By Josh Marshall:
Even more revealing is the fact that Trump has been using a huge amount of campaign expenditures to cycle money back through his own businesses. According to an analysis by the AP, through the end of May Trump had plowed $6.2 million into various Trump companies, which is to say, back into his own pocket. That's roughly 10% of his campaign spending so far, which is almost entirely from the loan (which he can still repay to himself out of future fundraising) he made to his campaign. He kept up the pace in May, spending $6.7 million on his campaign and more than a million of that to various Trump enterprises.
What's notable about that roughly 10% of money back into his own pocket is that Trump only has businesses in so many sectors. He doesn't appear to have a company to make red trucker hats and he doesn't own radio and TV stations to run ads. So that 10% is basically as much as he could possibly run to [his] own companies.
The Full Story (June 21, 2016)
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
[Special] Paul Manafort, Trump Campaign Chief
Talking Points Memo: Trump & Putin. Yes, It's Really a Thing
By Josh Marshall:
At a minimum, Trump appears to have a deep financial dependence on Russian money from persons close to Putin. And this is matched to a conspicuous solicitousness to Russian foreign policy interests where they come into conflict with US policies which go back decades through administrations of both parties. There is also something between a non-trivial and a substantial amount of evidence suggesting Putin-backed financial support for Trump or a non-tacit alliance between the two men.
* * *
Then there's Paul Manafort, Trump's nominal 'campaign chair' who now functions as campaign manager and top advisor. Manafort spent most of the last decade as top campaign and communications advisor for Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian Ukrainian Prime Minister and then President whose ouster in 2014 led to the on-going crisis and proxy war in Ukraine. Yanukovych was and remains a close Putin ally. Manafort is running Trump's campaign.
The Full Story (July 23, 2016)
By Josh Marshall:
At a minimum, Trump appears to have a deep financial dependence on Russian money from persons close to Putin. And this is matched to a conspicuous solicitousness to Russian foreign policy interests where they come into conflict with US policies which go back decades through administrations of both parties. There is also something between a non-trivial and a substantial amount of evidence suggesting Putin-backed financial support for Trump or a non-tacit alliance between the two men.
* * *
Then there's Paul Manafort, Trump's nominal 'campaign chair' who now functions as campaign manager and top advisor. Manafort spent most of the last decade as top campaign and communications advisor for Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian Ukrainian Prime Minister and then President whose ouster in 2014 led to the on-going crisis and proxy war in Ukraine. Yanukovych was and remains a close Putin ally. Manafort is running Trump's campaign.
The Full Story (July 23, 2016)
~ ~ ~
Talking Points Memo: It Can't Be Dismissed
Drezner says Trump's advisors who have various levels of connection to Putin or Putin-aligned leaders or businessmen in the post-Soviet successor states are largely irrelevant because the people who call the shots in Trumpland are Trump and his immediate family, specifically his adult children. I think this is largely true. But it misses the point.
Does Ivanka or Donald Jr have strongly held views on NATO commitments to member states in the Baltics or who the good guys and bad guys are in the Ukraine? Of course not. The question answers itself.
So while I don't think Carter Page is secretly running the Trump campaign, I think his views and agenda are actually quite significant on a critical foreign policy question that I strongly suspect neither Trump nor anyone in his family knows the first thing about. The same goes for Paul Manafort and others.
~ ~ ~
Talking Points Memo: The Trump and Putin Thing, A Detailed Response
Here's a few grafs from a Politico article that was, notably, written in 2014, before Manafort's business dealings had any obvious political import. So we can rule out any effort to pump up Manafort's role to damage Trump ...
Manafort’s friends describe his relationship with Yanukovych as a political love connection, born out of Yanukovych’s first downfall when he was driven from power by the 2004 Orange Revolution. Feeling that his domestic political advisers had failed him, Yanukovych turned to a foreign company, Davis Manafort, which was already doing work for the Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. The former Ukrainian PM and Manafort, the Georgetown-educated son of a Connecticut politician, hit it off.
