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Trump 53: Orange Florida Man Awaiting Indictment


GreyhoundFan

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Sadly, when you support a scam artist, you get scammed. many people give much more to the Trump campaign than what they thought because of one or two pre-checked boxes. I've only included part of the story but the whole story deserves a read 

How Trump Steered Supporters Into Unwitting Donations

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-steered-supporters-unwitting-donations-142130038.html

Spoiler

Stacy Blatt was in hospice care last September listening to Rush Limbaugh’s dire warnings about how badly Donald Trump’s campaign needed money when he went online and chipped in everything he could: $500.

It was a big sum for a 63-year-old battling cancer and living in Kansas City on less than $1,000 per month. But that single contribution — federal records show it was his first ever — quickly multiplied. Another $500 was withdrawn the next day, then $500 the next week and every week through mid-October, without his knowledge — until Blatt’s bank account had been depleted and frozen. When his utility and rent payments bounced, he called his brother, Russell Blatt, for help.

What the Blatts soon discovered was $3,000 in withdrawals by the Trump campaign in less than 30 days. They called their bank and said they thought they were victims of fraud.

“It felt,” Russell Blatt said, “like it was a scam.”

But what the Blatts believed was duplicity was actually an intentional scheme to boost revenues by the Trump campaign and the for-profit company that processed its online donations, WinRed. Facing a cash crunch and getting badly outspent by the Democrats, the campaign had begun last September to set up recurring donations by default for online donors for every week until the election.

What is really disgusting is I'm sure many of the people who fell victim to the scam still love him and still support him.

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14 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

What is really disgusting is I'm sure many of the people who fell victim to the scam still love him and still support him.

On the whole I don't pity them, especially if it has taken this long to muster up concerns about integrity.

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More money grifted from taxpayers:

 

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Do as I say, not as I do...

image.png.7f83c568b47c4443da0838f7f178d5da.png

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27 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Do as I say, not as I do...

image.png.7f83c568b47c4443da0838f7f178d5da.png

Wish I could see whether that's a Mexican Coke bottle sitting on that nice big desk.

I'm pretty sure he isn't getting calls from other former presidents wanting to offer their regards, chat, or ask his opinion about...anything.

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1 hour ago, AmazonGrace said:

Why are people boycotting Coca Cola?

The former guy released a statement including a list of companies to boycott (Delta, Coca-Cola, MLB, etc) because they've spoken out against the voter suppression laws in GA.

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In my opinion, from a business standpoint (but most definitely not a moral one), Coca-Cola is between rock and a hard place. Many across the country are livid with the voter suppression laws that have been passed in the state of Georgia so they are choosing to try to put pressure on Georgia by boycotting some of its major businesses including Coca-Cola and Delta airlines. Both companies, as I recall, have spoken out against the voter suppression but that is getting them in trouble with the large number of Trumpublicans who also consume Coca Cola and fly Delta. Now the Trumpublicans are talking boycotts led by the OFM himself. (You know, the group that winds the loudest about cancel culture.)

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11 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

In my opinion, from a business standpoint (but most definitely not a moral one), Coca-Cola is between rock and a hard place. Many across the country are livid with the voter suppression laws that have been passed in the state of Georgia so they are choosing to try to put pressure on Georgia by boycotting some of its major businesses including Coca-Cola and Delta airlines. Both companies, as I recall, have spoken out against the voter suppression but that is getting them in trouble with the large number of Trumpublicans who also consume Coca Cola and fly Delta. Now the Trumpublicans are talking boycotts led by the OFM himself. (You know, the group that winds the loudest about cancel culture.)

As far as I'm concerned, they only have themselves to blame.  Major corporations hire lobbyists to help them get tax breaks and handouts.  They also donate money to political parties and specific candidates who will help them get what they want.  That boomerangs back when you get boycotts.

They could've announced, years ago, that they did not get involved in politics in any way.  They could have issued statements saying that they were just a company selling a product, nothing more.  They didn't.  You live by the sword, you die by the sword.

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On 4/4/2021 at 11:34 PM, Audrey2 said:

What is really disgusting is I'm sure many of the people who fell victim to the scam still love him and still support him.

Yes they are continuing to kiss his ass. 

