Because nobody stops them

It's corruption of a third world authoritarian regime order, and it goes on and on and on.  And will until somebody puts a stop to it.  As Ken White said in a recent podcast, Democrats talking about impeachment inquiry vs investigation are simply saying this is what a backbone would look like if we had one.

Back to David Farenthold:

In the past, we showed how Trump’s political rise hurt income, by alienating old customers. Mar-a-Lago lost charity galas. Hotels removed the Trump name. Doral saw profits drop 70%. Trump, of course, had a powerful tool to increase that revenue: the U.S. govt. BUT he had pledged not to use it to help himself. “I will be leaving my great business in total,” he said.

That was never totally true, of course. Trump kept ownership of his biz. He visited Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster for weekends and international summits. But, starting last year, his visits to his own places began to get more elaborate, expensive and far-flung.

On Int’l trips, Trump made taxpayer-funded detours to his golf clubs in Scotland (2018) and Ireland (2019). He pulled a large entourage far out of the way, to rent his rooms and buy his food.

 Now, he's thinking bigger: Trump has proposed awarding the huge G-7 summit to himself. VP Pence seems to be following his lead: Pence made his first taxpayer-funded detour to a Trump hotel this month, staying 140 miles away from his actual meetings.

Tonight, Pence and Pompeo will headline an event for a customer at Trump’s hotel – boosting a nonprofit that boosted their boss. Pence has done it before. It seems to be Pompeo's first time.

I first saw that income storyline as a measure of something happening *to* Trump, as his old customers turned away. Now, it’s become a measure of something else: a change in @realdonaldtrump  himself. He seems more willing to ignore a bedrock promise of his presidency -- that he'd never use his power to help his biz. And his aides seem less afraid of looking like they're helping.

Because nobody stops them.

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