Mar-a-Lago isn't the "Winter White House." It's just an embarrassing cash grab.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Here's my op ed today on why "Southern White House” is a symbol of the administration’s ethical failings. It's a marketing pitch by our part-time president, who has spent 1/3 of his days in office visiting his properties and monetizing the presidency.

Link to tweet

PostEverything Perspective

Mar-a-Lago isn’t the ‘Winter White House.’ It’s just an embarrassing cash grab.

By Walter M. Shaub Jr. May 7 at 6:00 AM

https://twitter.com/waltshaub

Walter M. Shaub Jr., is a former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and currently serves as senior director, ethics for the Campaign Legal Center.

The “Southern White House” is a nearly perfect symbol of the Trump administration’s ethical failings. President Trump has on a number of occasions tweeted or spoken the phrase “Southern White House” in reference to Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach, Fla. Last month, for example, while sitting beside Japan’s prime minister in front of a television crew at Mar-a-Lago, he proclaimed that the club is “indeed” the Southern White House, boasting, “And again, many, many people want to be here. Many of the leaders want to be here. They request specifically.”

But there is no “Southern White House.” The Confederate States of America claimed an executive mansion, first in Alabama and then in Richmond, but the Union’s victory in the Civil War ended that assertion. Other presidents had nicknames for their homes away from Washington, but those were private residences. President George W. Bush, for example, informally dubbed his private ranch in Texas the “Western White House” and even met foreign officials there, but it was a relatively private retreat. The ranch was a personal residence. Bush was not implying a link to government, and he definitely was not selling membership privileges with respect to the unassuming four-bedroom, single-story home on his ranch.

Now, there is only the sitting president’s conflicting financial interest 1,000 miles south of the seat of government. In contrast to the homes of his predecessors, Trump’s ostentatious club is a commercial enterprise featuring guest suites, ballrooms, dining, a beach, pools, a spa, tennis courts, a “chip and putt” course, a fitness center and access to his affiliated golf courses. The phrase “Southern White House” is a transparent marketing pitch, connoting the availability of access to power for a price. Interested parties — be they captains of industry or agents of hostile foreign governments — can buy insider access to a place the president frequents. The initiation fee, which Trump doubled upon winning the election, is $200,000. He may belong to the people now, but the club belongs to him. Prospective purchasers can rest assured that their cash will still reach him.

This “Southern White House” branding is part of a broader effort that aims to lend official sanction to the president’s properties. When a lobbyist announced at a White House meeting that he was a member of one of Trump’s clubs, Trump responded, “Very good, very good.” Hope Hicks once masterfully pitched Mar-a-Lago’s link to government as the fulfillment of destiny, writing in an email to a reporter that, “[T]he president looks forward to using the property as the Southern White House, as it was intended to be.”
....

Walter M. Shaub Jr., is a former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and currently serves as senior director, ethics for the Campaign Legal Center. Follow @waltshaub

[pamela]

1. Southern Whore House n/t

[dalton99a]

2. Good piece.