Quote

But for some Trump supporters like Ron Wilson, WinRed is a scam artist. Mr. Wilson, an 87-year-old retiree in Illinois, made a series of small contributions last fall that he thought would add up to about $200; by December, federal records show, WinRed and Mr. Trump’s committees had withdrawn more than 70 separate donations from Mr. Wilson worth roughly $2,300.

“Predatory!” Mr. Wilson said of WinRed. Like multiple other donors interviewed, though, he held Mr. Trump himself blameless, telling The Times, “I’m 100 percent loyal to Donald Trump.”

 

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14 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

The former guy released a statement including a list of companies to boycott cancel (Delta, Coca-Cola, MLB, etc) because they've spoken out against the voter suppression laws in GA.

FTFY.

They decry "cancel culture" when it is about pointing out racism and other problems. But let someone come out against racism in the GOP's favorite forms? It suddenly becomes a boycott and they're all for it.

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5 hours ago, Xan said:

As far as I'm concerned, they only have themselves to blame.  Major corporations hire lobbyists to help them get tax breaks and handouts.  They also donate money to political parties and specific candidates who will help them get what they want.  That boomerangs back when you get boycotts.

They could've announced, years ago, that they did not get involved in politics in any way.  They could have issued statements saying that they were just a company selling a product, nothing more.  They didn't.  You live by the sword, you die by the sword.

I see your point but am not sure I agree.  Shouldn't it be the politicians in Georgia who are boycotted vs. the companies that donated to them?  What if the company made donations on multiple sides of the political spectrum?  I don't support the lobbying and political donations - though it appears to be business-as-usual - but it seems like the large companies are being used as pawns simply because they happen to be located in Georgia.

OTOH, large company money does tend to have influence beyond your run-of-the-mill individual contributor's, so I can kind of see why some would want to take their angst out on them, pawn or not.  Unfortunately, that also means that I can kind of see why someone might want to "boycott" or otherwise shun or punish me because of how I might share my political views, or vote, or donate...and that can easily get into dangerous territory.

OTOH (x2), if I knew that someone had donated to and voted for a neo-Nazi I'd be 100% behind whatever backlash they got, but would still believe that the focus should be on keeping the candidate away from office.  If boycotting a major contributor would make a difference with that then sure, boycott them.  But I tend to doubt that the companies in Georgia are going to change their behavior in response to what's going on now.

Interesting topic.

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8 minutes ago, Dandruff said:

I see your point but am not sure I agree.  Shouldn't it be the politicians in Georgia who are boycotted vs. the companies that donated to them?  What if the company made donations on multiple sides of the political spectrum?  I don't support the lobbying and political donations - though it appears to be business-as-usual - but it seems like the large companies are being used as pawns simply because they happen to be located in Georgia.

OTOH, large company money does tend to have influence beyond your run-of-the-mill individual contributor's, so I can kind of see why some would want to take their angst out on them, pawn or not.  Unfortunately, that also means that I can kind of see why someone might want to "boycott" or otherwise shun or punish me because of how I might share my political views, or vote, or donate...and that can easily get into dangerous territory.

OTOH (x2), if I knew that someone had donated to and voted for a neo-Nazi I'd be 100% behind whatever backlash they got, but would still believe that the focus should be on keeping the candidate away from office.  If boycotting a major contributor would make a difference with that then sure, boycott them.  But I tend to doubt that the companies in Georgia are going to change their behavior in response to what's going on now.

Interesting topic.

It's because companies care more about the people than the GOP does. At least, companies care when the people stop spending money on their product. I think the boycotts are the only way to get attention, because the corporations carry much more weight to the government than the people do (unfortunately). 

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Trump's attempt at sticking it to MLB for leaving GA: turning his base against baseball. 

 

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2 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Trump's attempt at sticking it to MLB for leaving GA: turning his base against baseball. 

 

Now I wish the NFL, NASCAR, NBA, NCAA, NHL, USHL, and so on would stand up to the racist fuckstickery as well.  Hell Branch Trumpvidians won't be able to enjoy any sports in that case cause their Giant Golden Calf of Fuckstickery said they can't. 

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9 hours ago, 47of74 said:

“Predatory!” Mr. Wilson said of WinRed. Like multiple other donors interviewed, though, he held Mr. Trump himself blameless, telling The Times, “I’m 100 percent loyal to Donald Trump.”

