Cover of Charlotte Observer today

[kpete]

Link to tweet

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article159988504.html

[yodermon]

1. Mcclatchy, +1

[dalton99a]

2. Nice.

[csziggy]

3. The article is pretty damning - here is a link to it

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trump personally pockets club membership fees, breaking with industry norms

By Anita Kumar

PALM BEACH, FLA.

Even as he serves as president, Donald Trump earns a tidy sum — tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars — every time a new member joins one of his tony clubs.

<SNIP>

Trump has benefited greatly from these initiation fees for years. Even back when it was typical for membership fees to take the form of refundable deposits, he broke with the norm for such clubs by taking the money for himself, according to documents and interviews.

In 2004, Trump had access to nearly $100 million from refundable fees from members at just four clubs, including Mar-a-Lago, the resort in Palm Beach, Fla. that Trump has dubbed the Winter White House, according to a personal financial statement written by his accountant that year and obtained by McClatchy.

Reporting by McClatchy, including nearly 20 interviews and hundreds of pages of documents — some from litigation involving Trump and his businesses — shows that the president put in place unusual policies that allowed him to keep the high one-time fees charged to new members and put language in his club rules that allowed him to spend the money on anything he wanted.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article159988019.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They obtained documents, including contracts for the clubs, and all the documents are linked from within the article. I'll have to read it in depth after I have my coffee.

[yallerdawg]

4. Where could he be going, we wonder?

[DK504]

5. I'm sure there has been no change

in that financial set up. Which put him in the crosshairs for another article of impeachment.

He should be moving all that money to Russia so when he runs he'll have some carrying around money. How quickly can we find out if he "divested" from that little setup?

[sheilahi]

6. Jim for President

I would feel much safer having the guy (Jim Norris) in the above article, sitting in the Oval Office than the clown we have.

[DesertRat]

7. Today is his 51st visit to a trump business property as president

I guess he has nothing else to do. No work piled up on his desk while he was in Europe.

Link to tweet

[BSdetect]

8. Just another corrupt deal for the GOP to ignore? Of course they will.

[Dustlawyer]

9. After Trump the Democrats better shout down any criticism of any Democratic POTUS!

Trump has played way more golf even though he campaigned stating he wouldn't have time to golf. Criticize a Democrat for a speech abroad that is critical of a Republican or their policies, see Trump's Poland speech and much more. Nepotism, emoluments clause violations, ..., I could go on all day with crap Trump's done that Republicans have attacked Democrats for (usually falsely), but you get the point.

We need to go off art every accusation by Republicans against a future Democratic president. It should start now pointing out the things they said about Obama and Clinton (both of them) that Trump & Co., are doing right now! The word "Hypocrites" needs to be used over and over, especially against Republican leadership like Mc Chinless, Paul "Eddie Munster" Ryan, and Mike Pence!

[Honeycombe8]

10. I'm SO fed up with this fake, corrupt President. HOW did this happen to our country?

I know....Russia.

[mountain grammy]

11. just wow!

[Hekate]

12. KnR

[FakeNoose]

13. Wow - I sure hope he reports this on his income taxes

IRS, are you guys keeping track?

I know we middle class schlubbs could never get away with this.
We have to report everything and pay estimated taxes every quarter in advance.

[usaf-vet]

14. Greed is what drives him.

Why should we expect him to suddenly change his ways. If it enriches him he will do it. F! who it hurts

[MrPurple]

15. Without even the remotest pretense of pretending to care about ethics/COI

Placing his family at the highest levels at positions they're massively unqualified for - he makes Dick Cheney look like a choir boy of ethics and transparency.