Manafort’s firm had a set of international clients and produced an analysis of the Orange Revolution that Yanukovych found instructive, according to one operative involved in Yanukovych’s political rehabilitation. Manafort became, in effect, a general consultant to Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, shaping big-picture messaging, coaching Yanukovych to speak in punchy, American-style sound bites and managing teams of consultants and attorneys in both Ukraine and the United States ahead of an anticipated Yanukovych comeback. While it’s difficult to track payments in foreign elections, a former associate familiar with Manafort’s earnings say they ran into the seven figures over several years.
After Yanukovych’s 2010 victory, Manafort stayed on as an adviser to the Russia-friendly president and became involved in other business projects in Eastern Europe. In 2012, then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Tefft told the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda that he had met with Manafort, though he declined to elaborate on the American’s role there.
This sounds very much like the relationship I described. Yanukovych wasn't one of many of Manafort's clients that I'm just cherry-picking. And Manafort wasn't one of many US advisors. It was a key relationship for both men. And business deals which grew out of the Yanukovych relationship were part of it.
~ ~ ~
New York Times: Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash for Donald Trump’s Campaign Chief
And Mr. Manafort’s presence remains elsewhere here in the capital, where government investigators examining secret records have found his name, as well as companies he sought business with, as they try to untangle a corrupt network they say was used to loot Ukrainian assets and influence elections during the administration of Mr. Manafort’s main client, former President Viktor F. Yanukovych.
Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Investigators assert that the disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials.
In addition, criminal prosecutors are investigating a group of offshore shell companies that helped members of Mr. Yanukovych’s inner circle finance their lavish lifestyles, including a palatial presidential residence with a private zoo, golf course and tennis court. Among the hundreds of murky transactions these companies engaged in was an $18 million deal to sell Ukrainian cable television assets to a partnership put together by Mr. Manafort and a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin.
Monday, August 15, 2016
GQ: The Mystifying Triumph of Hope Hicks, Donald Trump’s Right-Hand Woman
By Olivia Nuzzi:
Getting the most out of the star requires keeping him informed. While Trump nurses an obvious addiction to cable news, the reading that's put in front of him is largely confined to a topic he already knows well. Every morning, staffers print out 30 to 50 Google News results for “Donald J. Trump.” He then goes at the sheaf with a marker, making circles and arrows and annotating things he likes or doesn't like. The defaced article gets scanned and e-mailed to the journalist or the person quoted who has drawn Trump's attention, under the subject line “From the office of Donald J. Trump.”
As for what arrives in Hicks's in-box, a typical day brings upwards of 250 media requests. Usually, she alone decides who gets in and who's kept out. But sometimes it's Trump who plays bouncer for his own private party. “She sees the tantrums, and there are tantrums,” a source who's been with Trump and Hicks told me. “He reads something he doesn't like by a reporter, and it's like, ‘This motherfucker! All right, fine. Hope?’ He circles it. ‘This guy's banned! He's banned for a while.’ That's exactly how it works.” Hicks plays parole officer to an extensive and expanding blacklist of outlets and reporters (your correspondent once included) no longer welcome at his events.
While Hicks is often eager to please, she doesn't mind upsetting the media and harbors no reverence for the civic duties of a free press. When reporters send her questions, she's often irked—convinced they're playing detective merely to irritate the campaign. She's seemingly unaware that they might just be vetting a potential United States president. Often she doesn't respond.
The Full Story (June 20, 2016)
Getting the most out of the star requires keeping him informed. While Trump nurses an obvious addiction to cable news, the reading that's put in front of him is largely confined to a topic he already knows well. Every morning, staffers print out 30 to 50 Google News results for “Donald J. Trump.” He then goes at the sheaf with a marker, making circles and arrows and annotating things he likes or doesn't like. The defaced article gets scanned and e-mailed to the journalist or the person quoted who has drawn Trump's attention, under the subject line “From the office of Donald J. Trump.”
