The majority of the corporations known to have donated to the fund for Trump's new ballroom are represented by three lobbying firms, according to a new report from government accountability watchdog Public Citizen.
Lobbyists from those three firms — Miller Strategies, Ballard Partners and Michael Best Strategies — mingled last month with the president and executives from America's top technology and cryptocurrency companies over tomato salad and Beef Wellington.
The event took place in the White House East Room, a space that will one day adjoin the new $300 million White House ballroom, and was arranged to recognize donors who privately funded construction that's now under way. Guests included representatives from more than two dozen nationally recognized firms, like tobacco giant Altria, Comcast, Microsoft and T-Mobile.
22 Comments
phoenixz@lemmy.ca · 37 pts · 282d
As soon as trump ia gone that ballroom must be levelled, and then the east wing must be rebuilt exactly how it was.
Leave no visual evidence that that fat out every lived therr
dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 282d
I mentioned this elsewhere, but even if we just remodel it later (for all it's gaudy "splendor"), the taxpayers are going to wind up paying for this boondongle twice. The fact that it's clearly a money-laundering-grift scheme is just salt in the wound at this point.
Un-doing all of this is the right thing to do, but it'll be seen as divisive and will ultimately cost more, making it politically problematic for anyone in office that cares about all that. You'd need another authoritarian to pull this off, and I'm not sure we want that.
Asmodeus_Krang@infosec.pub · 12 pts · 282d
BanMe@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 282d
Trump was worth like $6.3 billion last summer, now he's worth less than $1b. Just something fun to think about. Hard to make and lose that much imaginary money but he did it.
homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 282d
Don't care. Gone.
sepi@piefed.social · 6 pts · 282d
Make the lobbyists and billionaires that donated the first time around fix it. If they don't pay up, we can eat them.
hateisreality@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 282d
We'll be lucky if we only have to pay twice for all these asshole's Fuck Ups
grindemup@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 282d
Fuck that. How about Americans own up to the fact that Trump is a symptom of long-term problems and is actually quite representative of what the US stands for these days. Once America has decided to elect a government who isn't outright fascist, then it would make sense to turn this ballroom into a museum to expose this nastiness rather than sweeping it under the rug.
Septimaeus@infosec.pub · 8 pts · 282d
FWIW this is a common post-regime debate. Visit Berlin to see a number of creative solutions.
grindemup@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 282d
Indeed, here is a good essay on the topic of counterpreservation.
nova@lemmy.vg · 8 pts · 282d
I was thinking of turning into an anti-fascism memorial/museum. Leave the building there as a reminder of what we should be fighting against.
blattrules@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 282d
We should turn it into a homeless shelter.
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 282d
Nah set it on fire with napalm and leave the husk, then turn the rest of the Whitehouse into a museum. The president can live out of a crack house in Baltimore for all I care
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 282d
We need to seriously break up all these giant corps before Johnny Silverhand is the only one that can do it...
If we don't, they'll just keep growing, and once they get so big, the only people able to buy them will be the Saudi's, and they'll just own everything under a few corporate layers.
SeeMarkFly@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 282d
Too big to fail is much too big to be any good for American's Maybe some government oversight is needed?
henfredemars@lemdro.id · 10 pts · 282d
For-profit government.
lando55@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 282d
"I'm gonna run the country like a business!"
But... why?
sturmblast@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 282d
Bribes, not donations
frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 282d
They become donations when you do some paperwork.
resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 282d
Our subprime court says they’re gratuities. Like a tip for a job well done.
TrickDacy@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 282d
He is incapable of doing anything that isn't corrupt.
Carvex@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 282d
What goes in that silly tall wallway between the two buildings?
overthere@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 282d
Portraits of Trump in various poses.