Until they pay conseqences, they'll keep doing it

In the year since Mr. Trump has left the White House, he has undertaken a wide-ranging set of moneymaking ventures, trading repeatedly on his political fame and fan base in pursuit of profit.

[...]

In early December, Donald J. Trump put on a tuxedo and boarded the private jet of a scrap-metal magnate and crypto-miner for a short flight across Florida, touching down at an airport in Naples. There, a long red carpet marked the pathway into a Christmas-decorated hangar filled with supporters of Mr. Trump who had paid $10,000 to $30,000 for the privilege of attending a party and taking a photo with him.

[...]

But the money raised did not go to Mr. Trump’s political operation. Instead, Mr. Trump’s share of the evening’s proceeds went straight into his pocket, according to a person familiar with the arrangement.

Multiple attendees said they bought their tickets from a private company, Whip Fundraising, whose founder, Brad Keltner, has asserted that “the lion’s share” went to charity. But the website advertising the event listed no charitable cause. And Mr. Keltner, reached by phone, declined to discuss how money was distributed.

[...]

He has turned an online Trump store into a MAGA merchandiser, with his company sending marketing missives to people on his 2020 campaign’s email list.

That store is now selling red “Make America Great Again” hats for $50 each — a $20 markup from the price currently offered by his political action committee — with all proceeds going to a Trump-owned company.

His wife, Melania, has gotten into the act, too, auctioning off online collectibles and scheduling her own big-ticket event in Naples this April, a “tulips and topiaries high tea,” with V.I.P. packages reaching $50,000 and an undisclosed portion going to charity.

[...]

There are grandiose enterprises, such as a fledgling social-media company, whose billion-dollar market capitalization is largely predicated on Mr. Trump’s direct personal involvement. And there are smaller ones, like remodeling the lobby bar of Trump Tower in Manhattan and renaming it the 45 Wine and Whiskey Bar — where specialty cocktails range in price up to, yes, $45 (that one comes with two “American beef sliders”) and can be sipped in dark velvet chairs surrounded by Mr. Trump’s black-and-white presidential portraits and paraphernalia.

“You come here, you drink Trump,” said Daniel Popescu, a 79-year-old architect and a bar regular, whose typical order is a $20 glass of Trump Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine. He hailed Mr. Trump on a recent evening as “the best president this country has ever had.”

“For a billionaire to give up his life to do good for the country,” Mr. Popescu said, with a shake of his head and a sip, “it’s unbelievable.”

  NYT

Indeed, it never happened.

No doubt this is why he took whatever was in those 15 boxes of presidential materials recovered by the National Archives - to make money.

Trump Media & Technology Group, which is behind the new social media company, has raised more than $1 billion. Bankers for the company dangled an unusual perk: Invest at least $100 million, get a phone call from the former president. Later, the price of such a call came down to $50 million.

Hahahahahaha.

Mrs. Trump, too, has found ways to monetize her ties to Mr. Trump, including through a series of online sales. In January, she put up for auction a digital portrait of her by a French artist, a print of the portrait and a white hat she once wore at the White House while meeting the president of France.

Her plan to maximize the sales price by accepting payments only in cryptocurrency appears to have backfired, however: The crash in cryptocurrency prices in January reduced the planned opening-bid price of $250,000 to about $170,000 on the final day of the auction.

The auction drew just seven bids, according to electronic records, which also suggest that the winning bid was made by the auction’s sponsors.

[...]

Mrs. Trump is now selling tickets to the April “high tea,” with organizers saying that some of the profits will benefit an initiative of her “Be Best” endeavor called “Fostering the Future,” meant to provide computer-science scholarships to young people who have been in foster care.

There was no indication of how much of the proceeds Mrs. Trump herself intended to pocket. Florida requires any organization that raises charitable contributions in the state to register. No charity with the name “Fostering the Future” or “Be Best” is registered in Florida.

[...]

“Consumer Services Division is currently investigating whether this event involves an entity operating in violation of Chapter 496, Florida Statutes,” Erin M. Moffet, an agency spokeswoman, said in a statement.

