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HAB911

(8,782 posts)
Thu Mar 23, 2017, 09:25 AM Mar 2017

The Nightmarish Existence of the Watchdogs Keeping Tabs on Trump

The Founding Fathers probably didn't conceive of branding deals when they wrote the Constitution, but here we are.

Paul S. Ryan, not to be confused with the Speaker of the House, divides his professional life into two periods: before the Announcement and after.

Prior to the January 11 press conference in which Donald Trump said he wouldn't divest from his sprawling company despite being elected president, Ryan had a vaguely normal nine-to-five work existence. He'd wake up in the morning, drink some coffee, and drop his toddler off at daycare before heading into the office of Common Cause, an ethics watchdog group in DC where he serves as vice president of policy and litigation. But now he checks social media the second his kids nod off and again in the early morning hours, mimicking the erratic sleep schedule of a president who might ignite a mini-scandal at any moment with an off-hand tweet—or several of them.

"I didn't work late nights, early mornings, or through the weekends," Ryan tells me. "Now I feel like I'm now on duty 24/7."

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/the-nightmarish-existence-of-the-watchdogs-keeping-tabs-on-trump

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