The greatest grift of all
If his actions as president-elect are any indication, the Trump presidency will be a grifting operation.
Here’s what has happened just in the last week or so:
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- Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel encouraged foreign diplomats to stay there when in the American capital, an invitation many thought it would be foolish to turn down. “Why wouldn’t I stay at his hotel blocks from the White House, so I can tell the new president, ‘I love your new hotel!’ Isn’t it rude to come to his city and say, ‘I am staying at your competitor?'” one Asian diplomat told The Washington Post. That would indeed be a rudeness Trump would take notice of.
- Trump held a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in which Ivanka Trump sat in. Like her brothers Don and Eric, Ivanka, who will be running the Trump Corporation, also sits on the transition’s executive committee.
- In a clever bit of branding synergy, Ivanka’s company hawked the bracelet she wore during a 60 Minutes interview with her father.
Trump took time out from his transition duties to meet with three Indian developers who are building a Trump-branded apartment complex near Mumbai.
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D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.