Quick Update On The Trump Kleptocracy

Here is a quick update on the Trump kleptocracy. Yesterday's news was that Melania Trump has sued the Daily Mail over their reporting that the modeling agency she worked for in the 1990s was really an escort service. The suit, filed in New York, is seeking damages of $150 million, specifically because "the plaintiff’s brand has lost significant value" due to the Daily Mail article and Melania has now lost the opportunities "to launch a broad-based commercial brand in multiple product categories, each of which could have garnered multimillion dollar business relationships for a multiyear term during which plaintiff is one of the most photographed women in the world." Melania's spokesperson denied that she was trying to profit off being the first lady.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump himself has declared time and again that he has separated himself from his businesses that his sons supposedly now run. But, according to Vox, 10 of the 41 accounts Trump follows on twitter are businesses owned by Trump himself or his family. Considering the amount of time he spends on twitter, he is obviously going to be well informed about all those businesses he has separated himself from.

Apparently the Department of Defense under James Mattis is also looking to get on Trump's good side. They are apparently looking to rent space in Trump Tower. Actually, there is nothing out of the ordinary about this as the DOD needs personnel and equipment in the residence of all presidents. What is unusual and, more importantly, unconstitutional is paying rent to the President the DOD is protecting.

Then today, he took a shot at Nordstrom's because they dropped Ivanka Trump's clothing line earlier this week. Trump tweeted, "My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!" And now it's not just Trump. He is enlisting the federal bureaucracy to tout his daughter's business. At the press briefing just now, Sean Spicer declared Nordstrom's decision was "a direct attack on his [Trump's] policies and her [Ivanka's] name".

It's pretty clear that Trump has fully separated himself from the business affairs of his own and his family. We really have nothing to worry about...