Trump's followers will always find a way for him to be completely innocent. :pb_rollseyes:

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1 minute ago, Cartmann99 said:

Trump's followers will always find a way for him to be completely innocent. :pb_rollseyes:

Which is one reason he's such a good con artist - he deflects blame extraordinarily well. I do find it fascinating that he manages to attract and hold people still, despite being shown to be corrupt and incompetent. 

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More people learning that ETTD (Everything trump Touches Dies): "Corporate America isn’t welcoming former Trump Cabinet officials with open arms, headhunters say"

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Before she joined the Trump administration as transportation secretary, Elaine Chao earned millions of dollars over the past decade by serving on the boards of big public companies such as Dole Foods, Protective Life and Wells Fargo, according to corporate filings.

She offered sterling credentials to businesses eager to keep current with the Republican leadership: A former banking executive, she became the first Asian American woman to serve in a Cabinet when President George W. Bush tapped her to serve as labor secretary. She has been a regular at conservative think tanks including the Heritage Foundation and the Hudson Institute. Her husband is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

But now Chao is encountering a fraught reentry into the private sector.

Headhunters who have sought similarly prominent work for Chao have found little interest, according to two headhunters she’s consulted personally. The headhunters, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions, said top executives wary of backlash from associating with former Trump officials are boiling down Chao’s four-decade Washington résumé to its most recent entry: long-standing ally of Donald Trump, despite her resignation the day after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

One of the headhunters said his team surveyed some companies about their interest in Chao and didn’t find any takers. “The feedback was, ‘It’s too soon,’ ” this person said.

But while it is clear that Chao’s reentry is more difficult than in the past, a person close to her says she has not been entirely shut out of the corporate world.

“She’s evaluating a number of invitations to join various corporate boards while helping former colleagues land as well,” this person said. “She’s interested in new economy companies, has already accepted board positions and is currently in various stages of finalizing agreements with them and others.”

Chao declined to comment herself.

While the small numbers make comparisons difficult, corporations don’t seem to have an immediate interest in other top Trump administration alums either. Roughly half of the S&P 500 companies have filed their 2021 investor disclosure reports, listing a total of 108 new or prospective board members, according to data from Insightia, which provides information to shareholders. No Trump Cabinet officials who served in the final quarter of his term are among those nominated.

By this point in 2009, four major companies had lined up alums of George W. Bush’s Cabinet to serve as directors: global power company AES, oil and gas company Hess, chemical maker FMC, and United Technologies, the industrial conglomerate that has since merged with Raytheon.

Headhunters and other corporate advisers say the calculus for executives at most large, publicly traded companies is simple. Trump — the only president to be impeached twice, the second time on a charge he incited the mob that assaulted the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the presidential election results — left office with a majority of Americans strongly disapproving of his job performance. He remains a lightning rod for controversy and faces ongoing legal exposure from civil lawsuits and criminal investigations. Offering a board seat to anyone in his inner orbit risks inviting a revolt from customers, employees or shareholders.

“Boards don’t need trouble or criticism,” one headhunter said. “If you want to stay away from all that potential tarnish, that’s easy: You just don’t go near it.”

With Democrats in control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, companies are on the hunt in Washington for help with the new party in power. That is depressing demand for Republicans broadly, including those coming off Capitol Hill, top lobbyists say.

For example, Wells Fargo is still operating under a federal cap on its growth in the wake of its consumer abuses. Chao joined its board in 2011 and earned handsome pay for her work there until she resigned the seat in early 2017: In 2016 alone, she pulled in $312,000 in cash and stock, and she collected between $1 million and $5 million in deferred stock options that paid out through this year, federal filings show.

The bank did not include Chao among the nominees for its board that shareholders will approve at its spring meeting. “The last thing Wells Fargo wants is somebody at the Fed or the OCC to say, ‘I woke up, saw this and now I’m pissed off,’ ” Peter Crist, chairman of the headhunting firm Crist Kolder Associates, said, using the abbreviation for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a banking regulator. Wells Fargo declined to comment. The three other companies on whose boards Chao sat most recently — Ingersoll-Rand, News Corp. and Vulcan Materials — all declined to comment on whether she would be welcome back.

Chao may not be alone. William P. Barr was a fixture on elite corporate boards before a tumultuous two-year stint as the second U.S. attorney general to serve during the Trump era. Critics say he used the post to act as the president’s personal counsel rather than the nation’s top law enforcement officer. Thousands of former Justice Department officials called on him to resign in open letters, a step he took in December after his relationship with Trump soured. Barr defended his moves on Trump’s behalf in high-profile cases, arguing his interventions were justified on the merits.

