Exclusive: Defense Dept. charged nearly $140,000 at Trump branded properties
Source: CNN
By Cristina Alesci and Aaron Cooper, CNN
Updated 7:07 PM ET, Wed March 14, 2018
(CNN)Defense Department employees charged just over $138,000 at Trump branded properties in the first eight months of Donald Trump's presidency, according to a CNN review of hundreds of records.
Charges on the department-issued Visa cards, which span from Honolulu to Washington, DC, are the most recent evidence that taxpayer money flows to Trump's company, once again emboldening critics who say these payments violate ethical norms and possibly the US Constitution.
The CNN analysis found military personnel spent more than a third of the total amount, or $58,875.69, on lodging and food at what appears to be Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. Most of the expenses generally align with the 25 days the President spent at his Florida club from February to April.
"With the DoD's... spending at Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties, and Trump's refusal to divest from his sprawling business empire, once again we find the President's hand deep in the taxpayer's pocket," said Ryan Shapiro, co-founder of Property of the People, a nonprofit that advocates for greater government transparency. The group provided CNN with more than 360 pages of travel records obtained after suing the department under the Freedom of Information Act.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/14/politics/defense-department-trump-branded-properties/index.html
OnDoutside
(19,906 posts)The Wielding Truth
(11,411 posts)underpants
(182,271 posts)StatGirl
(518 posts)Article 2, Section 1
7: The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.
bitterross
(4,066 posts)I would have thought it would be more. If the room rates were what are quoted in the article, the only positive thing I can say is they don't look out of line for those cities.