The
Trump family keeps grifting, to the end and beyond
Opinion by
Columnist
Dec. 18, 2020 at 3:07 p.m. CST
If you thought you’d
heard about all the financial chicanery Donald Trump and his family have
engaged in during his presidency, rest assured there’s plenty more to be
revealed. Here’s the latest story, courtesy
of Business Insider:
President Donald
Trump's most powerful advisor, Jared Kushner, approved the creation of a
campaign shell company that secretly paid the president's family members and
spent almost half of the campaign's $1.26 billion war chest, a person familiar
with the operation told Insider.
The operation acted
almost like a campaign within a campaign. It paid some of Trump's top advisors
and family members, while shielding financial and operational details from
public scrutiny.
When Kushner and
others created the company in April 2018, they picked Trump’s daughter-in-law
Lara Trump to become its president, Vice President Mike Pence’s nephew John
Pence as its vice president, and Trump campaign Chief Financial Officer Sean
Dollman as its treasurer and secretary, said the person, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations about the shell
company.
To be clear, it could
well be that no laws were violated, scrupulous about obeying the rules as the
Trump and Kushner families are
known to be. But the whole point of shell companies is to hide something; in
this case, the campaign was able to show over $600 million in payments to the
shell company, American Made Media Consultants Corp., on its Federal Election
Committee filings, without the details that would be known if whatever they
were spending money on was paid directly to vendors.
And while most of
that $600 million probably went to buy advertising, I wouldn’t be too surprised
if the favored officers of the shell company got nice salaries, nor if there were
ways that it was used to funnel campaign contributions back to Trump himself.
We may never know.
But I know this: Trump’s supporters couldn’t care less, even if it’s their
money.
That’s because he has
spent years convincing them that self-dealing and graft is perfectly fine. The
only question is whether it’s the people you like who are benefiting.
This was always
Trump’s argument about unethical behavior: not that he’s innocent and others
are guilty, but that everyone is guilty, so we shouldn’t worry
about his misdeeds. Everyone is corrupt, everyone is on the take, everyone
mistreats women, we’re living in a world without morals or principles and all
that matters is whether you win.
He never made any
bones about it. Even in 2016, when Hillary Clinton charged that he was probably
refusing to show his tax returns because he paid no taxes (which turned out to
be pretty
much true),
he replied, “That makes me smart.” Obeying the rules is for suckers
and chumps.
By now, Trump’s
supporters — who will remain his supporters after he leaves office — firmly
believe that. If he pulls a new scam and they’re his victims? That just shows
what a genius he is.
I’m not even
exaggerating. If you took a hundred people committed enough to Trump to send
donations when he solicits help with the Georgia Senate runoffs, then told them
that much of it ended up in Trump’s bank account, do you think they’d feel
cheated? Of course not.
And that could well
happen. Since election day Trump has
raised $250
million, $60 million of which has gone to his leadership PAC — and he’s done it
by telling supporters that he needs the money to fund lawsuits trying to overturn
the election or keep up the fight in Georgia. He will be able to use that money
for a wide variety of vaguely-defined purposes, so long as it’s not explicitly
in support of another presidential run.
He could, for
instance, fund his own travel around the country, or pay for advertising
getting his ideas out, or donate money to other candidates to maintain their
loyalty. In other words, it’s basically a slush fund.
But there are many
ways Trump could use his leadership PAC to put money in his own pocket, by
applying the techniques he used quite profitably as president. The PAC could
rent office space in Trump Tower, just as Trump’s reelection committee did
(as the
Times notes,
the reelection continues to pay $37,000 a month for space there, even though
its headquarters is in an office building in Virginia).
The leadership PAC
could also hold events at other Trump properties, just as many Republican
organizations have for the last four years. This began early on: as the
District of Columbia attorney general charges in a
lawsuit,
Trump’s inaugural committee paid inflated rates to rent space in the Trump
International hotel. At first the hotel was going to charge a mind-boggling
$450,000 a day for the use of a ballroom; that number was eventually reduced to
a still-incredible $175,000 a day.
The inaugural
committee was a non-profit, which subjects it to rules that may have been
violated, as the DC suit alleges. But the leadership PAC may be able to get
away with more. It could, for instance, hold monthly “Thank you President
Trump!” events at his properties, mini-Fyre Festivals that Trump would charge
enormous rates to host while attendees get a mayonnaise sandwich, a cash bar,
and the knowledge that they’re helping the Trump Organization cling to
profitability.
They’ll consider it
an honor.