Monday, March 5, 2018

Unabashed use of the presidential office for personal gain

We all know that Jared Kushner has been busy using his position to enrich the Kushner business, and we know everything Trump does is for the same personal gain. Here's a new one:
President Donald Trump loves putting his name on everything from ties to steaks to water — and, of course, his buildings. But now the Trump Organization appears to be borrowing a brand even more powerful than the gilded Trump moniker: the presidential seal.

In recent weeks, the Trump Organization has ordered the manufacture of new tee markers for golf courses that are emblazoned with the seal of the President of the United States.

[...]

“We made the design, and the client confirmed the design,” said Joseph E. Bates, who owns Eagle Sign, declining to say who the client was.

An order form for the tee markers reviewed by ProPublica and WNYC says the customer was “Trump International.”

  TPM
There ought to be a law. Wait, I think there is.
A law governs the manufacture or use of the seal, its likeness, “or any facsimile thereof” for anything other than official U.S. government business. It can be a criminal offense punishable by up to six months in prison.

[...]

In 2005 the Bush administration ordered the satirical news website The Onion to remove a replica of the seal. Grant M. Dixton, associate White House counsel, wrote in a letter to The Onion that the seal “is not to be used in connection with commercial ventures or products in any way that suggests presidential support or endorsement.”
It's just in keeping with the Trump brand: self-service, and typical disregard for ethics. Some of his tee markers were already, if not illegal, ethically challenged.
At some of Trump’s golf courses, tee markers have sported the Trump family crest, which he took from the family that originally owned Mar-a-Lago without permission and then altered by adding his own name.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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