TRUMP BUILT HIS OWN SWAMP IN WASHINGTON, D.C.: NEW YORK TIMES

President Trump not only failed to “drain the swamp.” He built his own. Tax records show how those who got ahead spent millions at his properties, the New York Times reported.

The newspaper said its investigation found more than 200 companies, special-interest groups and foreign governments that patronized his properties while reaping benefits from him and his administration. Nearly a quarter of those patrons have not been previously reported.      An analysis of data from Mr. Trump’s tax records revealed just how much that new line of business was worth at a time when large swaths of his real estate holdings were under financial stress. “The tax records — along with membership rosters for Mar-a-Lago and the president’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J., as well as other sources — reveal how much money this new line of business was worth.”

Commenting on the report for Raw Story on the same day, Matthew Chapman said as few as 60 customers with interests to protect brought his family business nearly $12 million during the first two years of his presidency. Their investment paid dividends, Chapman noted, as nearly all of them saw interests advanced.

“Patrons at the properties ranged widely: foreign politicians and Florida sugar barons, a Chinese billionaire and a Serbian prince, clean-energy enthusiasts and their adversaries in the petroleum industry, avowed small-government activists and contractors seeking billions from ever-fattening federal budgets,” continued the report. “Mr. Trump’s administration delivered them funding and laws and land. He handed them appointments to task forces and ambassadorships, victories as weighty as a presidential directive and as ephemeral as a presidential tweet.”