Thread by @RobertMaguire_

It's hard to explain how insane this episode of Trump Inc is, in just the first five minutes
wnycstudios.org/story/trump-in…

First, during one of Trump's visits to Mar-a-Lago, a group of people, including Steve Bannon and other White House aides, commandeered one of the resort's bars and proceeded to rack up hundreds of dollars in charges for premium liquor, which the State Dept was billed for.

Over the objections of the State Department, Mar-a-Lago was ultimately paid by the White House -- whose chief occupant, Donald Trump, owns and still profits from the luxury resort.

Then, in another instance, the State Department asked to use some conference rooms at Mar-a-Lago for free. The luxury resort owned by the President of the United States, who was the reason they needed to have the meetings there, said no, they would need to pay.

So, in order to comply with federal contracting rules, the State Department had to set up a sham bidding process so that the President's private resort could collect its fee from U.S. taxpayers

But that's all been fixed now.

Not the payments, just the charade. Last year Trump signed a law raising the dollar threshold for these kinds of bids, meaning that the government can now make large payments of taxpayer money to Trump's private resorts, without a bidding process.

So to recap: The President who insists on making frequent visits to the private luxury resorts he still profits from signed a law that makes it easier for the federal government to make payments of taxpayer money to him for resources he won't provide for free

This is just the first four minutes of the episode! The rest includes a wealth of additional information, like the fact that the State Department had to get a special taxpayer-funded credit card, just for trips to Mar-a-Lago.

Listen here: wnycstudios.org/story/trump-in…