Just when you think Donald Trump has hit rock bottom, he reaches a new low,” said Brad Woodhouse, President of Correct The Record. “Trump boasts of self-funding his campaign, but he’s simply moving money from one pocket to the next while promoting his properties, products and his joke of an institution, Trump University. This is yet another example of the fact that Trump only cares about one person: Donald Trump.
Donald Trump’s campaign spent at least $6.2 million at Trump businesses through May 2016. “Through the end of May, Trump’s campaign had plunged at least $6.2 million back into Trump corporate products and services, a review of Federal Election Commission filings shows. That’s about 10 percent of his total campaign expenditures. Unlike in the primary when Trump touted his ability to pay his own way, he has been on an urgent fundraising quest for more than a month. His campaign began June with $1.3 million in the bank, compared with the $42 million presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had amassed.”
Donald Trump’s campaign paid $4.3 million to Trump businesses through the end of March. “All told, the campaign has paid Trump entities $4.3 million through March 31, according to Federal Election Commission records. That amounts to nearly ten percent of the campaign’s total expenditures, and taken together are second only to Rick Reed Media, a G.O.P. advertising consultant.”
Donald Trump used campaign funds to pay his air travel company, Tag Air, $3.7 million through the end of March. “Companies that Trump owns or controls have charged the campaign for an array of expenses. The biggest line item is air travel — a Trump company called Tag Air, which operates Trump’s aged 757, collected $3.7 million as of the end of March.”
Donald Trump’s campaign spent $2.2 million at Trump businesses between his announcement in June 2015 and the end of the year. “In some ways, Donald Trump’s campaign is just like any other. His staff racks up bills from Staples and Burger Heaven, McDonald’s, Famous Original Ray’s Pizza, and Taco Bell. But the tinsel-haired reality TV star has an obvious advantage over his rivals: The name that seems to come up most often on the list of businesses the Trump campaign pays is…Trump. Between June 16, when he announced his candidacy from the lobby of Trump Tower, through the end of 2015, the Trump campaign spent $2.2 million patronizing Trump businesses.”
Associated Press: “Trump often sounds like he’s promoting products he profits from.” “From the beginning of his campaign, Trump has pointed to his business success as his fundamental qualification for the job of president. He often references his assets and projects — from the skating rink in Manhattan’s Central Park, which he rebuilt, to his many skyscrapers — as evidence of what distinguishes him from what he describes as the ‘all talk, no action politicians.’ Trump often sounds like he’s promoting products he profits from, such as that golf tournament. Of particular pride in recent months has been his transformation of Washington, D.C.’s Old Post Office Pavilion into a hotel.”
Donald Trump used a campaign event to promote Trump-branded steaks. “Raw meat — of the real and rhetorical kinds — was front and center last night. ‘Do we have steaks? We have Trump steaks,’ Trump boasted. ‘If you want to take one, we’ll charge you about, what, 50 bucks a steak?’” [NPR, 3/9/16]
Donald Trump used a campaign event to promote his newest hotel project. “It was billed as a campaign event, but all Donald Trump wanted to do was show off his fancy new property. Trump led a horde of national media on a literal runaround of the hotel he’s building in the Old Post Office, just blocks from the White House he hopes to soon call home. […] The Republican front-runner’s campaign had advertised the event as a campaign press conference, but it ended up feeling more like a marketing stunt. Trump stood in front of a Trump Hotels podium, flanked by blown-up artist’s renderings of the new hotel’s design.”
Donald Trump used a campaign event to promote Trump-branded wine. “‘We make the finest wine. As good a wine as you can get anywhere in the world.’ (March 8 in Jupiter, Fla.) None of the wines from Trump Winery made the top 100 list of the best wines in 2015 as ranked by Wine Spectator Magazine. Looking at just Virginia wines, none of Trump’s wines were finalists in the flagship 2016 Governors’ Cup.”
Donald Trump used a campaign event to promote Trump-branded water. “‘We sell water and we have water, and it’s a very successful water company,’ Trump said, dismissing a mocking comment last week from Mitt Romney. ‘It’s a private little water company and I supply the water for all my places and it’s very good.’”
