The state department touted the virtues of the US president’s private members club. It was emblematic of all that is wrong with our times.
No sitting president in American history has been so engrossed with personal profit as Donald Trump. Moving into the White House has not altered his lifelong obsession with making money. He is still trying to trademark his name in dozens of countries. Foreign diplomats can buy influence at his hotels and golf courses. He has not divested from his businesses or released his tax returns.
Now the state department wants to sell Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s waterfront Florida estate. Or wanted to, until public backlash forced a rare reversal for a Trump administration seemingly immune to shame.
It started on Monday, when the state department shared a blogpost touting the virtues of Mar-a-Lago through Share America, a program for US embassies. The post displayed pictures of the lavish private club, where Trump now hosts world leaders, and noted that the mogul “is belatedly fulfilling the dream of Mar-a-Lago’s original owner and designer … The ornate Jazz Age house was designed with Old-World Spanish, Venetian and Portuguese influences.”
Trump is profiting handsomely from Mar-a-Lago, where he operates an exclusive club. Membership fees recently doubled to $200,000 annually. Democrats and ethics watchdogs pounced on the state department for using taxpayer dollars to promote the president’s private venture.
For once, sanity, good governance or old-fashioned shaming won out: the post was removed. “The intention of the article was to inform the public about where the president has been hosting world leaders,” read a statement on Share America. “We regret any misperception and have removed the post.” Ultimately, this misstep will be forgotten, lost in an ever rising tide of controversy. There is only so much outrage available at any one time.
Read More Here:
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...-department-ad-mar-a-lago-plea-for-corruption
No sitting president in American history has been so engrossed with personal profit as Donald Trump. Moving into the White House has not altered his lifelong obsession with making money. He is still trying to trademark his name in dozens of countries. Foreign diplomats can buy influence at his hotels and golf courses. He has not divested from his businesses or released his tax returns.
Now the state department wants to sell Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s waterfront Florida estate. Or wanted to, until public backlash forced a rare reversal for a Trump administration seemingly immune to shame.
It started on Monday, when the state department shared a blogpost touting the virtues of Mar-a-Lago through Share America, a program for US embassies. The post displayed pictures of the lavish private club, where Trump now hosts world leaders, and noted that the mogul “is belatedly fulfilling the dream of Mar-a-Lago’s original owner and designer … The ornate Jazz Age house was designed with Old-World Spanish, Venetian and Portuguese influences.”
Trump is profiting handsomely from Mar-a-Lago, where he operates an exclusive club. Membership fees recently doubled to $200,000 annually. Democrats and ethics watchdogs pounced on the state department for using taxpayer dollars to promote the president’s private venture.
For once, sanity, good governance or old-fashioned shaming won out: the post was removed. “The intention of the article was to inform the public about where the president has been hosting world leaders,” read a statement on Share America. “We regret any misperception and have removed the post.” Ultimately, this misstep will be forgotten, lost in an ever rising tide of controversy. There is only so much outrage available at any one time.
Read More Here:
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...-department-ad-mar-a-lago-plea-for-corruption