What he wants to do next with his career is unclear. Barr declined to comment. But he’s unlikely to return to at least one of his former employers. Kirkland & Ellis, the firm where Barr practiced before joining the administration, has no plans to rehire him, said a person familiar with the firm, requesting anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

And the three companies for whom he served as a director before joining the administration — Dominion Energy; Sculptor Capital, the hedge fund formerly known as Ochs-Ziff; and Time Warner, which has since merged with AT&T — declined to comment. Barr, who earned a $10.4 million retirement payout from Verizon after stepping down as the telecom giant’s general counsel in 2010, collected $877,000 in cash and stock for board work in 2017 alone, corporate filings show.

Elaine Chao, who served four years as secretary of transportation under President Donald Trump, has a history of serving on top corporate boards. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

By

Tory Newmyer

April 7, 2021 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Before she joined the Trump administration as transportation secretary, Elaine Chao earned millions of dollars over the past decade by serving on the boards of big public companies such as Dole Foods, Protective Life and Wells Fargo, according to corporate filings.

She offered sterling credentials to businesses eager to keep current with the Republican leadership: A former banking executive, she became the first Asian American woman to serve in a Cabinet when President George W. Bush tapped her to serve as labor secretary. She has been a regular at conservative think tanks including the Heritage Foundation and the Hudson Institute. Her husband is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

But now Chao is encountering a fraught reentry into the private sector.

Headhunters who have sought similarly prominent work for Chao have found little interest, according to two headhunters she’s consulted personally. The headhunters, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions, said top executives wary of backlash from associating with former Trump officials are boiling down Chao’s four-decade Washington résumé to its most recent entry: long-standing ally of Donald Trump, despite her resignation the day after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

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One of the headhunters said his team surveyed some companies about their interest in Chao and didn’t find any takers. “The feedback was, ‘It’s too soon,’ ” this person said.

But while it is clear that Chao’s reentry is more difficult than in the past, a person close to her says she has not been entirely shut out of the corporate world.

“She’s evaluating a number of invitations to join various corporate boards while helping former colleagues land as well,” this person said. “She’s interested in new economy companies, has already accepted board positions and is currently in various stages of finalizing agreements with them and others.”

Chao declined to comment herself.

While the small numbers make comparisons difficult, corporations don’t seem to have an immediate interest in other top Trump administration alums either. Roughly half of the S&P 500 companies have filed their 2021 investor disclosure reports, listing a total of 108 new or prospective board members, according to data from Insightia, which provides information to shareholders. No Trump Cabinet officials who served in the final quarter of his term are among those nominated.

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By this point in 2009, four major companies had lined up alums of George W. Bush’s Cabinet to serve as directors: global power company AES, oil and gas company Hess, chemical maker FMC, and United Technologies, the industrial conglomerate that has since merged with Raytheon.

Trump got evicted from ‘the swamp.’ Some of his people are trying to stick around.

Headhunters and other corporate advisers say the calculus for executives at most large, publicly traded companies is simple. Trump — the only president to be impeached twice, the second time on a charge he incited the mob that assaulted the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the presidential election results — left office with a majority of Americans strongly disapproving of his job performance. He remains a lightning rod for controversy and faces ongoing legal exposure from civil lawsuits and criminal investigations. Offering a board seat to anyone in his inner orbit risks inviting a revolt from customers, employees or shareholders.

“Boards don’t need trouble or criticism,” one headhunter said. “If you want to stay away from all that potential tarnish, that’s easy: You just don’t go near it.”

Advertisement

With Democrats in control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, companies are on the hunt in Washington for help with the new party in power. That is depressing demand for Republicans broadly, including those coming off Capitol Hill, top lobbyists say.

For example, Wells Fargo is still operating under a federal cap on its growth in the wake of its consumer abuses. Chao joined its board in 2011 and earned handsome pay for her work there until she resigned the seat in early 2017: In 2016 alone, she pulled in $312,000 in cash and stock, and she collected between $1 million and $5 million in deferred stock options that paid out through this year, federal filings show.

