Your Week In Trump Outrages - The Grift Begins

Donald Trump took the next steps in mixing his business affairs and the office of the President of the United States. Earlier last week, Trump's hotel in DC began soliciting foreign delegations to use the facility for their business. As Josh Marshall points out, this is probably in violation of Article 1 of the Constitution. And he also make the important point that because Trump has not divested himself from his business, foreigners are even more likely to ingratiate themselves with our President by advancing his business interests. As an example, Trump's business partner in the Philippines being named the country's trade envoy to the US.

Also during the week, Trump took time out from his busy schedule that "forced" him to settle the Trump University lawsuit in order to meet with his business partners in India to discuss expanding Trump's business in that country.  Besides the fact that Trump continues to transact business overseas as President-elect, what is more shocking is that apparently the American media was unaware of this meeting until it was reported by an Indian newspaper.

Later in the week, Trump met with Japanese Prime Minister Abe and Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump were also in attendance. Ivanka and Kushner are, of course, two of the family that will be "running" Trump's businesses in the Trump version of a "blind trust" while he is President.

On Saturday, Trump met with Mitt Romney for an apparently wide-ranging and substantive discussion. Romney has been floated as a possible Secretary of State, but I'll believe it when I see it. Romney has rightly decried Trump's divisive rhetoric during the campaign and clearly recognizes that fact that he is a fraud. Why he would provide cover for Trump by even agreeing to meet with him is beyond me but it just shows how spineless and lacking conviction the leadership of the Republican party has become and how that institution has collapsed as a positive force for democracy and is now just a vehicle for power and greed.

And, to cap it off, on Sunday, Reince Priebus refused to rule out the possibility that the Trump administration would implement a Muslim registry. You have to watch the video to see just how uncomfortable Priebus was with the question and how unsure he was about how to handle it. Mike Pence then followed that up by specifically not ruling out the possibility that the Trump administration would order the use of torture. When asked about whether Trump would re-authorize waterboarding, Pence responded, "President Donald Trump is going to focus on confronting and defeating radical Islamic terrorism as a threat to this country. We're going to have a president again who will never say what we'll never do."

The values of America and its democracy continue to sink into the abyss. And it's only just begun.