Let's just call him "Mafia Don" from now on.
Continued:
To put that in perspective, in the preceding 4 cycles -- from 2008 to 2014 -- the GOP spent a combined total of just $166k at Trump properties and companies, about one-tenth of what they've spent since the person benefiting from these payments became the party's standard bearer. And these totals don't even include the funds that the Trump campaign and other Trump-related committees have spent at Trump-owned companies, a total that now stretches to well over $14 million at this point.
When you piece it all together, you see a striking explosion in money flowing from political sources to companies that the president and his family benefit from directly. It can't be said enough (and I say it often): This is not normal.
We're used to hearing that Jimmy Carter sold his peanut farm, or that Obama wouldn't even refinance his 5.9 percent mortgage when rates fell. but Trump's decision to eschew the practices of prior administrations is only one part of the equation. The other side is that the president's political allies have chosen not only to keep quiet about the conflicts of interest this arrangement creates, but to embrace them. They have made a conscious choice to schedule political events and fundraisers at places that will benefit the president directly. As we will see again in just a couple of weeks...
None
of
this
is
normal.
It should outrage anyone who believes that a citizens access to and influence over the most powerful people in the country shouldn't derive from the number of commas on their financial statements. And even if we accept that to some degree the wealthy do have more access and influence, we should fight for it to be disclosed, so that we can track how elected officials pay their financial benefactors back with profitable policies.