Donald Trump used campaign appearances to promote his books. TRUMP: “You know, I wrote ‘The Art of the Deal,’ I wrote many bestsellers, like ‘The Art of the Deal’ — everybody read the — who has read ‘The Art of the Deal’ in this room? Everybody. (LAUGHTER) I always say — I always say, a deep, deep second to the Bible. The Bible is the best. The Bible — the Bible blows it away. There’s nothing like the Bible, but ‘The Art of the Deal’ was about — in fact there are a few of them right over there. But ‘The Art of the Deal’ was the best-selling business book, and Obama didn’t read it and Kerry didn’t read it.” [Donald Trump remarks at Liberty University, 1/18/16]
Donald Trump used his campaign as a platform to launch racially charged attacks against a judge overseeing a lawsuit against Trump University. “Donald Trump is intensifying his attacks on the federal judge presiding over fraud lawsuits against Trump University. On Friday the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, dismissing criticism from legal experts on the right and left, pressed his case against U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, saying the Indiana-born judge is biased against him because ‘he’s a Mexican. We’re building a wall between here and Mexico.’ Trump made the remarks, and others like it, repeatedly, in interviews with CNN and The Wall Street Journal, referring to Judge Curiel variously as ‘of Mexican heritage’ or just ‘Mexican.’ But the message was always the same, that the judge had what Trump called ‘a conflict’ because of his ethnicity.”
Donald Trump used campaign funds to pay salaries for his pre-existing staff, including his personal bodyguard, and rent to his luxury condo buildings in Manhattan. “Meanwhile, Trump’s various companies have contributed some $105,000 worth of services, including salaries for Trump’s pre-existing staff, including his feisty bodyguard, and, less explicably but more expensively, rent paid to his to luxury condo buildings in the heart of Manhattan: Trump Plaza and Trump Central Park South.”
Donald Trump used campaign funds to pay for pre-existing Trump Organization staff and some of his private plane flights. “Some of the costs for which Mr. Trump’s companies are now charging his campaign would probably be incurred even if he were not running for president, such as salaries for borrowed Trump Organization personnel and some of his private plane flights. Excluding short hops around the New York City area, Mr. Trump’s private aircraft logged 66 flights in July, August and September 2015, according to the most recent available federal flight records. During the same period in 2014, the aircraft made 51 flights.”
Donald Trump reported that his revenue has increased by about $190 million dollars over 17 months. “While Trump’s controversial comments have cost his businesses money — for example, the PGA Tour recently announced it would move its World Golf Championship from a Trump course to one in Mexico City — Trump reported in documents filed in May with federal regulators that his revenue had increased by roughly $190 million over the previous 17 months.”
Donald Trump’s lawyers claimed that his widely-reported comments on the campaign trail had boosted business at his hotels. “Donald Trump’s wild comments since storming the race for the White House have boosted business for his hotels and the restaurants located in them, his lawyers contend in a new court filing in his fight with Washington celebrity chef Jose Andres. Trump is suing Andres for $10 million after Andres and Chef Geoffrey Zakarian announced last summer they were canceling plans for restaurants in Trump’s redevelopment of the Old Post Office Pavilion building, just blocks from the White House, because of Trump’s comments that Mexico was sending criminals and ‘rapists’ to the United States.”
Fortune HEADLINE: “Here’s Why Trump’s Presidential Run Has Been a Bonanza for his Bank Account” [Fortune, 5/19/16]
As the United States grieves the loss of 49 people in the country’s largest mass shooting, Donald Trump continued to spread “a string of lies” about the terror attack. In a speech Monday, the presumptive Republican nominee “ratchet
[ed][/ed] up the most dangerous, irresponsible” rhetoric in what he considered a major policy speech. The speech was full of “Trumpisms, not a lot of policy prescriptions,” repeated lies and “dark insinuations” about President Obama having ulterior motives regarding terrorism.
At a time when many in our nation are responding to hate with love, Donald Trump’s response seems to be an attempt “specifically to whip voters into a bigoted frenzy against their fellow American Muslims.” Trump’s speech is nothing more than an “assault” on American values.
]]>Facing “his first big leadership test,” Trump “failed miserably.”
We’ll let the headlines speak for themselves.
