Ballroom Blitz: Union Pacific donates to White House ballroom while proposing massive merger

[Omaha Steve]

Union Pacific’s Bailey Yard in North Platte, the largest rail yard in the world, handles roughly 14,000 rail cars every day. The railroad company, which is headquartered in Omaha, is already one of the country’s largest. Now, Union Pacific is seeking a merger that would give it control of more than 40% of rail freight traffic in the United States. Photo by Christopher Turley for the Flatwater Free Press

https://flatwaterfreepress.org/ballroom-blitz-union-pacific-donates-to-white-house-ballroom-while-proposing-massive-merger/

A merger with Norfolk Southern Railway – one of the dominant railroads in the eastern U.S. – would cement Union Pacific as the largest railroad in the United States.

By Joshua Shimkus Nov. 7

Union Pacific Railroad is the lone Nebraska-based company publicly known to have donated to the new White House ballroom championed by President Donald Trump. It’s also a Nebraska-based company that will soon need a federal regulator to approve a massive merger that, if green-lit, would give the company control of more than 40% of rail freight traffic in the United States.

Trump recently fired the most anti-merger board member of that federal regulator, the Surface Transportation Board, as he tries to exert unprecedented influence over ostensibly independent federal agencies.

Union Pacific is far from the only White House ballroom donor that may have reason to curry presidential favor. Many of the publicly known donors are massive companies or billionaires. A recent report by Public Citizen, a consumer rights advocacy group, says that 14 out of 24 known corporate donors to the ballroom are facing federal enforcement action or have had enforcement suspended this year by the Trump administration.

Anthony Hatch, a longtime Wall Street analyst of the railroad industry, said he doesn’t think Trump fired the board member because of the looming railroad merger. He termed the U.P. donation part of “playing the lobbying game.”

FULL story at link above.

[Irish_Dem]

1. The entire US govt is now totally pay to play.

[NotHardly]

4. Greedy grubbing sh*tstains.

[lonely bird]

2. Um, Chief Justice Roberts?

This is what is known as quid pro quo despite the longtime analyst’s attempt to put the “lobbying game” fig leaf on it.

[Irish_Dem]

7. The Supreme Court said gratuities after the fact are allowed.

Including themselves of course.

[Volaris]

8. I was thinking the other day that should be Tish James argument for the vacation shes being sued for.

It's a tip, just like the SC said it could be.
Trump, Bondi, and Alito would all lose their minds.

[Irish_Dem]

10. Only white male magas get gratuities.

[BlueWavePsych]

3. K&R

[mdbl]

5. Just a small part of the blatant corruption going on in the white house.

[EuterpeThelo]

6. Off topic about the corporate whore-ishness of UP and other donors to the you've-got-some-balls-room

I totally get why people are suddenly using the title of "Ballroom Blitz" because it's so eerily fitting, but it's a little heartbreaking to see, too; Steve Priest, the founding bass player for the band that recorded this iconic song, actually died from COVID-19 during the apricot hellbeast's first maladministration. (The public reports said "flu/pneumonia," but I'm close to some here in L.A. who know the truth. As an aside, Steve loathed "the orange man" with the heat of a billion white-hot suns.)

[Munu]

9. So it isn't just "his own money" like he said.

Well that was always obvious on general principles, but it's good to have definite proof.

[Crowman2009]

11. I think Eugene Debs had the right idea about nationalizing the railroads.

Just a bunch of crooks who dump and burn toxic waste on a whim.

[popsdenver]

12. The simplest definition of Fascism

is the merger of Government and Corporations....

The Corporations are running Trump, Republican Politcians, Republican Supreme Court, 2025, etc etc

The United States of America could easily, at this point, be named: The Fascist Corporate States of America.......I'm serious.....

[Grins]

13. Just a coincidence, I'm sure....

“There are no coincidences.” - Steve Bannon.

[tinrobot]

14. He'll raise over a billion to build a "$300 million" travesty

That will probably only cost $30M to actually build.

The rest will be grifted to him.

[pwb]

15. Who will pay for the Balls after it is built?

Will the corporate donors demand usage? Who insures it? Cleans it etc.

[cliffside]

16. knr nt

[UTUSN]

17. K&R