Day 96: Trump White House Violates Federal Law Again

State Department runs free ads for Mar-a-Lago on multiple platforms.

Mar-a-Lago, the private club that Donald Trump owns in Palm Beach, got substantial free publicity yesterday when the State Department ran information about the club on it’s taxpayer-funded website.

One iteration of the write-up — originally posted over three weeks ago and under the guise of informing the world where Trump spends his time when not in the White House — included ornate photos with substantial descriptions of the architecture and property features. This was picked up by American embassies’ websites and social media accounts throughout the world.

Trump has visited the for-profit club seven times in his first 14 weeks as president. We have estimated that Trump has profited well over $335,000 just from Secret Service staying there while Trump is on property.

As a reminder, the initiation fee to join Mar-a-Lago jumped from $100,000 to $200,000 shortly after the election. Trump frequently stomps around the grounds playing golf, rubbing elbows with members, popping in on wedding receptions and hosting foreign heads of state in the dining room (often discussing sensitive information).

Now, the State Department is running de facto advertisements for the president’s private business ventures.

The posts pretty obviously flout federal law, as one former White House ethics official noted.

5 CFR 2635.702, titled Use of public office for private gain, states:

An employee shall not use his public office for his own private gain, for the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise, or for the private gain of friends, relatives, or persons with whom the employee is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity, including nonprofit organizations of which the employee is an officer or member, and persons with whom the employee has or seeks employment or business relations. The specific prohibitions set forth in paragraphs (a) through (d) of this section apply this general standard, but are not intended to be exclusive or to limit the application of this section.

The law has numerous subdivisions. One is titled “appearance of governmental sanction” that precludes governmental employees from “using his public office in a manner that could reasonably be construed to imply that his agency of the Government sanctions or endorses his personal activities or those of another.”

The publishing on numerous government websites a puff piece regarding where a government employee frequently visits and has a vested interest can be reasonably construed to be shilling for that private entity for the benefit of that government employee.

This is yet another violation of federal law by the Trump team that no one in Congress appears to care about.

96 days in, 1366 to go

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