Check out the news coverage
TRUMP: OBAMA IS A SECRET TERRORIST
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“It’s no surprise that Trump is campaigning with two of Florida’s most fraudulent elected officials,” said Brad Woodhouse, President of Correct The Record. “Despite potentially violating federal law, Trump bought and paid for Bondi’s support, and the Attorney General’s actions make it clear that she is willing to ignore her duty to protect consumers in order to line her pockets. It only makes sense that Trump would also have the support of Governor Scott, who oversaw one of the largest cases of health care fraud, exploiting both the government and patients. Sound familiar? Oh, yeah. Just like Donald Trump’s corrupt Trump U scheme to prey upon working families, defrauding them of thousands for nothing but to fatten his wallet. Americans cannot afford elected leaders who take advantage of their constituents, which is why America cannot afford Donald Trump as president.”
Pam Bondi personally solicited a political contribution from Donald Trump shortly before her attorney general’s office dropped a potential lawsuit against Trump University. “Florida’s attorney general personally solicited a political contribution from Donald Trump around the same time her office deliberated joining an investigation of alleged fraud at Trump University and its affiliates The new disclosure from Attorney General Pam Bondi’s spokesman to The Associated Press on Monday provides additional details around the unusual circumstances of Trump’s $25,000 donation to Bondi. The money came from a Trump family foundation in apparent violation of rules surrounding political activities by charities. A political group backing Bondi’s re-election, called And Justice for All, reported receiving the check Sept. 17, 2013 — four days after Bondi’s office publicly announced she was considering joining a New York state probe of Trump University’s activities, according to a 2013 report in the Orlando Sentinel. After the check came in, Bondi’s office nixed suing Trump, citing insufficient grounds to proceed.”
New York’s attorney general: Trump University “was clearly a way to separate people who were desperate to make money in hard economic times from their own cash and to get it into the pocket of Mr. Trump and his cronies.” “Schneiderman told ABC News that he is not worrying about the confluence of the campaign and his case. The documents, he said, only served to offer further proof that the operation was aimed less at teaching students the skills needed to buy and sell real state and more about making money for Trump. ‘It was clearly a way to separate people who were desperate to make money in hard economic times from their own cash and to get it into the pocket of Mr. Trump and his cronies,’ Schneiderman said.”
Texas’ attorney general: Trump University made promises to students that were “virtually impossible to achieve.” “The Texas Attorney General’s Office opened a deceptive trade practices investigation of Trump University in 2010 and chased the business out of the state, saying the promises made to students were ‘virtually impossible to achieve,’ according to documents unearthed by a Democratic super PAC. Assistant Attorney General Rick Berlin wrote to Donald Trump’s lawyers in June 2010 that Trump University seminars – for which students paid thousands of dollars – were targeted at real estate novices and promised ‘to teach these novices everything they need to know to be a successful residential real estate broker — in 3 days.’ But in Texas, ‘to become licensed as a real estate broker you must have 900 hours of classroom instruction and 2 years selling experience,’ Berlin said, in the memo the Democratic super PAC American Bridge 21st Century uncovered through a public records request and provided to USA TODAY. The information given to students by Trump University ‘is essentially unusable,’ and students ‘will be unable to recoup their investment in the course, much less make a profit, as promised by Trump U,’ Berlin wrote.”
Rick Scott oversaw what was at the time the largest Medicare fraud in history. “The Florida Democratic Party said Scott ‘oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in the nation’s history.’ The Columbia/HCA settlement has since been surpassed in dollar value, though the bigger cases involved Medicare somewhat less directly. Because the Democratic Party could have been a bit more specific in its wording — by saying that Scott oversaw the largest Medicare fraud at the time — we rate the claim Mostly True.”
A former employee alleged that Rick Scott “was the leader of a criminal enterprise” and that his “company hurt seniors, it hurt taxpayers, it hurt everyone.” “‘There is no doubt in my mind that Rick Scott was the leader of a criminal enterprise,’’ said John Schilling, a former HCA accountant who worked with the FBI in 1996 through 2003, at a press conference organized by the Charlie Crist campaign. […] ‘The fraud at Rick Scott’s company hurt seniors, it hurt taxpayers, it hurt everyone,’’ Schilling said Monday, as he read from a statement. ‘It was stealing from the American taxpayers and eroding the Medicare program designed to care for the elderly. ’He likes to say he wasn’t questioned but I am a witness and I was an FBI informant. Fraud was in the DNA of Rick Scott’s company from the very beginning and he was the father.’”
