“Drain the swamp” is of course a ubiquitous term, different things to different people. That DC had come to support a status quo of pay-to-play access to decisionmaking by the lead up to Decision 2016 was simply a given. Few believed that money wasn’t critical to a place at the table inside the beltway, or in most all state capitals for that matter. Yet and still, the Trump campaign, and the full Fox/AM delivery system supporting it 24/7, employed a significantly more ominous definition of the “swamp,” imbuing it with monolithic nefariousness, centrally controlled by the Clintons and devoted to nothing less than totalitarianism geared to stripping all but their cadre of apparatchiks of anything other than toil and hardship.
In late October of 2016, as Election Day neared and he was all but conceding defeat, candidate Trump equated the swamp with “a rigged system” that was busy undermining his chances. “Either we win this election, or we lose the country,” warned the Donald in between hissing that the fix was in for Hillary. And while the Trump campaign put forward a generic list of policy prescriptions to address revolving door public service/lobbying practices, to Trumpism’s wretched core the DC establishment covered everything from Alex Jones’ pizza parlor pedophilia to Benghazi cover ups, Planned Parenthood infanticide to Vince Foster murder theories. The swamp was limited only by the imaginations of the Fox/AM “personalities,” all of whom were now echoing Trump’s dire warnings that electing HRC would surely constitute the end of days.
Looney right wing fever dreams aside, anyone who wants to get a bird’s eye view of what overt corruption looks like can begin with Trump’s Inauguration Committee. Headed by one of his very few actual friends, investment huckster Thomas Barrack, the enterprise was a sludge magnet from the start, literally viewed worldwide as the open door to access, not to just Trump Administration policy, but the now fertile landscape of government contract possibilities. Millions immediately began to flow in unabated, presumably for inaugural festivities, but with a subtext nobody needed their reading glasses to grasp.
Well over a $100 million poured into the committee, whose bookkeeping was Enron-like in its diligence to detailed transparency. Typical of the events the money underwrote was the opulent “Chairman’s Global Dinner,” the idea of Barrack, himself. The Washington Post provided an in depth look at how the shindig came together, and its distinct smarminess.
Originally not even slated to have the President-elect in attendance – he opted to attend at the last minute – the soirée was designed to bring together influencers from near and far, particularly the Middle East, Barrack’s networking comfort zone, with a stated emphasis on diplomacy. Billed as a start toward consensus and reassurance of Middle Eastern diplomats unnerved by Trump’s nasty campaign rhetoric, what it amounted to was a line-the-trough chance to gain the ear of incoming VP Pence and a host of Administration officials. Rick Gates, who later would be indicted on multiple felony counts and become a Mueller asset, was in charge of the dinner, which would ultimately cost $4.3 million for providing 550 guests the choice between filet mignon or black cod. Paul Manafort was also front and center, pressing flesh and surely taking requests.
Entertainment was a problem since no actual stars wanted anything to do with Trump. Finally, country band Alabama and Steve Wynn’s Showstoppers, a Vegas fixture, were lined up. But what really made one pause was the cash coming into the Committee, which made sure the guest list to the invite-only spectacle exuded the proper gratitude. Middle Eastern businessmen, who sent in donations starting at 500K were not forgotten, rewarded with a setting at one of the tables…. and a chance to chat with Rex Tillerson or incoming Energy Secretary Rick Perry. Right wing ATM Sheldon Adelson ponied up $5 million to the group and earned prime gala real estate to lay out his wish list, at the top of which was moving the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. And so it went.
The optics of a large group of incoming Administration officials dining away with a pack of deep pocketed donors looking for an edge did not escape many. Greg Jenkins, former director of W’s inaugural committee, no barebones operation by any stretch, was incredulous…. “This just doesn’t look good,” he observed, …” it just invites criticism.” Perhaps, but who was going to report on it, “fake news”?
Turns out there were other interested parties. Last month, federal prosecutors in New York issued a subpoena to the Inaugural committee seeking information on all of its donors and vendors. Another federal probe is looking into money laundering, conspiracy and false statements. Barrack himself has been asked to turn over documents, which he says he will be glad to do, no doubt bucked up by confidence that the pardon card will be available if needed. Elliott Broidy, a top RNC bundler, has been under investigation by the DOJ for outright selling White House access to China and other Asian interests. He, too, surely will bank on the President’s good graces… never the wisest of strategies.
The Trump Inaugural Committee, and its Chairman’s Global Dinner, were just the introduction to the torrent of slime imported from Mar-A-Lago to the nation’s centerpiece. Turns out this Administration has neither the will nor wherewithal to place any sort of checks or reconsiderations on its dirty dealings. From emolument outrages to porn star payoffs to census shenanigans to cabinet secretaries with a taste for high living on the tax payer’s dime, the list doesn’t seem to end, and worse, doesn’t seem to concern anybody throughout its entire grubby food chain. Why should it? The base of support they hang their hats on has been convinced they are doing nothing more than has always been done. It’s no biggie. At least they’re not pimping out little boys from pizzerias, or carrying out suitcases of cash on tarmacs to Mullahs! Those are outrages! You don’t see Trump eating popcorn while our people are being slaughtered in Bhengazi, do you?! Now that’s the swamp!
Trump lied near every sentence on the campaign stump and has spewed near 10,000 more zingers since taking office. Much of his fiction is dedicated to creating an alternate reality he and Alex Jones claim existed before he came to town. Fox/AM has fully embraced that narrative and continues to spin lies for no other purpose than providing the false equivalence it’s criminal champion requires to seem….. normal. Viewed from the lens of Sean Hannity’s imagination, the unsexiness of mere bribes for favors seems downright pedestrian. After all, didn’t you hear Rush thinks the New Zealand massacre may be a false flag orchestrated by Democrats?! Now that’s what needs to be drained!! BC