Stipulating that the Federal Elections Commission is useless....

[rlegro]

I'm surprised there hasn't been a more vigorous legal attempt to interdict Trump's practice of treating most if not all his campaign stops as official government business, characterizing them as tours, listening sessions, or whatever. He's squeezing tens of millions of dollars out of taxpayers to cover his coarse, negative, smear-filled vote hunting. So is Pence.

I doubt it will do them any good at this point. And it isn't as if previous presidents haven't done this occasionally. But it's still the case this is the first truly 24/7, permanent-campaign administration. T's refusal to truly step away from his business interests was an immediate issue but these continuing "I'm just here to pay my respects" or "welcome to our celebration of American Independence" festivities now get no more than shrugs. Of course, he's been so bad on so many far more critical level, so who's got time to worry about such relatively petty transgressions? Nevertheless, he's set a low bar and perhaps a dangerous precedent for unscrupulous successors.

[Frustratedlady]

1. I seem to remember that Obama's campaign paid for a percentage of the trip, depending on the trip...

For instance, if he visited a site for governmental reasons but campaigned while in the area, the Democratic party paid a percentage of the costs for transportation and on-ground charges. The Repukes watched that closely and Obama made sure they had the documents to prove they'd paid.

I'm sure I didn't dream it.

[StarfishSaver]

4. Yes. You remember correctly

The Obama team was very careful to do everything by the book. For that matter, so were the Bush and Clinton people.

[Golden Raisin]

2. Current Chairman (James E. Trainor III) is a Trump appointee.

Hmmm!

[Hoyt]

3. I get it, but incumbents have always been able to use their office to

some degree in elections.

[StarfishSaver]

5. Of course. It's impossible to completely separate the president from the candidate

But there are rules and previous presidents always went out of their way to follow them.