“The White House is like a subway,” Taiwan-born businessman and Bill Clinton fundraiser Johnny Chung said of Clinton’s presidency: “You have to put in coins to open the gates.”
The same pay-to-play set up is going on today, but it’s more direct in some ways, and the fare is higher. If you pay the $200,000 initiation fee plus annual dues to the private club President Trump owns, you get face time with the president, his staff and his cabinet members.
Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, owns Mar-a-Lago, the private club where Trump has spent most weekends of his presidency. Following his election, the Trump Organization has been owned by the “Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust.” Donald Trump Jr. is a trustee, and the trustees are charged with operating the trust to the “exclusive benefit” of President Trump.
When Trump in four or eight years exits the White House the trust’s money will be his money, and he will regain total control of the company.
So all money that goes to Mar-a-Lago, in effect, goes to Trump personally. If you pay money to Mar-a-Lago, you are enriching Donald Trump.
And if you pay money to Mar-a-Lago you get face time with Trump. Trump crashed a wedding there a few weeks back. Last weekend, he schmoozed with attendees at a gala whose organizers likely paid Trump about $150,000 to host their event there.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions was greeting guests at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was mingling with guests, too, according to reporter Christina Wilkie. A Secretary of State granting special access to parties who fork over cash was something of a scandalous storyline over the past two years.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was mingling there, too. Ross has argued that the U.S. government should have a more robust industrial policy in which Washington picks “which industries are we going to really promote.” Any businessman seeking support for his industry from the Trump administration need only pay $200,000 to Donald Trump via Mar-a-Lago, and you can make your pitch to Secretary Ross.
This is like the turnstile Johnny Chung described in the Clinton administration. This is the “pay-to-play” arrangement Trump attacked regarding the Clinton Foundation and the Clintons’ paid speeches.
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Also, pointing out that Bill Clinton’s White House, and Hillary Clinton’s State Department did similar things doesn’t make it any less bad that Trump is doing it. Hillary’s pay-to-play was one reason she lost. It was exactly the sort of thing — insiders enriching themselves through their access to power — that gave such force to Trump’s “Drain the Swamp” line of attack.
As long as Trump owns Mar-a-Lago, and as long as membership at Mar-a-Lago is a means of access to power, the specter of corruption will hang over Trump as it did Hillary.
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Mar-a-Lago dues are the price of access to Trump https://t.co/7gc5Waop0Y by @TPCarney pic.twitter.com/VFYzpXacuC
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 7, 2017
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