The bank did not include Chao among the nominees for its board that shareholders will approve at its spring meeting. “The last thing Wells Fargo wants is somebody at the Fed or the OCC to say, ‘I woke up, saw this and now I’m pissed off,’ ” Peter Crist, chairman of the headhunting firm Crist Kolder Associates, said, using the abbreviation for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a banking regulator. Wells Fargo declined to comment. The three other companies on whose boards Chao sat most recently — Ingersoll-Rand, News Corp. and Vulcan Materials — all declined to comment on whether she would be welcome back.

Advertisement

Chao may not be alone. William P. Barr was a fixture on elite corporate boards before a tumultuous two-year stint as the second U.S. attorney general to serve during the Trump era. Critics say he used the post to act as the president’s personal counsel rather than the nation’s top law enforcement officer. Thousands of former Justice Department officials called on him to resign in open letters, a step he took in December after his relationship with Trump soured. Barr defended his moves on Trump’s behalf in high-profile cases, arguing his interventions were justified on the merits.

William Barr to depart as attorney general, Trump announces

What he wants to do next with his career is unclear. Barr declined to comment. But he’s unlikely to return to at least one of his former employers. Kirkland & Ellis, the firm where Barr practiced before joining the administration, has no plans to rehire him, said a person familiar with the firm, requesting anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

And the three companies for whom he served as a director before joining the administration — Dominion Energy; Sculptor Capital, the hedge fund formerly known as Ochs-Ziff; and Time Warner, which has since merged with AT&T — declined to comment. Barr, who earned a $10.4 million retirement payout from Verizon after stepping down as the telecom giant’s general counsel in 2010, collected $877,000 in cash and stock for board work in 2017 alone, corporate filings show.

The path for other longtime Trump loyalists remains similarly murky. Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, now eyeing a 2024 presidential bid, leveraged his post as the nation’s top diplomat to court luminaries from the corporate world and beyond through a series of private dinners at the State Department’s Foggy Bottom headquarters, an NBC News investigation found. The events, known as “Madison Dinners,” gave him an audience with moguls including Raytheon CEO Thomas Kennedy, Home Depot founder Ken Langone and hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer.

Pompeo, who also served as Trump’s first CIA director, has yet to take on any name-brand corporate work. Instead, he joined the Hudson Institute and is working as the “senior counsel for global affairs” at the American Center for Law and Justice, an evangelical Christian rights organization founded by Pat Roberston. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Pompeo’s predecessors have translated prestige they earned in office into profitable roles advising blue-chip companies. Colin Powell, President George W. Bush’s first secretary of state, works as a “strategic adviser” to Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins and serves on the boards of Salesforce and Bloom Energy. Condoleezza Rice is a principal at Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel, a consulting firm she co-founded, and has served on a number of corporate boards, including those of Chevron, Charles Schwab and Dropbox.

It will be “extremely difficult” for long-standing Trump administration officials to repeat that trick, at least in the immediate term, according to Michael Useem, director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. For S&P 500 companies evaluating those officials who remained in their posts for most of Trump’s term, “the downside risk far outweighs any upside gain,” he said. “It’s not even a close call.”

The finance and defense industries have proven notable exceptions.

Former treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin is launching a Washington-based investment fund that will seek money from sovereign wealth funds in the Persian Gulf, among other investors.

Jay Clayton, the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has returned to the law firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, and will chair the board of private equity giant Apollo Global Management. Heath Tarbert, who stepped down in January as chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has joined Citadel Securities as its chief legal officer. All three had established themselves to varying degrees in their corporate spheres before entering public life.

Three established military leaders who joined the Trump administration early and left before the halfway point in his term have since navigated back into the private sector.

John Kelly, who served as secretary of homeland security, then Trump’s chief of staff, in 2019 joined the board of Caliburn International, the parent company of a contractor running the largest facility housing migrant children in the nation. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s first national security adviser, last year joined the board of Zoom, whose teleconferencing software has made it a household name during the coronavirus pandemic. And Jim Mattis, Trump’s first secretary of defense, rejoined the General Dynamics board, on which he served for four years before taking the helm at the Pentagon.

All three — and former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, whom Trump fired as secretary of state after little more than a year on the job — spoke out against Trump’s conduct after leaving office. Thanks to the credentials they established before joining the administration, and the distance they’ve put between themselves and the president they served since exiting, those officials remain in demand for some corporations, according to Dennis Carey, vice chair of the executive recruitment firm Korn Ferry.

“They’re viewed as leaders who went in to serve the country and did their best,” Carey said. “I don’t think anyone would question their motives.”

