Rachel discusses the missing Trump inaugural millions and a Conjecture
I didn't see this episode, but have seen other articles. In contrast, Obama collected half as much money and had ten inaugural balls vs. Trump's three.
Rachel.says the money may end up contributing to the Russia investigation legal defense fund for Trump and Trump Jr.! Surprise! But nobody's talking about it! Suprise! And are you hearing Michael Beschloss mentioning hush money to aides so they'll shut up about the Russia scandal? Maybe that's why so many trumpies and former trumpies wont rat out the boss.
peaceinourtime said:
Rachel.says the money may end up contributing to the Russia investigation legal defense fund for Trump and Trump Jr.! Surprise! But nobody's talking about it! Suprise! And are you hearing Michael Beschloss mentioning hush money to aides so they'll shut up about the Russia scandal? Maybe that's why so many trumpies and former trumpies wont rat out the boss.
Business as usual for him. All of this sleazy behavior has to be exactly how he has operated his businesses throughout the years. None of this is new for him.
shoshannah said:
peaceinourtime said:
Rachel.says the money may end up contributing to the Russia investigation legal defense fund for Trump and Trump Jr.! Surprise! But nobody's talking about it! Suprise! And are you hearing Michael Beschloss mentioning hush money to aides so they'll shut up about the Russia scandal? Maybe that's why so many trumpies and former trumpies wont rat out the boss.
Business as usual for him. All of this sleazy behavior has to be exactly how he has operated his businesses throughout the years. None of this is new for him.
So one wonders where the grown-ups are (ultimately) who can find out where this money went? The outrage is noticeably absent, because the outrage contingent of the American population is probably exhausted. At least recent Missouri and Wisconsin special elections are showing a possible resurgence of the Democratic electorate where it counts, at the polls!
$25,000,000 went to a friend of Melania Trump who started an event planning company 2 months before the election. She got another $1 mil.
peaceinourtime said:
$25,000,000 went to a friend of Melania Trump who started an event planning company 2 months before the election. She got another $1 mil.
And it was explained last night that the company that handles all of these events and did this one also got 25,000,000. So what exactly did Melania's pal do for her 25,000,000?
The fee to the event company was $26M, not $25M. In fairness, much of that was distributed to vendors, not kept by the event company.
Maybe I'm being incredibly naive, but most of this money came from private and corporate donors, so they should be the ones asking for accountability. Trump and the White House didn't manage most of this directly. Perhaps there should be more transparency about who these donors are (some are known - Adelson, Chevron, Boeing, AT&T), but otherwise it's hard for me to get too outraged about this. There are lots of people who aren't particularly smart or talented or who aren't contributing to important causes who make a lot of money. I'm more amazed that the guy who produced Glee just got a $300M deal with Netflix.
apple44 said:
The fee to the event company was $26M, not $25M. In fairness, much of that was distributed to vendors, not kept by the event company.
How do you know? Did you get a look at the books and also verify with the vendors?
They actually paid vendors, they didn't stiff them?
Sure, it's possible the vendors have been stiffed or otherwise are unhappy for any number of reasons. But the few media reports I've seen on this, including the NY Times, have not mentioned or even inferred this.
I would argue that too much money is spent on these events, and we should have greater transparency on who the donors are. But am I going to sit around and worry if all of the vendors have been paid and otherwise are happy? No, I'm going to pass on that.
I care about accountability. The big money donors wanted to pay for Trump's party, but I don't think they care where the money went. They wanted Trump to know that they put money into the pot - it's better than campaign contributions, no pesky limits. If Donnie spread it around so that some of the money stuck to the fingers of his friends or his wife's friends, so much the better. His friends are grateful to Donnie, Donnie's grateful to the big money donors, the donors are grateful for this big influence-buying loophole, and we're the chumps.
apple44 said:
The fee to the event company was $26M, not $25M. In fairness, much of that was distributed to vendors, not kept by the event company.
Maybe I'm being incredibly naive, but most of this money came from private and corporate donors, so they should be the ones asking for accountability. Trump and the White House didn't manage most of this directly. Perhaps there should be more transparency about who these donors are (some are known - Adelson, Chevron, Boeing, AT&T), but otherwise it's hard for me to get too outraged about this. There are lots of people who aren't particularly smart or talented or who aren't contributing to important causes who make a lot of money. I'm more amazed that the guy who produced Glee just got a $300M deal with Netflix.
I agree, but that's not what most people are talking about here. The OP is asking why the concert cost $25M. Others are asking why the event marketing company was paid $26M. Another poster seems concerned that the vendors working for the event company may not have been paid.
South_Mountaineer said:
I care about accountability. The big money donors wanted to pay for Trump's party, but I don't think they care where the money went. They wanted Trump to know that they put money into the pot - it's better than campaign contributions, no pesky limits. If Donnie spread it around so that some of the money stuck to the fingers of his friends or his wife's friends, so much the better. His friends are grateful to Donnie, Donnie's grateful to the big money donors, the donors are grateful for this big influence-buying loophole, and we're the chumps.
it was 25 mil, with 1 mil going to the "friend." More than that was raised by the campaign for the inaugural nonsense. When there's so much "American carnage" another obvious question is, why spend so much on celebrating??? It's so gaudy, such bad taste!!
