Since taking office, President Trump's businesses have likely taken in more than $13 million from special interest groups representing private prisons, payday lenders, and many other industries seeking to curry favor with his administration.

2/ While it’s long been routine for wealthy interests seeking to buy access and influence over a president to do so by making large political contributions to his campaign and allied groups, it’s unique to President Trump that these groups personally enrich him in the process.
3/ We've tracked 137 of these events since the day Trump took office. https://t.co/toIW0EJOyK
4/ And some of the big spenders have gotten their money's worth, as the NYT laid out earlier this month in a detailed report partly based on our data https://t.co/VCdBhZgHKt
5/ Groups large and small have learned that holding expensive events that the president profits from is a part of doing business in Trump's Washington, and it's paying off.

Take the AHRI, which spent $700k at Doral, and got a favorable decision within weeks
6/ Then there's the payday lending industry, which spent about $1 million on two events at Doral. They ultimately got a rollback of an Obama-era rule that would have cost them $7.5 billion. Great return on investment!
https://t.co/szzlJFQ8I6
7/ This is an actual gif shared in an payday lending industry blog post
8/ Coupled with their political contributions, they knew they were buying access and influence to the administration. We know that because the head of one of the country’s largest payday lending companies was caught on leaked audio bragging about it
https://t.co/VOmZxKGSAV
9/ And even the candy industry is in on the mix. Just six months after the National Confectioners Association held an event at Doral, Trump's FDA proposed delaying an Obama-era rule that would impose stricter labeling standards on products https://t.co/BKdOI9Ef2S
👻🎃spooookkkky Hallooooweeen Coorruuuption🎃👻
10/ This is not at all an exhaustive list. There's no public reporting of these events. These are events that we track day in and day out through any public means available. There are almost certainly other events, and other deals we don't know about.
11/ (Sidenote: in terms of tracking, we also benefit greatly from @Z_Everson's tireless work, which was also used in the NYT report)
12/ But perhaps most importantly, we don't know how much was actually spent.

We know that these events can cost well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, so our $13 million estimate is almost certainly a very, very conservative one, which is insane https://t.co/BKdOI9Ef2S
In conclusion, you all now have a slightly better understanding for why my head explodes every time this president calls someone other than himself corrupt.

The End/

More from Politics

I think a plausible explanation is that whatever Corbyn says or does, his critics will denounce - no matter how much hypocrisy it necessitates.


Corbyn opposes the exploitation of foreign sweatshop-workers - Labour MPs complain he's like Nigel

He speaks up in defence of migrants - Labour MPs whinge that he's not listening to the public's very real concerns about immigration:

He's wrong to prioritise Labour Party members over the public:

He's wrong to prioritise the public over Labour Party
So let's see a show of hands: how many of you even knew Huber was digging into the Clinton Foundation? While he was assisting Horowitz in his digging into the FISC/Steele Dossier/Fusion GPS/Perkins Coie/DNC/Hillary campaign stuff?


I'm sure Huber is coming to DC *only* to discuss Clinton Foundation things with Meadows and his committee.

He for certain, like, won't be huddling with Horowitz or that new guy, Whitaker while he's in town. That would NEVER HAPPEN. [wink wink wink!] 😉

I just spent a year and a half telling you they will SHOW YOU what they are REALLY DOING when they are READY.

Not before.

No matter how much whining is done about it.

I'm exhausted but it's worth it.

Now you know why they're f**king TERRIFIED of Whitaker, the closer tapped by Trump to come in late for the hysterical fireworks that will ensue soon.

Look who's suddenly fund raising for his legal defen- er, I mean, ha ha - his reelection campaign!

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So the cryptocurrency industry has basically two products, one which is relatively benign and doesn't have product market fit, and one which is malignant and does. The industry has a weird superposition of understanding this fact and (strategically?) not understanding it.


The benign product is sovereign programmable money, which is historically a niche interest of folks with a relatively clustered set of beliefs about the state, the literary merit of Snow Crash, and the utility of gold to the modern economy.

This product has narrow appeal and, accordingly, is worth about as much as everything else on a 486 sitting in someone's basement is worth.

The other product is investment scams, which have approximately the best product market fit of anything produced by humans. In no age, in no country, in no city, at no level of sophistication do people consistently say "Actually I would prefer not to get money for nothing."

This product needs the exchanges like they need oxygen, because the value of it is directly tied to having payment rails to move real currency into the ecosystem and some jurisdictional and regulatory legerdemain to stay one step ahead of the banhammer.