Something odd is going on.
First Ivanka offers folks a chance to bid on a half hour lunch with her,
the bidding to start at $50,000, only to suddenly withdraw the offer when it
gets some bad publicity. Then Eric and
Donald Jr. offer a private Oval Office meeting with the new President the day after the Inauguration, coupled
with the opportunity to go hunting with the Trump boys, all for a cool million
dollars, also “distanced” when the press catch wind of it.
Now look. I get that
the Trumps are planning to monetize the presidency, emoluments clause in the
Constitution or no. But this behavior by
the Trumpkins, now in charge of daddy’s far flung empire, bespeaks a certain
desperation for some immediate cash.
They may be the most corrupt people in public life since Richard J. Daly
passed on to his eternal reward, but they are not stupid. They know they are going to have four years
to cash in. What’s the rush? And why these penny ante moves, when one
would have expected them to think big about megadeals with foreign heads of
state?
I offer a hypothesis, backed up by absolutely no knowledge whatsoever. It looks to me as though Trump Enterprises is
suffering a critical cash flow problem that poses so great a threat that
anything, even lunch with sis or shooting elephants with the boys is worth
marketing for whatever it can bring in.
It will be interesting to see what Melania brings to the
table – a personalized shopping trip, a joint photo shoot, your very own
plagiarized selection from one of Michelle’s speeches?
May be related to the Trump University settlement, and the deal he just reached with hotel unions today to get them to withdraw litigation.
ReplyDeleteGives new meaning to the title "The Selling of the President"...where are you Joe McGinniss? Is this the beginning of the presidency being reduced (i.e. the British Monarchy) to a ceremonial position by this trivialization? Trump becomes the figure head enjoying the perks of the job. Ironic, in that Nixon made the office "imperial" by utilizing executive authority, Trump might diminish that authority by acquiescing to a more experienced and knowledgeable legislature.
ReplyDeleteThis post called to mind something I read a week or so ago, and seems more evidence in favor of it: Maybe the Answer is That He Can't Divest.
ReplyDeletethe kids will have to do better than a geisha service if they're going to pay off the $300million Trump owes to DeutscheBank before 20th January. American banks learned not to lend him money years ago.
ReplyDeleteI figure they have a serious cash flow problem apart from the roughly 1.1 billion they owe to the Chinese, the Russian Oligarchs, and Deutsche Bank. Otherwise, why on earth bother?
ReplyDelete