The saddest part of this is that likely nothing can be done about that 26 million dollar payment to Melania's friend. There doesn't seem to be many restrictions on the use of these funds. Its sickening. This disgusting family has screwed us over personally and financially in every possible way. And they do it proudly, laughing all the way to the bank, covering their tracks and their ***** the entire time.
The question that I raised after listening to Rachel Maddow last night is that it appears that 2 companies were paid for the same event planning. The usual company that does the event and Melania's friend's new company. Both paid about twenty five million. Sounds like 2 companies were paid for the same event. Or did I misinterpret this. I tried to find the clip of her explaining it. Not sure if it is available yet.
Is Rachel Maddow now a one name celebrity?
Seriously folks, she isn't your spouse, she isn't your friend, she's an employee of a mega corp with its own agenda.
None of which is to cast shade on what Rachel Maddow was talking about yesterday.
Klinker said:
Is Rachel Maddow now a one name celebrity?
Seriously folks, she isn't your spouse, she isn't your friend, she's an employee of a mega corp with its own agenda.
None of which is to cast shade on what Rachel Maddow was talking about yesterday.
Hmmm, maybe. Kind of like Bernie or Hillary. Most on MOL can pick up on the shorthand.
Morganna said:
The question that I raised after listening to Rachel Maddow last night is that it appears that 2 companies were paid for the same event planning. The usual company that does the event and Melania's friend's new company. Both paid about twenty five million. Sounds like 2 companies were paid for the same event. Or did I misinterpret this. I tried to find the clip of her explaining it. Not sure if it is available yet.
The friend of Melania was paid but no one knows that it was for event planning or anything else. She was just paid, that's all we know.
boomie said:
Morganna said:
The question that I raised after listening to Rachel Maddow last night is that it appears that 2 companies were paid for the same event planning. The usual company that does the event and Melania's friend's new company. Both paid about twenty five million. Sounds like 2 companies were paid for the same event. Or did I misinterpret this. I tried to find the clip of her explaining it. Not sure if it is available yet.
The friend of Melania was paid but no one knows that it was for event planning or anything else. She was just paid, that's all we know.
Conspiracy? "Naming and shaming?" Maybe part of the Russian meddling mob?
boomie said:
The friend of Melania was paid but no one knows that it was for event planning or anything else. She was just paid, that's all we know.
Women getting paid for no particular reason has often been happening around the Trumps.
The Times article yesterday seemed to imply that there are some unanswered questions but didn't point to anything criminal. It stated that leftover funds which were promised (and ultimately delivered) to charities were less than "what was expected." Which is kind of squishy. It did not state or suggest that two different event companies were paid for the same work. It didn't state that Melania's friend shouldn't have been involved or paid, but did state that not much is known about her company.
All of these funds were managed by the inaugural committee, a nonprofit headed by Tom Barrack, a California real estate investor and Trumps's longtime friend. Most of the funds came from private and corporate donations. In addition to the inauguration, there were 20 or so events and hundreds of temporary employees. Some of the folks involved also did events during the Obama admin.
I imagine if mismanagement is proven, Barrack will just say, "It was the first time I ran an event of this scale, and we didn't have a lot of time, so I made some mistakes. The Trumps were not directly involved." Which probably is mostly if not entirely true.
If money was diverted to the Trumps or somewhere, that would be a story, but I haven't seen a credible charge of that.
Trump just admitted in a tweet that Russia meddled. See his tweet. Of course, he denied the involvement of his campaign.
He just tweeted,
"Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President. The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong - no collusion!
3:18 PM · Feb 16, 2018"
I know, its the first time he's admitted Russia did ANYTHING. However its way too late. Dumbass.
This REALLY gives a new meaning to "outside agitators," a term frequently used to refer to."radicals" exciting youth, students, and others during Civil Rights movement and Viet Nam.protests! But these were not serious protests. They were frat-style, Animal House hi-jinks by comparison.
In defense of Ryan Murhpy who cut a $300m deal with Netflix. This is the first paragraph from his Wiki page:
Ryan Patrick Murphy (born November 30, 1965) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. Murphy is best known for creating/co-creating/producing a number of successful television series, including the FX medical drama Nip/Tuck(2003–10), the Fox musical comedy-drama Glee(2009–15), and the FX anthology series American Horror Story (2011–present), American Crime Story(2016–present), and Feud (2017–present). He is also known for directing the 2010 film adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Loveand the 2014 HBO film adaptation of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, which earned a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie.
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Are you watching this? Millions of surplus dollars for the Trump inaugural party and event are missing. Supposedly, the concert was $25,000,000 they said? Who was playing, The London philharmonic? Even they wouldn't ring up a bill like that! Hope they find this buried treasure! (Did it go to "Stormy?")