Trump's reliance on patronage, and the conditioning of government funds on political benefit, is actually one of the clearest through-lines of his presidency.
Today, it's $13 mil for Puerto Rico, which he'd long denied more aid, to try and win Florida in 46 days:
But this is how he ran Trump Corp. and how he's approached the presidency, even from the transition period when he got IN to cough up $7m in tax breaks to save 1,000 jobs at Carrier.
The pattern was clear in 2017, when the FoxConn plant went to WI..
wsj.com/articles/white…
And it explains so much of what's happened since: the quid pro quo with Ukraine that sparked impeachment, the pandemic response, the indifference to the fires out west.
We've long known this, but just it's still striking just how much of this is all innate of one thing.
I guess I did go over this last week w/ @NicolleDWallace, but it's really quite simple and consistent:
And the hits keep coming. The latest entry is this @maggieNYT @jmartNYT report that Trump’s need to take personal credit for a prescription drug relief package derailed it altogether:
nytimes.com/2020/09/18/us/…
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