on the plan to set up A.M.M.C., and one of Eric Trump’s deputies from the Trump Organization was involved in running it.
Ms. Trump is now co-chair of the Republican National Committee, which, soon after her arrival, announced it would link up with the Trump campaign for joint fund-raising. The joint entity prioritizes a PAC that pays Mr. Trump’s legal fees over the R.N.C., The Associated Press has reported, making assurances from Mr. Trump’s campaign co-manager that R.N.C. funds wouldn’t be used to pay Mr. Trump’s legal bills seem more hollow.
This election, the Trump campaign and four of its PACs have paid Red Curve Solutions, another private company, at least $18 million. The Campaign Legal Center says Red Curve appears to pay Mr. Trump’s legal bills and then gets reimbursed by the PACs. (The law is murky on what types of legal bills can be paid by campaigns, but some are allowed.) The head of Red Curve also serves as the treasurer for the Trump campaign as well as the affiliated PACs.
What percentage of donor contributions go to lawyers defending Mr. Trump? It’s impossible to know.
In June, NBC revealed the existence of a new mystery company, called Launchpad Strategies. Launchpad took in almost $15 million in Trump political cash via the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee and the Trump National Committee. Little is known about this new group. It was created in 2023 and the Trump campaign says it is related to fund-raising. We don’t know who owns it, who runs it or where the $15 million went.
It seems likely Mr. Trump is keeping close tabs on donations flowing through campaign vehicles controlled by family members and loyalists. But from early March through July of this year, the Biden and now Harris campaign outspent the Trump campaign three to one on advertising. By late May, the Democratic campaign had opened 200 field offices and hired 1,000 staff members in key states. The Trump campaign didn’t open its first office in the crucial battleground of Pennsylvania until June. The Biden campaign had 24 there in April.
TITLE: Trump’s businesses are raking in millions of dollars from Republican political campaigns – including his own
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/23/politics/trump-businesses-campaign-spending-invs/index.html
EXCERPTS: Late last year, former President Donald Trump announced his endorsement of car dealership owner Bernie Moreno for Ohio’s Senate seat – elevating an untested candidate who’d never held public office over several other more prominent Republicans.
Two days later, Moreno’s campaign spent about $17,000 at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, and then followed up by spending an additional $79,000 the next month – making him one of the Florida club’s top political spenders.
He wasn’t alone. With glitzy Mar-a-Lago fundraisers, stays at Trump’s hotels, and flights on the former president’s private jet, Republican candidates and political groups are on track to spend more on Trump’s businesses this year than any year since 2016, according to a CNN analysis of federal campaign finance data.
Trump himself has been the biggest spender, both this year and over the last decade. Between his three presidential campaigns, Trump and associated political groups have funneled more than $28 million in campaign donations to his businesses – helping convert the enthusiasm of his political supporters into personal profit.
Other Republicans have followed suit, spending millions at Trump’s properties in an apparent attempt to curry favor with the former president and signal their allegiance to him to GOP voters.
Some of the candidates who’ve spent the most money on Trump businesses in recent years have been new politicians who won the former president’s endorsement despite a lack of past electoral experience or success, including Moreno, former Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker and Arizona Senate hopeful Kari Lake.
In the first half of 2024, federal campaigns and PACs have spent nearly $3.2 million on Trump businesses, more than 80% of which came from Trump’s own campaign and associated groups. The biggest chunk – about $1.9 million – was spent by Trump’s campaign and fundraising committees on a Trump-owned company that operates his jet.
In total, campaigns and committees have spent more than $1 million at Mar-a-Lago so far this year, and about $200,000 at other Trump hotels and resorts.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign, said that “committees are paying the fair market rate for all venues and services” provided by Trump businesses.
The dynamic of candidates shelling out thousands on Trump’s businesses while vying for his endorsement – which can make or break Republican campaigns – is an example of how politics has boosted his businesses’ bottom line. And the former president’s influence helps explain why some candidates are traveling hundreds or thousands of miles to show up at a Trump hotel or resort, campaign finance experts said.
CNN analyzed Federal Election Commission data on more than 12 million campaign expenditures since 2011, and identified those that went to a variety of Trump-associated businesses, including Mar-a-Lago, his hotels and resorts, and the company tied to his jet.
About 150 congressional candidates have reported spending campaign funds at Trump businesses, including some Democrats in the years before his first presidential bid. New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez’s campaign spent several thousand dollars at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia in 2012, and the campaign of Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, a close ally of President Joe Biden, spent about $700 at the Trump International Resort in Florida in 2014.
But since Trump famously descended his golden escalator in 2015, every congressional candidate whose campaign has reported spending money at his businesses has been a Republican, the FEC data shows.
Most of them have received an endorsement from Trump at some point in their political careers. And some of the biggest spenders are politicians who have never held elected office but received key early endorsements from the former president that helped their campaigns win or avoid competitive primaries.
Moreno, the Ohio Senate candidate, is a clear example. A businessman who owns a host of car dealerships in the Cleveland area, Moreno originally ran for Senate in 2022, before dropping out after a conversation with Trump and eventually supporting now-vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance.
TITLE: Loan Shark Freed by Trump Charged With Punching Wife, 75-Year-Old Father-in-Law
https://www.livemint.com/news/world/loan-shark-freed-by-trump-charged-with-punching-wife-75-year-old-fatherinlaw-11724278013491.html
EXCERPTS: Jonathan Braun, the loan shark freed from prison by former President Donald Trump, was arrested on charges of punching his wife and his 75-year-old father-in-law.
Trump’s commutation of Braun’s sentence in 2021 drew widespread attention. Clemency is generally reserved for those who can make the case they have reformed or have been imprisoned too long. Braun had served just two and a half years of a decade-long sentence for running a marijuana-smuggling ring. At the time, he was facing separate investigations by US and New York authorities into his lending business, where he was known for ripping off small businesses and threatening them with violence.
Braun was part of a wave of more than 100 pardons and commutations by Trump in his final hours in office. Associates of Braun say he’s bragged about paying millions of dollars to Trump-connected intermediaries to secure clemency, Bloomberg reported. The New York Times reported in 2023 that Braun’s family tried to use a connection to Charles Kushner, the father of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, to get Trump to consider clemency.
After Braun’s marijuana sentence was commuted by Trump, he returned to predatory lending, Bloomberg reported in 2022. He’d long been a prolific lender, charging interest rates that topped 500% annualized and collecting tens of millions of dollars in payments. In June 2020, seven months before the Trump commutation, Braun was sued by New York’s attorney general and the Federal Trade Commission over the loans.
Braun’s aggressiveness made him terrifying to those in hock to him. Some said in court filings and in interviews that he would threaten to beat them or harm their families.
“You don’t know who you’re f—-ing dealing with. We can get you wherever we want,” he told one borrower, who started carrying a gun, court papers say. “We know where you live,” he said to another. “We’ll go after your family.”
Braun’s court appearance came on the same day that Trump, campaigning to recapture the presidency, promoted his “crime and safety” agenda at an event in Michigan. “We’re going to stop violent crime in the United States,” the former president said. “I will deliver law, order, safety and peace, and I will protect those who protect us.” The Trump campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.