It’s not much money in the grand scheme of things, but it’s definitely more than most federal workers could make from loofah-ing dead skin off the buttocks of their landlords. (Or painting or doing carpentry work or whatever, but who are we kidding? Landlords want their buttocks loofah-ed. Or am I overgeneralizing from my own experience?)
Anyway, you might not get your food inspected, but it will cheer you to know that Donald Trump’s New Year’s Eve party will likely go on without a hitch, whether he’s there or not.
From Rolling Stone:
Though Trump’s decision to shut down the government may keep him in Washington for the holidays, it won’t keep taxpayers from footing a heavy portion of the bill for Mar-a-Lago’s New Year’s Eve party. As was noted by Quartz this week, government spending data shows that the Secret Service paid Grimes Events & Party Tents Inc. of Delray Beach, Florida, $54,020 on December 19th for “TENT RENTAL FOR MAL.” An employee of the company confirmed to Quartz that it is providing tents for the annual for-profit bash at Trump’s “Winter White House” in Palm Beach.
Americans chipping in to help Trump and the Palm Beach elite turn over their calendars isn’t unique to this year. The Secret Service spent just over $26,000 on an array of accessories for Mar-a-Lago’s New Year’s Eve party in 2017, which was attended by both Trump and Melania. Though it’s never not going to be a conflict of interest when the president has taxpayers subsidize a for-profit party at his private club, $54,000 for tents feels especially egregious given that the government is currently running under a partial shutdown that has deprived approximately 800,000 federal workers of their paychecks.
Isn’t that something?
And it hasn’t gone unnoticed by ethics watchdogs:
Of course, Trump selling access to the White House through his private club is an outrage every day of the week, but when he’s leveraging government funds for private profit at a time when hundreds of thousands of middle-class federal employees are worried about paying their mortgages and feeding their children because Ann Coulter wrote some shitty column, it’s particularly galling.
But that’s what happens when all your pr*sident’s decisions are filtered through the grimy lens of greed and ego.
Fun fact: “Caligula” was actually a nickname that meant “Little Boot.” What’s Latin for “Little Bone Spurs”?
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Yo! Dear F*cking Lunatic: 101 Obscenely Rude Letters to Donald Trump by Aldous J. Pennyfarthing is now available at Amazon! Buy there (or at one of the other fine online retailers carrying it), or be square.
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