As for what arrives in Hicks's in-box, a typical day brings upwards of 250 media requests. Usually, she alone decides who gets in and who's kept out. But sometimes it's Trump who plays bouncer for his own private party. “She sees the tantrums, and there are tantrums,” a source who's been with Trump and Hicks told me. “He reads something he doesn't like by a reporter, and it's like, ‘This motherfucker! All right, fine. Hope?’ He circles it. ‘This guy's banned! He's banned for a while.’ That's exactly how it works.” Hicks plays parole officer to an extensive and expanding blacklist of outlets and reporters (your correspondent once included) no longer welcome at his events.
While Hicks is often eager to please, she doesn't mind upsetting the media and harbors no reverence for the civic duties of a free press. When reporters send her questions, she's often irked—convinced they're playing detective merely to irritate the campaign. She's seemingly unaware that they might just be vetting a potential United States president. Often she doesn't respond.
Friday, August 12, 2016
Forbes: Why Is There A Money Void At The Center Of The Trump Campaign?
By John McQuaid:
A man with $10 billion and a decent shot at the presidency ought to be able to free up substantial funds to do that – and to do anything to win. That’s emphatically not happening. The Occam’s razor explanation is that he’s not worth $10 billion. However much he is worth, he appears not to possess the liquidity to conjure up the necessary $1 billion, or hundreds or even tens of millions, that a national campaign requires. Even a million is a stretch.
This might be OK if Trump were willing to raise money. After all, self-funding presidential campaigns are rare because they cost so much. But Trump doesn’t appear to be willing to do the minimum required on this front either. He dislikes calling rich donors. He has said that he wants the Republican Party apparatus to take over the functions of a national campaign. This is insane, because the Republican Party has its own job to do. It’s supposed to work concert with the nominee’s national organization, and with down-ballot campaigns. So handing it this huge extra job, without the money to make it happen, will hurt not just Trump but the entire Republican slate.
The Full Story (June 19, 2016)
A man with $10 billion and a decent shot at the presidency ought to be able to free up substantial funds to do that – and to do anything to win. That’s emphatically not happening. The Occam’s razor explanation is that he’s not worth $10 billion. However much he is worth, he appears not to possess the liquidity to conjure up the necessary $1 billion, or hundreds or even tens of millions, that a national campaign requires. Even a million is a stretch.
This might be OK if Trump were willing to raise money. After all, self-funding presidential campaigns are rare because they cost so much. But Trump doesn’t appear to be willing to do the minimum required on this front either. He dislikes calling rich donors. He has said that he wants the Republican Party apparatus to take over the functions of a national campaign. This is insane, because the Republican Party has its own job to do. It’s supposed to work concert with the nominee’s national organization, and with down-ballot campaigns. So handing it this huge extra job, without the money to make it happen, will hurt not just Trump but the entire Republican slate.
The Full Story (June 19, 2016)
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Politico: Trump’s Relationship with RNC Sours
By Kenneth P. Vogel, Eli Stokols and Alex Isenstadt:
Donald Trump is relying heavily on the Republican Party to bolster his skeletal operation, but his campaign’s relationship with the Republican National Committee is increasingly plagued by distrust, power struggles and strategic differences, according to sources in both camps.
In recent days, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has privately grumbled that his advice doesn’t seem welcome with Trump, according to one RNC insider. Other party officials have expressed frustration that Trump’s campaign is trying to take too much control over a pair of fundraising committees with the party while adding little to the effort, according to campaign and party officials familiar with the relationship.
While Trump had promised Priebus that he would call two dozen top GOP donors, when RNC chief of staff Katie Walsh recently presented Trump with a list of more than 20 donors, he called only three before stopping, according to two sources familiar with the situation. It’s unclear whether he resumed the donor calls later.
The Full Story (June 15, 2016)
Donald Trump is relying heavily on the Republican Party to bolster his skeletal operation, but his campaign’s relationship with the Republican National Committee is increasingly plagued by distrust, power struggles and strategic differences, according to sources in both camps.
In recent days, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has privately grumbled that his advice doesn’t seem welcome with Trump, according to one RNC insider. Other party officials have expressed frustration that Trump’s campaign is trying to take too much control over a pair of fundraising committees with the party while adding little to the effort, according to campaign and party officials familiar with the relationship.
