Tag: Trump profiting from presidency

New documents reveal the military has paid Trump’s Scotland resort more than $180,000

AlterNet logoUnder President Donald Trump, the U.S. military has spent more than $180,000 at the Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland while service members have been stopped at the Glasgow Prestwick airport, according to a Pentagon letter sent to the House Oversight Committee.

Politico first reported on and published the letter on Wednesday.

It reveals that since August 2017, the military has in the last two years or so spent $124,578 in expenditures on the property, in addition to an unspecified addition $59,729.12, as the letter explained:

View the complete September 18 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.

Democrats seek records from White House on officials staying at Trump-owned properties

The Hill logoHouse Democrats are pressing the Trump administration for details about White House officials staying at properties owned by President Trump, stating that such visits come at a cost for taxpayers and could violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.

The lawmakers are requesting records on Vice President Pence’s recent stay at Trump’s Doonbeg hotel in Ireland and the president’s proposal to have Trump National Doral Miami host the 2020 Group of Seven (G-7) summit, among other potential uses of Trump’s properties.

House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings(D-Md.) issued a series of letters to the vice president, the White House, the U.S. Secret Service and the Trump organization asking about Pence’s trip to the Trump International Golf Links and Hotel in Doonbeg. 

View the complete September 6 article by Olivia Beavers on The Hill website here.

Trump encouraged Pence to stay at his golf resort in Ireland Add to list

Washington Post logoDOONBEG, Ireland — Vice President Pence arrived Monday in Ireland with an unusual itinerary: He would attend meetings with Irish leaders in Dublin during the day Tuesday — but spend two nights on the opposite side of the country, at a golf club owned by President Trump.

Pence spent both Monday and Tuesday nights at Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg, in a small town on Ireland’s southwest coast, returning to the village after meetings with Ireland’s top elected officials.

Pence defended that decision — which required him to fly to Dublin and back on Air Force Two — by saying that he wanted to visit Doonbeg so that he could have dinner with his family at Morrissey’s, a pub here owned by a distant cousin.

View the complete September 3 article by Robert Costa, David A. Fahrenthold and John Wagner on The Washington Post website here.

Trump encouraged Pence to stay at his golf resort in Ireland

Washington Post logoDOONBEG, Ireland — Vice President Pence arrived Monday in Ireland with an unusual itinerary: He would attend meetings with Irish leaders in Dublin during the day Tuesday — but spend two nights on the opposite side of the country, at a golf club owned by President Trump.

Pence spent both Monday and Tuesday nights at Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg, in a small town on Ireland’s southwest coast, returning to the village after meetings with Ireland’s top elected officials.

Pence defended that decision — which required him to fly to Dublin and back on Air Force Two — by saying that he wanted to visit Doonbeg so that he could have dinner with his family at Morrissey’s, a pub here owned by a distant cousin.

View the complete September 3 article by Robert Costa, David A. Fahrenthold and John Wagner on The Washington Post website here.

Trump wants to profit off meeting with world leaders

He wants to host the G7 at his Doral golf club.

President Donald Trump has yet more plans to try to personally profit off his presidency. According to Axios, one of the top location choices for hosting the G7 summit next year is Trump’s Doral golf resort near Miami.

If the summit were held there, it might be the single biggest windfall of Trump’s presidency for his businesses. Though he’s hosted individual foreign leaders in the past at Mar-a-Lago — and plenty have stayed at his hotel in Washington, D.C. — the G7 summit would bring leaders and their staff from the top economic powers in the world. Equipping the facility with the proper security for such a summit would surely come at great taxpayer expense.

As a frame of reference, the United States last hosted the G7 in 2012, with President Barack Obama using Camp David as the location, which is already equipped to provide such security.

View the complete July 22 article by Zack Ford on the ThinkProgress website here.

Trump’s Company Is Suing Towns Across the Country to Get Breaks on Taxes

The following article by Katherine Sullivan was posted on the ProPublica website April 11, 2018:

Why is Trump’s business arguing its properties are worth just a fraction of what Trump has claimed they are on his own financial disclosures? To save on taxes.

Photo of Donald Trump: Michael Vadon

President Donald Trump is famous for bragging about his net worth. Publicly, he claims he’s worth more than $10 billion. He even sued an author over the issue and lobbied the editors of Forbes about his ranking on their billionaires list.

Yet quietly in another setting, the Trump Organization says the president’s holdings are worth far less than he has proclaimed. Across the country, the Trump Organization is suing local governments, claiming it owes much less in property taxes than government assessors say because its properties are worth much less than they’ve been valued at. In just one example, the company has asserted that its gleaming waterfront skyscraper in Chicago is worth less than than its assessed value, in part because its retail space is failing and worth less than nothing. Continue reading “Trump’s Company Is Suing Towns Across the Country to Get Breaks on Taxes”

Lawsuit on Trump Emoluments Violations Gains Traction in Court

The following article by Sharon LaFraniere was posted on the New York Times website January 25, 2018:

Trump International Hotel in Washington. “The argument is that as president he is unduly attracting business,” the judge said of President Trump. “There is some evidence of that.” Credit Alex Brandon/Associated Press

GREENBELT, Md. — A closely watched lawsuit claiming that President Trump is violating the Constitution by failing to divorce himself from his businesses appeared to inch forward on Thursday during a lengthy hearing before a federal judge in Maryland.

Judge Peter J. Messitte voiced skepticism about the Justice Department’s arguments that he should dismiss the lawsuit, filed last year by the District of Columbia and the State of Maryland, on the grounds that Mr. Trump’s continued ownership of his businesses was a political issue, not a legal one.

Although the president’s lawyers persuaded Judge George B. Daniels of the United States District Court in Manhattan to throw out a similar lawsuit last month, Judge Messitte made clear that he was not bound by that ruling. Continue reading “Lawsuit on Trump Emoluments Violations Gains Traction in Court”