The NY AG suggests that the Trump Foundation is a comprehensive fraud. I fully believe this, but I am also truly puzzled. (thread). nytimes.com/2018/12/18/nyr…
I'm not surprised that the Foundation is riddled with self-dealing, hidden favoratism, and tax scams. washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…
I'm not surprised that the Foundation's main purpose other than these scams is to promote Trump himself. washingtonpost.com/news/post-poli…
None of that is surprising given who we are dealing with. I'm not surprised to see a billionaire use his foundation for unethical financial hijinks and to evade various niceties of estate taxation and corporate governance. nytimes.com/2018/06/14/bus…
Here's what does surprise me: There are literally no good works performed or even the President's obsessions or pet causes pursued by this Foundation at all. forbes.com/sites/danalexa…
We researchers do various fund-raisers involving the top 0.01%. Some are saints. Some are jerks. Some are devotees of Gwyneth Paltrow's latest potion. Some are moved by world hunger. Others want their name on the dorm where they met their bae or whatever. news.yale.edu/2015/05/11/150…
Every one of them has a genuine passion for something, even if that something seems pretty silly or frivolous to us. Maybe they're passionate about liver cancer because their wonderful nanny suffered from it. Maybe they want to give $50 million to the Pollack cat leukemia center.
President Trump doesn't show any of that, any genuine interest in anything outside of himself.
Trump's tone-deaf billionaire comportment weirdly reminds me of Rod Blagojevich. Old-style machine politics weren't always pretty, but there were niceties and rules. You didn't shake down the children's hospital for campaign cash. That's what the concrete contractor was for.
The Children's Hospital was why you did it all. That's what you genuinely felt good about, bragged about to the grandkids. Same deal for sharp-elbowed billionaires. Their philanthropy genuinely matters to them. It's how many wish to be remembered after they are gone.
Sure--you might use your foundation to skirt a few rules about estate taxes+corporate governance. But it's a real thing. You're proud of it. You enjoy it. You don't use it to pay your kid's $7 Boy Scout dues, or make your foundation an embarrassing joke. medium.com/@JordanArizmen…
You support whatever moves you, even if they're your own eccentric or pet cause. That's part of what's so fun about that first billion. 
The President doesn't do any of that. For all his money, power, and supermodel romances, he's not someone I envy for a single second. He seems spiritually empty in some profound and sad way. What does it profit a man to win the whole world if he never locates his own soul.
