Fuckin' hilarious.
From Business Insider:
President Donald Trump reportedly told a group of members at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club that the reason he frequented the golf property so often was because "that White House is a real dump."
The comment was reported Tuesday in a Golf.com profile on the president which will appear in Sports Illustrated this week.
"Chatting with some members before a recent round of golf, [Trump] explained his frequent appearances: 'That White House is a real dump,'" Golf.com reported. The publication wrote that the president is "often at his most unguarded among the people who pay for their proximity to him."
"Last November, the President-elect hosted a cocktail reception and dinner at Bedminster on the same weekend that he was holding interviews at the club with candidates for his cabinet," Golf.com reported. "At the dinner, Trump addressed the members of the club by saying, "This is my real group. You are the special people. I see all of you. I recognize, like, 100% of you, just about.'"
7 comments:
Compared to the Trump penthouse in NYC, I think that White House is probably a dump.
Well, it is extremely outdated. And I imagine there are severe restrictions on remodeling because it is considered a historic treasure. Melania can move the furniture around, change the decor a bit. But the rooms are just stuffy.
A mansion for the Carters looks like something different to the Trump family.
I see his comment as more joke than commentary. Not offended. Yet he speaks an inconvenient truth.
History lesson:
The White House was never designed to be a shock-and-awe structure.
Our Founders and those subsequent in the 19th and 20th Centuries abhorred any monarchy's luxurious accommodations (palaces).
I agree. It was a joke. But humor is not funny, unless it has truth in it.
OT: Some background on the new FBI Director
Griffin Bell, recruited Wray to join the Atlanta firm of King & Spalding in 1993. He spent his first four years in an introductory tour with the firm’s fast-growing white-collar defense team.
In 1997 he joined the U.S. Attorney’s office in Atlanta as an assistant prosecutor, reporting to Sally Yates, a former King & Spalding attorney who had been an assistant prosecutor since 1989.
It was Larry D. Thompson, another King & Spalding partner, who got the nod to be President Bush’s first Deputy AG back in 2001. For the next two years Wray served as “Associate Deputy AG,” working directly with Thompson as well as John Ashcroft, Bush’s first Attorney General (2001-05), Michael Chertoff, the Assistant AG/Criminal Division (2001-03), and FBI Director Robert Mueller III (2001-13).
In June 2003, when Chertoff left to become a Federal judge, Wray became Assistant AG/Criminal Division, in charge of the country’s 600 Federal prosecutors and 93 U.S. attorneys.
In August 2003 Thompson revolved back to King & Spalding, and his successor, SDNY U.S. Attorney James B. Comey, arrived in December 2003. Wray stayed on as Assistant AG/Criminal Division until February 2005, when he also revolved. The sum is that Wray has pursued a successful but narrow-gauged two-track career, alternating between prosecuting bad guys (30 percent) and defending them (70 percent).
Andrew Weissmann, who now reports directly to Special Counsel Robert Mueller:
…was Chris Wray’s former Enron Task Force colleague; worked with and for Leslie Caldwell (EDNY, Enron Task Force, DOJ), Loretta Lynch (EDNY, DOJ), and Robert Mueller (FBI)
In 2005 he returned to King & Spalding and chaired its “Special Matters/White Collar Defense and Government Investigations Practice Group.”
At last count, this group now consists of 143 professionals, including “over 40 former federal prosecutors.” They are all focused on the worthy cause of defending white-collar criminals, many of whom turn out to be very large, influential banks and corporations.
In May 2014, Wray negotiated a plea bargain with the U.S. DOJ’s Eric Holder and Lanny Breuer on behalf of one of his best clients, Credit Suisse AG.
Wray has been advising this serial offender since at least 2009, when, under his guidance, Credit Suisse entered into an earlier “Plea Agreement“ and “Deferred Prosecution Agreement” and paid a $536 million fine with respect to a serious case involving systematic violations of U.S. trade sanctions against countries like the Sudan and Burma.
(to be continued)
(continued)
In exchange for the DPA, Credit Suisse had solemnly sworn to “demonstrate its future good conduct and full compliance with . . . international anti-money laundering . . . best practices.” This 2009 DPA was signed by Wray and his partner Andrew Hruska.
This time around, in May 2014, the same two King & Spalding partners were back at DOJ to sign a deal in which Credit Suisse pled guilty to a felony for conspiring to facilitate massive amounts of tax dodging by at least 22,000 wealthy American taxpayers, all of whom were the bank’s private banking clients. The price was a bit steeper: $2.7 billion in fines and restitution, payable to the U.S. DOJ, the IRS and the SEC.
.No senior managers did any jail time or faced any other penalties. The bank retained all its U.S. operating licenses. And, especially ironic in this case, most of this sum was tax-deductible by the bank’s Swiss parent. In other words, having bilked the U.S. Treasury, Credit Suisse (which is probably not even Swiss owned) was now laying off at least a third of the penalty on Swiss taxpayers.
According to the “statement of facts” that Wray signed, Credit Suisse admitted that “for decades” at least 685 of its private bankers, plus a few senior managers, presumably, had operated a huge, grossly illegal tax-dodging business in total secrecy. They had violated dozens of U.S. tax laws, anti-money laundering laws, broker-dealer laws, financial reporting laws, and securities laws “willfully and knowingly, with specific intent.” As the bank admitted, without this kind of tax dodging, wealthy Americans would have never have any reason to become Swiss bank clients, because Swiss banks are notoriously high-cost and low-return. In other words, tax dodging was not peripheral to Credit Suisse’s private banking business model. It was Credit Suisse’s business model.
During the 2005-17 period, he and the “Special Matters—White Collar Defense and Government Investigations Practice Group” have also represented: Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, HSBC (most recently, in Saudi Arabia), Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan. Like Credit Suisse, all of these banks figure prominently on the below list
http://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/prog.php?major_industry_sum=financial+services
Penalty Total since 2010: $192,599,882,519
Number of Records: 756
*****
Andrew Weissmann, who now reports directly to Special Counsel Robert Mueller:
…was Chris Wray’s former Enron Task Force colleague
I told Trump he should have had the place fumigated and all the soft materials replaced....
Post a Comment