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. citizensforethics.org/reports-invest…
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. citizensforethics.org/trump-conflict… 
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 nytimes.com/interactive/20…
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
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!
propublica.org/article/trump-…
propublica.org/article/trump-…
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
washingtonpost.com/business/2019/…
washingtonpost.com/business/2019/…
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 citizensforethics.org/reports-invest…
👻🎃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 citizensforethics.org/reports-invest…
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 citizensforethics.org/reports-invest…
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/
The End/
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