Yet former Republican policymakers angling for plum corporate work face other head winds. C-suites are in the midst of their own politically fraught transition. Workers, consumers and activist investors are demanding executives take bolder action on progressive priorities, from improving workforce diversity to addressing climate change. And business leaders are rebalancing their Washington lobbying teams to reflect a government now under full Democratic control.

Taken together, the changes have depressed the demand for the latest batch of former Republican lawmakers and staff hitting the private-sector job market.

Of the 43 Republican lawmakers who left office or lost their reelection bids, nine of them — or 21 percent — have secured lobbying jobs. That’s down from 36 percent in the previous Congress, and 42 percent in the one before that, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. While fewer Republicans this year than in the past have become lobbyists, they still outnumber Democrats. But that’s partly because Democrats generally become lobbyists less frequently than Republicans. Just one of the 25 in the latest outgoing class has landed there so far, down from 12 percent in the previous class and 18 percent in the class before that.

Still, some Republicans with particular expertise have found landing spots. As a member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, then-Rep. George Holding (R-N.C.) worked to preserve the so-called carried interest break for private equity executives. Now he is working for the Blackstone Group, the private equity powerhouse, heading its government relations in Europe, a firm spokesman said.

“Tight margins in the House and Senate are making Republicans as relevant as ever, and substantive, policy-oriented people with experience are always going to have value,” Steve Stombres, a partner at lobbying firm Harbinger Strategies, said. “I don’t think the market has changed that much.”

Another Republican partner at a top lobbying shop, requesting anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic, said demand for Republicans has dropped across the board. “Right now, it’s a Democratic town, and there’s a rush to get Democratic help,” this lobbyist said. “If you’re a former Republican House member, your connections are to the least meaningful part of the Congress. And if I hire one, I have to worry about what I’m hiring and the risk it poses to the brand.”

 

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The GQP is still lining the former guy's pockets while kissing his ... ring. "The GOP is Trump’s party, so ‘all Republican roads lead to Mar-a-Lago’"

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On Thursday night, the Mar-a-Lago Club hosted a dinner for more than 100 people, put on by a conservative activist group, at which its owner, former president Donald Trump, spoke for more than an hour. On Friday, the club was booked again, for a lunch fundraiser to benefit Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

Arkansas gubernatorial candidate Sarah Sanders and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) also have fundraisers scheduled at the club this weekend. And Saturday night, the Republican National Committee has reserved Mar-a-Lago for a 400-person banquet. The price tag for that dinner: more than $100,000, according to a person involved in the planning.

The GOP is still Donald Trump’s party. The clearest proof of that: It is still finding ways to pay Donald Trump money.

Since Trump left office, at least six Republican candidates have held fundraisers at the former president’s Florida properties. This weekend, there will be at least six more events put on by GOP-aligned groups.

The events show that Trump has maintained his status as the party’s central figure, even after the violent effort by supporters to overthrow the election results on his behalf, and a post-presidency exile in which he has rarely left his own property.

That control has allowed Trump to continue his unprecedented and lucrative business relationship with his own party. Republicans will pay Trump just to be where he is — or even, in some cases, where they hope he might be.

“We would love to see him. If he came and spoke to the group spending the weekend here, that would be great. If he came and played golf and people watched him, I mean that would be great too,” said Amy Kremer, a conservative activist who is holding a summit this weekend at another Trump property, his golf course in Doral, Fla.

Kremer, whose group sponsored the rally that preceded the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, said the group had not been told Trump would visit. But they had done everything possible to encourage it: “We’re happy to be at a Trump property, and we would absolutely love to have him.”

Trump’s business arm, the Trump Organization, did not respond to a request for comment.

Jason Miller, a spokesman for Trump, said he was not aware of the president asking anyone to come to Mar-a-Lago. He does not need to, Miller said.

“Mar-a-Lago and Palm Beach are the center of the Republican universe right now,” he said. “All Republican roads lead to Mar-a-Lago. He’s the biggest name in politics, and everybody wants his support and endorsement.” (GreyhoundFan inserts a massive eyeroll here)

Before he ran for office, Trump’s hotels and clubs hosted very few political events. But that changed in 2016 — when Trump won the presidency and, in the same year, opened a D.C. hotel catering to political fundraisers.

