Would you like to buy a bridge?

Billionaire Las Vegas casino mogul and Trump friend Phil Ruffin gave $1 million to the Trump Foundation. Ruffin once flew Trump to Russia on his private plane, he told Forbes in March. “We were having lunch with one of the oligarchs there. No business was discussed,” he said.

  NY Post

That's either laughable or an admission of something else. If they didn't discuss business, then what was the trip for?

In late March of this year, Forbes had an article on Ruffin and Trump's Las Vegas partnership.

Ruffin's office boasts a framed photo of him and the president inside Ruffin's private jet, ready to chow down on hamburgers. Trump signed the photo, in his customary gold marker, "Phil--You are the greatest." The love is mutual. When Ruffin, 82, married his wife, Oleksandra, a former Miss Ukraine who is 47 years his junior, Trump served as best man.

  Forbes

Kind of interesting that they both have wives from that part of the world.

Phil Ruffin has spent almost a half-century skirting or thumbing his nose at laws, rules and convention. He's made $2.5 billion doing so.

[...]

Ruffin is particularly excited about the possibility that Trump's plan to reboot the nation's infrastructure could include reviving a stalled project to build a high-speed train between southern California and Las Vegas. That could bring millions of visitors to Sin City every year, offering a financial boost to Ruffin--and Trump.

That's one I haven't heard about. I'm surprised that wasn't one of the first things Trump addressed.

"This starting right here is four acres." Ruffin gazes at the empty patch of dirt. He owns the land separately from the Trump hotel, and it's practically begging for new development. "The highest and best use for that would be a casino," Ruffin says. "I can't talk to Donald about it. It would have to be Eric or Donald Jr." The distinctions can be confusing, even for Ruffin, who later adds: "I would want to do it with Donald--er, let's say the Trump family."

[...]

And while in December Trump told his 17 million Twitter followers that he would do no new deals during his presidency, in a more detailed white paper released a month later, he prohibited only foreign partnerships. Domestic deals would proceed, subject to vetting. A new casino in Las Vegas, presumably carrying the same Trump brand as the hotel, would seem to meet the requirements, a notion that Eric Trump doesn't dispel: "It would be an honor do it with Phil because he's a great guy ... The administration has nothing to do with us."

[...]

In January, a Trump lawyer stood at a press conference in Trump Tower and declared that any profits at his hotels from foreign governments would be siphoned off and given to the U.S. Treasury. Eric Trump insists it's already happening, but Ruffin says otherwise. "They're not going to do that," he says with a shrug.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.