While Trump's team is fighting it out to see who is going to lead the "nonprofit" that will push his policy agenda, the Trumplets are busily creating other "nonprofit" schemes to do what the Trump's do best, make money off the Trump name. We're learning more about that the ones who set up the "nonprofit" behind the effort.
Prospective million-dollar donors to the “Opening Day 2017” event — slated for Jan. 21, the day after inauguration, at Washington, D.C.’s Walter E. Washington Convention Center — receive a “private reception and photo opportunity for 16 guests with President Donald J. Trump,” a “multi-day hunting and/or fishing excursion for 4 guests with Donald Trump, Jr. and/or Eric Trump, and team,” as well as tickets to other events and “autographed guitars by an Opening Day 2017 performer.” […]
Walter Kinzie, chief executive officer of Texas event management company Encore Live, confirmed to the Center for Public Integrity that a nonprofit group called the Opening Day Foundation hired his firm to manage Opening Day 2017.
A Center for Public Integrity review of Texas incorporation records found the Opening Day Foundation was created less than a week ago, on Dec. 14. Unlike political committees, such nonprofits aren’t required by law to reveal their donors, allowing sponsors to write seven-figure checks for access to the president while staying anonymous, if they choose. […]
The paperwork for the Opening Day Foundation listed four directors: Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Dallas investor Gentry Beach and Tom Hicks Jr., the son of a Dallas billionaire.
And where will the proceeds go? To unnamed "conservation" charities. What could go wrong? Because we all know that the first charity Donald Trump is going to use other people's money for is himself. Hard to imagine his spawn is going to proceed any differently.
Larry Noble, the general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center, is dumbfounded by the implications of this one. "This is problematic on so many levels. […] This is Donald Trump and the Trump family using a brand new organization to raise $1 million contributions for a vague goal of giving money to conservation charities, which seems a way of basically just selling influence and selling the ability to meet with the president."
Welcome to the kleptocracy.