Washington Post: Trump and Republicans break impressive new ground in the erosion of our norms
The Post reports this morning that more than two dozen Republican Party committees have spent nearly half a million dollars holding campaign fundraisers at hotels and golf courses owned by President Trump since he took office in January. Together with $793,000 that Republican committees paid to Trump companies in rent and legal fees, Trump-owned companies have raked in $1.3 million in 2017 — from the president’s own party.
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Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics and now a senior director at the Campaign Legal Center, told me in an interview that the new revelations are “amazing” and “terrible.” Although technically not covered by conflicts of interest laws that govern the conduct of other federal employees, Shaub said, “the president should act as though he is.” By refusing to conduct himself in accordance with these ethical norms, Trump is signaling that he’s above them — actions that undermine the public’s commitment to the democratic values that these norms represent.