Over the next four years, Trump’s businesses took in more than $11 million from Republican candidates and groups, turning campaign donors’ money into private revenue for the president and his family. Republican groups justified this by saying that Trump charged market rates, and that GOP donors felt comfortable on the president’s property.

Now, Trump’s company is facing a difficult moment.

Its revenue dropped sharply in 2020, due to the covid-19 pandemic and political backlash. Then many of its key business partners and vendors cut ties with the company after Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his role in the Capitol insurrection.

The company has also lost revenue from two key customers tied to Trump’s career in politics. One was the U.S. government, which had paid the Trump Organization more than $2.5 million during his presidency, often to house aides and Secret Service agents at his properties. The other was Trump’s own 2020 reelection campaign, which had spent more than $7 million since 2017 at Trump properties for rent, ballroom rentals, legal fees, and other expenses.

It is unlikely that the GOP groups that have held events at Mar-a-Lago this year have offset those losses.

But, for Trump’s company, they provide a reliable source of revenue in a trying time. A $100,000 dinner is a $100,000 dinner, regardless of who signs the check.

“Can campaigns and political groups actually make up what he’s losing?” said Jordan Libowitz, of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “Probably not. But I expect Donald Trump to do everything he possibly can to fill that hole.”

Since Trump left office, he has spent almost all his time at the Mar-a-Lago Club, where he has both a private apartment and a new office in the club’s old Bridal Suite. The club’s members applaud him every time he shows up for dinner, and then again when he departs. Aides say he rarely feels the need to leave the grounds, except to play golf at his own club nearby.

So Republicans come to him.

Some just come for a meeting, to pose for a photo or video that can be shared on social media, as a political imprimatur. The bridal suite has hosted a who’s who of politicians looking for what Trump calls his “total and complete endorsement” of their plans, from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to Sen. Rick Scott to a range of senators and candidates. On Tuesday afternoon, Sen. Bill Hagerty, the Tennessee Republican, stopped by.

“We discussed a range of topics, including the border crisis, election integrity, the state of the Republican Party, and the 2022 elections,” Hagerty said. Other visitors say Trump has spoken of exacting revenge against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans he believes have wronged him.

Others reserve a ballroom, hoping to coax him into an appearance by setting up within walking distance of his home and his office. The price tag for these recent events is unclear: Campaign spending records for 2021 have not been filed yet, and the campaigns themselves declined to say.

“If you want him to attend your event, your best chance is to have it at the club,” said one current Trump adviser, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to comment frankly. “He’s not looking to travel all over.”

The six candidates who have paid to reserve a ballroom at Trump’s clubs include Sen. Mike Lee (Utah), Gov. Ron DeSantis (Fla.), Gov. Kristi L. Noem (S.D.), Alabama Senate candidate Linda Blanchard and Ohio House candidate Max Miller. Sanders, the candidate for Arkansas governor who served as Trump’s press secretary, held one event at the club a few weeks ago, and is coming back for the second this weekend.

Republicans say one benefit of these visits is that they can meet Trump’s Florida friends and club members — all potential donors. At Miller’s fundraiser, held at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club, Trump spoke for at least 30 minutes, a person said, and packed the room with his Florida acquaintances.

“Not the traditional Republican donor set,” a person with knowledge of the event said.

Another benefit of these events for his fans is the chance to see Trump himself.

“Honored to have received a surprise visit from President Trump at my event this weekend!” Blanchard wrote on Twitter after Trump dropped by her Mar-a-Lago fundraiser in March. “I can’t wait to build on the MAGA Agenda and deliver results for the people of Alabama!”

That event showed, however, that showering Trump with money is no guarantee of his support.

Three weeks after Blanchard rented the room at Mar-a-Lago, Trump endorsed one of her opponents: Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.). Brooks was a vocal supporter of Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election, and Trump’s failed effort to overturn it.

This weekend’s events at Mar-a-Lago began Thursday, when the Conservative Partnership Institute — a group led by Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows — held a dinner to open a two-day summit at the club. Trump’s lengthy speech followed an introduction by DeSantis. Trump spoke about frustration with “RINOs” — Republicans in Name Only — the southern border with Mexico and Biden’s failures there, Trump’s false claims of fraud in the 2020 election and voting law efforts, while telling donors to support CPI, a person with knowledge of the speech said.