Rick Scott admitted that he “was in charge and even questioned by authorities.” “‘The McCollum crowd says the hospital company I started was fined by the government the Medicare fraud. Unfortunately that’s true.’ Scott said in the 2010 television ad dubbed ‘Truth’ and is available here. ‘I was in charge and even questioned by authorities. But that’s not what matters. What matters is that the company made mistakes and as CEO I take responsibility and learn from it.’”
Rick Scott’s company committed fraud that led to 14 criminal convictions and $1.7 billion in fines for fraudulent Medicare overpayment. “The ultimate settlement led 14 criminal convictions and Columbia/HCA forfeiting $1.7 billion in fines for fraudulent Medicare overpayments. The fraud included ‘several types of fraud under Rick Scott’s leadership,’’ he said. The fraud included: cost report fraud, physician kickback fraud, upcoding on inpatient emissions, upcoding on lab procedures and inappropriate lab and in-home visits.”
Donald Trump has donated at least $100,000 to Rick Scott’s political committee. “Now Donald Trump has emerged as the clear frontrunner, and — surprise! — he is building a Florida team dominated by strong Rick Scott loyalists: Susie Wiles, Scott’s former campaign manager, is on board. So is Sarasota GOP Chairman Joe Gruters, an early Scott endorser in 2010 whom the governor appointed to FSU’s board of trustees in 2011. Scott surely appreciates that Trump has donated at least $100,000 to his political committee.”
]]>On a woman’s right to abortion, he said there had to be “some form of punishment.” On a woman’s appearance, he said a flat chest would make her “very hard to be a 10.” Insulting a female newscaster, he said there was “blood coming out of her… wherever.”
Mr. Trump, you haven’t lifted women up to break glass ceilings. You’ve talked them down.
]]>After declaring the judge in the Trump University case is biased against him because of his Mexican heritage, Donald Trump’s latest attack was called “one of the most un-American and bigoted things that anyone has said” in our country’s history.
Trump was criticized for “getting worse, not better” as a candidate. Rev. Al Sharpton even suggested Trump would establish a “racist litmus test” for future judges if elected.
One thing is for sure: Trump’s bigoted stance “should not be tolerated.”
]]>Trump’s smears are beyond racially insensitive; they are bigoted. But don’t just take it from us.
Check out the coverage:
]]>The reviews are in from Hillary Clinton’s national security speech yesterday, when she laid out the differences between her focus on keeping America safe and Donald Trump’s dangerously incoherent plans.
Called “a masterpiece speech,” it was a “point by point indictment” of Trump. She sounded “presidential” and “like a Commander-in-Chief” while delivering “the most devastating attack on Donald Trump that we have seen so far.”
]]>Today, Hillary Clinton gave a national security speech that laid out the true contrast in this election. Her vision is a vision of the America we all know and love–because“Americans work harder, dream bigger, and we never ever stop trying to make our country and world a better place.” A vision of a country that stands up to countries (and candidates) that engage in bigotry. A vision of supporting members of our armed services, no matter their religion or country of origin.
But Trump’s dangerous temperament, bigoted rhetoric, and “outright lies” risk the very foundation and morals of American leadership.
]]>Donald Trump’s xenophobia and defeatism pose a clear and present danger to America’s national security. His reckless, unhinged temperament makes him a danger to us all. Even members of his own party have pilloried his foreign policy views: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has said Trump’s foreign policy “will lead to another 9/11” while Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) has said his military plans were “the rant of a dictator.” In contrast, Hillary Clinton—who is set to deliver a major foreign policy address today—has years of experience taking on our enemies, working with our allies, and keeping Americans safe.
With all the threats our country faces, we need a president who is ready on Day One to be Commander-in-Chief—not a reckless, dangerous fear-monger who will lead our country to catastrophe.
CRITICISM OF TRUMP’S FOREIGN POLICY
Jennifer Rubin: Donald Trump is “a narcissist with an authoritarian streak […]
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