Recall those halcyon days of yesteryear, way back to the Obama administration. It was during that time of Hope and Change TM that one former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton took $600,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs in one calendar year. Recall that at the time, this was a highly controversial move and she got a ton of criticism about the “Corrupt Clintons” from the Right. After all, she was widely expected to run for president. How did that look? The answer is that it all depends on your perspective. Back then, it looked really bad. Nowadays, it looks really really adorable. The current president is happy to meet with you privately in exchange for $5 million. That’s all. There is no catch. Just $5 million, please, and a check to Trump’s Super PAC.
If that sounds just gross and impossible to believe, you don’t know how few fcks Trump has to give about anyone knowing that he simply plans to personally profit off the presidency. True, it goes to his PAC, but… per a report by The Daily Beast:
If you want a private audience with President Donald Trump, be prepared to pay. Trump has been offering one-to-one conversations in exchange for a hefty donation to MAGA Inc., a super PAC founded in 2022 that raises funds to support the GOP President, The New Yorker reported.
They didn’t call it MAGA ‘Inc.” for nothing. Apparently, they wanted everyone to know early on that this was just business, nothing more.
The price is a cool $5 million, according to the magazine. It is a hefty hike since December, when MAGA supporters could buy a seat at a group dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago for $1 million.
But it follows a spate of White House schemes to raise funds including a crypto dinner that came in at $1.7 million a seat and was billed as the “most exclusive invitation in the world.”
I think it is safe to say that Donald Trump is the only president ever to worry more about how much money he made as president than he does about being a good president. Indeed, one might suspect that Trump believes the two are entirely related. IF he makes a ton of money, it must mean that he was a good president – the former presidents were just too stupid to see the obvious. Or something.
Yes, yes – it goes to his PAC, not his personal bank account. PAC money must be spent on political activities or expenses associated with political activities. But one can cover a ton of steak and lobster for a certain Congressman with $5 million, or buy a lot of jet fuel to zoom around from campaign event to campaign event. All of this would be money that might have had to come from Donald Trump’s own accounts. But why spend your money to live like a “king” when you can pronounce yourself king – above all ethics considerations, and live on someone else’s money? It is almost a royalty tax, selling nobility.
Now, try to imagine the cackells from the Right if Barack Obama or “the Biden Crime Family” (As the Right horribly bestowed on a decent man) openly took $5 million a pop from the actual White House. It is almost laughable. The president absolutely controls a majority of U.S. government policy and all U.S. government contracting (for all intents and purposes) but we’re supposed to look the other way when Trump can sell private meetings with prospective business partners of the U.S. government? These meetings are not held just to say hello and show pictures. Deals will be made with very little artistry attendant, only cash.
It would be shocking if the meetings were anything but Trump looking up from behind a desk, Sharpie in hand, and simply asking, “What do you want?” as Trump sells off government largesse. Five million will get you fifty million if you know the right play. Or $5 billion. The old adage, “You have to spend money to make money” has never been truer.
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Five mil to dispatch trump. Worth the money
trump no doubt pays himself a salary as head of his various pacs just as he did as head if his campaign.