Remember how Republicans used to spend lavishly at the Trump Hotel when he owned it while he was in office. For some reason they aren’t doing that anymore now that the hotel isn’t owned by Trump anymore:
[S]ince becoming a Waldorf Astoria in 2022, GOP spending at the largely unchanged luxury hotel in the Old Post Office building has all but disappeared. This directly conflicts with how Republicans explained their choice of venue at the time. When questions arose about their patronage of the then-president’s business, Republicans brushed off concerns of corruption saying that Trump’s DC hotel was simply a convenient location near Capitol Hill for lawmakers and political operatives to socialize, that they would be there regardless of who owned it.
As such, it would be reasonable to expect that Republicans would continue to frequent the hotel after Trump sold it and it rebranded as a Waldorf Astoria in June 2022, leaving many of the building’s luxury public spaces largely unchanged from its time as a Trump property. Yet political spending by GOP groups at the new hotel is virtually nonexistent, clocking in at a measly $37,878, according to the FEC’s most recent data covering the 17 months from June 2022 to the end of November 2023. For comparison, GOP groups spent $1,570,239, or 40 times that, in the interval between June 2018 and November 2019—the last comparable period when the building was still under Trump ownership. In fact, the amount spent since it opened is just a quarter of the $154,500 that then-Speaker Paul Ryan’s joint fundraising committee spent there in a single day in 2018, and a fraction of the $435,034 that Republican groups have spent at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club and residence, since the Waldorf Astoria opened.
Imagine that.
Meanwhile, the Trump Organization continues to be busy with payoffs, past and future:
During Donald Trump’s first campaign and his four years in the White House, his foreign business dealings drew constant scrutiny for potential conflicts of interest.
Now, as he marches toward the GOP nomination in his comeback presidential bid, the microscope is again on his overseas empire—and those holdings are growing. Trump will likely again come under pressure to distance himself from his business ventures, partly by promising that the Trump Organization won’t get involved in any new overseas deals.
Since 2021, the Trump Organization, which had paused or pulled back from ventures during his presidency, has revived its global expansion efforts. The company is building a second golf course in Scotland and has branding deals with residential projects in India and resort developments in Indonesia…
During Trump’s years in the White House, the Trump Organization decided not to move ahead with projects it was considering in places such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines. His company continued new projects in Scotland, Indonesia and India, and continued other managing and licensing arrangements throughout the world.
After Trump left the White House, his company resumed overseas expansion with a new deal in Oman. It also continued looking for new opportunities in Asia, Europe and South America.
[…]
Critics say Trump didn’t do enough the first time around to separate his administration and his business interests, and fear the same would happen again in a second term. “To have the president of the U.S. influenced by foreign money is extremely dangerous,” said Richard Painter, who was chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush.
Trump has long denied any wrongdoing. He and other family members have pointed out that the Trump Organization was involved in global real-estate projects and other overseas businesses long before he entered politics.
Once Trump left the White House and became a private citizen, he was no longer subject to the legal and ethical issues restricting the president, said Eric Trump, a Trump Organization executive vice president and a son of the former president. He said the company has been looking on four continents for new resort, golf, lodging and condominium developments.
“We have been in real estate for four generations,” Eric Trump said. “Are we supposed to sit back and do absolutely nothing?”
Eric Trump said the Trump Organization’s recent foreign expansion has been no different than deals being pursued by other major hotel, resort and real-estate companies.
“These are places in the world that it makes sense for us as a five-star brand to be,” he said.
Sure. No big deal. Trump is honest as the day is long and we can fully trust him to avoid any conflicts of interest. After all, it’s not as if his failure to divest himself of his businesses in the past, as all the other presidents have done, caused even the slightest appearance of conflict of interest.
The real problem is the vast corruption of Joe and Hunter Biden:
Mr. Trump repeatedly circulated unsubstantiated claims in efforts to link his Democratic rival to his son’s business dealings, which he painted as corrupt, even before Mr. Biden became his party’s nominee.
In 2019, Mr. Trump publicly called for China to examine Hunter Biden’s financial dealings in the country. Mr. Trump claimed, without evidence, that Hunter Biden “made millions of dollars from China” and that he used his political connections to persuade China to invest $1.5 billion in a fund he was involved in.
At campaign rallies, Mr. Trump frequently levied claims that Hunter Biden was corrupt, often pointing to a New York Post report about a laptop that was seized by the F.B.I.
And during a presidential debate in October 2020, Mr. Trump repeatedly suggested, without evidence, that Mr. Biden had both served as a consultant and used his former position as vice president to help secure business deals for his son. That series of attacks drew further public scrutiny to Mr. Biden’s son’s activities, as searches for “Hunter Biden” skyrocketed following the exchanges during the debate.
Mr. Trump later called for his attorney general, William P. Barr, to take action against his Democratic challenger for his son’s work, just two weeks before the 2020 election.
It’s all lies, of course. But whatever.
It’s enough to give you a migraine. But then, that’s the point.