[...]

Mrs. Trump, after declining to address questions from The Times about the status of the charity, sent a Tweet after publication of this article, asserting that “everything has been done lawfully, & all documents are in the works.”

In the works.

Is there anything wrong with this?

Allies of Donald Trump have begun holding events in black communities where organizers lavish praise on the president as they hand out tens of thousands of dollars to lucky attendees.

The first giveaway took place last month in Cleveland, where recipients whose winning tickets were drawn from a bin landed cash gifts in increments of several hundred dollars, stuffed into envelopes. A second giveaway scheduled for this month in Virginia has been postponed, and more are said to be in the works.

[...]

[T]he group behind the cash giveaways is registered as a 501(c)3 charitable organization. One leading legal expert on nonprofit law said the arrangement raises questions about the group’s tax-exempt status, because it does not appear to be vetting the recipients of its money for legitimate charitable need.

  Politico

You don't understand...the charity is for Trump.

Asked about the legality of the giveaways in a brief phone interview, the Urban Revitalization Coalition’s CEO, Darrell Scott, said that most gifts were between $300 and $500, and that the group mandates that anyone who receives over $600 fills out a W-9 form in order to ensure compliance with tax law. He did not respond to follow-up questions about how the giveaways were structured and whether they met the legal standard for a charitable act.

Scott declined to name the donors funding the effort. "I'd rather not,” he said. “They prefer to remain anonymous."

No doubt.

Scott, a Cleveland-based pastor, has been one of Trump’s closest and most prominent black supporters. He struck up a relationship with the real estate mogul in the years before Trump’s presidential run, and — along with Trump’s former lieutenant Michael Cohen — co-founded the National Diversity Coalition for Trump to promote that run.

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

We don't need no steenkeen charity

GOP death squad will cut entitlements AND charitable contributions.

At the same time, the wealthy will get a still larger share of the tax benefit, even when sacrificing a smaller share of their income.

Indeed, the few concessions by tax writers to promote charitable giving are aimed at the very high end of the income scale. The end result is a law that does more to promote gifts to pay for a grandchild’s private schooling than it does to encourage the same grandparents to go outside their family and give to the local Boys & Girls Club.

[...]

Shared sacrifice by private citizens to complement a limited government is a precious value for this nation as a participatory democracy. But what’s happened here instead is a tax bill that tears at this fabric by denying so many households an important incentive to engage and give more to their communities.

  Politico

I wouldn't call that a "precious value for this nation as a participatory democracy." That's not what participatory democracy means. Participatory democracy is precisely what we don't have. And the GOP - and to a lesser extent, the Democrats - like it that way. You could say, however, that that's a shared value by traditional Republicans, who seem to be a dying breed.

"[T]ax policy is supposed to be helping a healthy democracy — this new bill effectively limits the incentive to just the wealthy.”

If true, this is going to throw more hungry people out on the streets.

Among households in the $75,000 to $100,000 income range, the TPC’s tax model projects that just 10.2 percent will still benefit from charitable deduction under the new law — down from 27.1 percent. For those from $100,000 to $200,000, the drop is from 50.7 percent to 19.6 percent.

[...]

By comparison, among those earning over $1 million a year, more than three-quarters, or 77.6 percent, will still benefit from the charitable tax deduction and their already disproportionate share of the after-tax dollar benefit will go up.

[...]

Many households will surely continue to donate some portion of their income. But without the deduction, the economic “price” for giving goes up. And there is significant empirical evidence —outlined in a May 2017 report by the staff at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy — that that this will dampen future donations both for religious and secular groups.

[...]

Republicans counter that any such loss will be offset by the fact that families will have more cash in their pockets to contribute after the promised tax cuts. [...] “Chairman Brady believes that the biggest encourager of charitable contributions is a strong economy. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act allows people to give more of their own money to spend and contribute as they wish.”

And yet, if they can't take a charitable deduction, their taxes will in effect go up. How stupid does Chairman Brady think people are?

Chairman Brady as he slithers home: "Go suck an egg, people."

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