On Friday, Florida lobbyist Brian Ballard is hosting a lunch fundraiser for Rubio at Mar-a-Lago. Tickets go from $2,900 to more than $10,000, according to an invitation reviewed by The Washington Post. Trump endorsed Rubio on Friday morning and may attend the lunch himself, an organizer said, though the former president had not formally committed.

On Saturday night, the RNC will bring more than 400 people to the club. The committee is holding a larger donor retreat at a nearby Four Seasons resort — but it moved this dinner to Trump’s club. That was a friendly but expensive gesture from party Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, made at a time when Trump was publicly criticizing the party.

Republican officials said that many of the donors wanted to go to the club, and that McDaniel is also meeting privately with Trump while in Florida. DeSantis is again expected to be onstage with Trump Saturday night, the only elected official slated to speak alongside the former president.

Also this weekend, Kremer’s group — Women for America First — is hosting 200 people at Trump’s Doral course. Kremer said she did not know how much it would cost. Among the speakers: Trump ally Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who is now under federal investigation into whether he maintained a sexual relationship with an underage girl. Gaetz has denied any impropriety.

On Thursday, the women’s summit began with a golf tournament. There was no promise that Trump himself would visit, making the 73-mile trip from Mar-a-Lago.

But among attendees, there was hope.

They were his fans. This was his business. Why wouldn’t he?

“It would be awesome if, during this time frame, he crashed the party,” said Dana Daniel, an attendee from Georgia.

“That would be so awesome!” said Bay Cagle, another attendee, pumping her fists in the air. Cagle sang the national anthem at the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, but said she returned to her hotel room afterward and did not participate in the storming of the Capitol.

“I hope that he does crash the party,” Daniel said.

Unfortunately for her, Trump remained at Mar-a-Lago, where he spoke to the other conservative group that had pined for a visit from the former president.

 

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46 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Since Trump left office, he has spent almost all his time at the Mar-a-Lago Club, where he has both a private apartment and a new office in the club’s old Bridal Suite.

This is fitting since the bride is the center of attention on her wedding day, and Trump wants to be the center of attention every day.

52 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Also this weekend, Kremer’s group — Women for America First — is hosting 200 people at Trump’s Doral course. Kremer said she did not know how much it would cost. Among the speakers: Trump ally Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who is now under federal investigation into whether he maintained a sexual relationship with an underage girl. Gaetz has denied any impropriety.

I'm reading that as either she didn't read the contract she signed or paid well above the market rate and doesn't want that amount made public.:shrug:

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

On Thursday, the women’s summit began with a golf tournament. There was no promise that Trump himself would visit, making the 73-mile trip from Mar-a-Lago.

But among attendees, there was hope.

They were his fans. This was his business. Why wouldn’t he?

“It would be awesome if, during this time frame, he crashed the party,” said Dana Daniel, an attendee from Georgia.

“That would be so awesome!” said Bay Cagle, another attendee, pumping her fists in the air. Cagle sang the national anthem at the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, but said she returned to her hotel room afterward and did not participate in the storming of the Capitol.

“I hope that he does crash the party,” Daniel said.

Unfortunately for her, Trump remained at Mar-a-Lago, where he spoke to the other conservative group that had pined for a visit from the former president.

They all have glittery pens with feathers on top that they keep in their Trapper Keepers so they can practice signing their names as Mrs. Donald J. Trump. :puke-front:

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4 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Since Trump left office, he has spent almost all his time at the Mar-a-Lago Club, where he has both a private apartment and a new office in the club’s old Bridal Suite.

So how is that local government lawsuit about him not living there permanently going?

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When I first saw this tweet, my immediate reaction was a memory of those clever blurbs I remember reading as a kid, saying what all the unusual words there are for groups of various animals.  You know, like a murder of crows or a school of fish. 

I thought to myself, ah, there's one I didn't know:  apparently a gathering of Republican leaders is known as a Tremendous Complication.

 

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8 hours ago, church_of_dog said:

 

When I first saw this tweet, my immediate reaction was a memory of those clever blurbs I remember reading as a kid, saying what all the unusual words there are for groups of various animals.  You know, like a murder of crows or a school of fish. 

I thought to myself, ah, there's one I didn't know:  apparently a gathering of Republican leaders is known as a Tremendous Complication.

 

An oil slick of Republicans

 

Edited by onekidanddone
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OFM is mad at Mitch

Quote

Former President Donald Trump reportedly went off on Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) during a speech to major Republican donors in Florida Saturday night.

 

 

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