While Trump had promised Priebus that he would call two dozen top GOP donors, when RNC chief of staff Katie Walsh recently presented Trump with a list of more than 20 donors, he called only three before stopping, according to two sources familiar with the situation. It’s unclear whether he resumed the donor calls later.
The Full Story (June 15, 2016)
Monday, August 8, 2016
The Atlantic: There's No Such Thing as Nice Trump
By Molly Ball:
The congressman predicted Trump would heed the firestorm around the comments. It would, he said, prove to be a crucial learning experience for Trump: “He just has to touch the hot stove,” he said optimistically.
The Republicans who oppose Trump are rather bearish on this prospect. To them, the judge controversy proved conclusively that there will be no new-and-improved general-election Trump, and showed they were right all along about his divisive tendencies.
“I am getting I-told-you-so delivered to my house by the truckload every day,” Rick Wilson, the Florida Republican consultant who has vocally opposed Trump from the beginning, told me. “I am eating up the I-told-you-so like a fat kid eats cake.”
Wilson had little patience for the idea that Trump might still turn it around. “He’s 70 years old. He’s a narcissistic sociopath. He’s not going to change,” he said. “There is no better version of Donald Trump, no mindful, serious, presidential version, only the reality-TV, con-man, pro-wrestling dipshit Donald Trump.”
The Full Story (June 13, 2016)
The congressman predicted Trump would heed the firestorm around the comments. It would, he said, prove to be a crucial learning experience for Trump: “He just has to touch the hot stove,” he said optimistically.
The Republicans who oppose Trump are rather bearish on this prospect. To them, the judge controversy proved conclusively that there will be no new-and-improved general-election Trump, and showed they were right all along about his divisive tendencies.
“I am getting I-told-you-so delivered to my house by the truckload every day,” Rick Wilson, the Florida Republican consultant who has vocally opposed Trump from the beginning, told me. “I am eating up the I-told-you-so like a fat kid eats cake.”
Wilson had little patience for the idea that Trump might still turn it around. “He’s 70 years old. He’s a narcissistic sociopath. He’s not going to change,” he said. “There is no better version of Donald Trump, no mindful, serious, presidential version, only the reality-TV, con-man, pro-wrestling dipshit Donald Trump.”
The Full Story (June 13, 2016)
Friday, August 5, 2016
Talking Points Memo: DEBUNKED - Team Trump's Ugly Smear Of Latino Lawyers Group
By Tierney Sneed:
It was only after the scrutiny intensified around Trump for citing the judge’s Mexican heritage as proof of bias did Trump and his surrogates began linking his criticism of Curiel with the judge's membership in La Raza.
His national spokesperson Katrina Pierson accused the group of organizing anti-Trump protests, apparently confusing La Raza San Diego with the advocacy group National Council of La Raza (more on that later). Even after the distinction between the two was pointed out, other Trump surrogates followed suit by saying Curiel’s association with La Raza San Diego was fair game.
Trump, meanwhile, described it over the weekend as a “club or society very strongly pro-Mexican,” while alluding to the judge’s “associations with certain professional organizations” in his Tuesday statement responding to concerns about his attacks.
The Full Story (June 10, 2016)
It was only after the scrutiny intensified around Trump for citing the judge’s Mexican heritage as proof of bias did Trump and his surrogates began linking his criticism of Curiel with the judge's membership in La Raza.
His national spokesperson Katrina Pierson accused the group of organizing anti-Trump protests, apparently confusing La Raza San Diego with the advocacy group National Council of La Raza (more on that later). Even after the distinction between the two was pointed out, other Trump surrogates followed suit by saying Curiel’s association with La Raza San Diego was fair game.
Trump, meanwhile, described it over the weekend as a “club or society very strongly pro-Mexican,” while alluding to the judge’s “associations with certain professional organizations” in his Tuesday statement responding to concerns about his attacks.
The Full Story (June 10, 2016)
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