From the news: “President Trump’s Scottish golf resort raked in more than $77,000 in government money thanks to his visit there this past weekend, federal spending records showed.
US State Department documents, cited by Reuters and The Scotsman newspaper, showed that it paid $77,345.35 to Trump’s SLC Turnberry Ltd for “hotel rooms for VIP visit.”
Looking at this article and an associated social media thread, a couple of points come to mind:
- Of course it is an ethics violation. Anyone who has worked for the government for fifteen minutes knows this.
- When people talk about “running government like a business,” this is exactly what they have in mind. There are no ethics violations in business: an act is either legal or illegal, nothing else. The terms “ethical,” “improper,” “unfair,” and “in the public interest” have no meaning whatsoever. Running government like a business means no rules, no accountability, no purpose beyond personal enrichment, no recognition that the public has any right to know what is being done or how much it costs.
- Although we won’t know for sure for some years, it is likely that the current administration is the most corrupt in American history.
- Other administrations have been corrupt, but in most cases, corruption was a betrayal of a president who was generally (or in the case of US Grant, scrupulously) trustworthy and honest.
- In this administration, the president set the tone from the very beginning, openly challenging the legitimacy of the electoral process prior to the election and refusing to release personal financial records (tax returns). He’s running the government like a business; meaning that anything not nailed down is his for the taking and every government employee works for him, and not for the people of the United States. His cabinet – filled with businessmen – operates the same way.
https://nypost.com/2018/07/17/us-government-paid-trumps-scottish-golf-course-77k-for-weekend-visit/
July 23, 2018