Trump’s New Business

Faced with losses from his golf resorts and empty spaces in his buildings Donald Trump is resorting to political fund raising to support his future expenditures.  First he lashes out at his enemies and then tries to raise money from it.  The former president this week escalated a standoff over the Republican Party’s financial future, blasting party leaders and urging his backers to send donations to his new political action committee — not to the institutional groups that traditionally control the G.O.P.’s coffers.  “No more money for RINOS,” he said in a statement released on Monday by his bare-bones post-presidential office, referring to Republicans In Name Only. He directed donors to his own website instead.  The aggressive move against his own party is the latest sign that Mr. Trump is trying to wrest control of the low-dollar online fund-raising juggernaut he helped create, diverting it from Republican fund-raising groups toward his own committee, which has virtually no restrictions on how the money can be spent.  By controlling fund raising Trump can direct Republican political activity to his properties filling spaces made empty by his business incompetence.  He will rent space in his buildings to “Republican” election offices and sell his resorts as venues for various meetings, conventions, and other Republican gatherings.  And, as long as he controls fund raising he can continue to control how those funds are spent and insure the degree to which those funds end up in a Trump cash register.  All along, many speculated that Trump’s only interest in elected office was the extent he might profit from holding or running for elected office.  He quickly discovered it is far easier to raise money from the ignorant and gullible than from sophisticated, wealthy individuals.  He also realized the costs of overhead are far lower for political business than for a golf course or high-rise building.  The Senate failed to convict Trump either time he was impeached by the House and as a result, did nothing to prevent him from claiming to be a candidate in the future and fund-raising for a prospective run for office.  Whether various state attorney generals will put a halt to fraudulent fund raising remains to be seen.  At any rate, Trump has massive loans coming due and lacks the cash flow from his businesses to cover those loans.  Fundraising and putting the bite on the gullible are his best source of finances.