Donald Trump wants to slash funding for government programs that provide housing for the poor and combat homelessness. Well, with a bigly exception. The government is proposing to leave intact a housing subsidy that is paid directly to private landlords. Including Trump and his siblings.
When Fred Trump died, he left an interest in the largest subsidized housing project in America (which contains 46 tower buildings near the JFK airport in Brooklyn) to his children, including Donald Trump. The Trump children make a rich steady income from this. According to his recent financial disclosure form, Donald Trump alone made at least $5 million from that project last year. Trump once called that project “one of the best investments I ever made”, even though it was his father who made the investment (Donald only inherited it). And he has refused to divest himself of it, despite the obvious conflict of interest.
Of course, there is no evidence that Trump influenced this decision, which was made by HUD. However, Trump is about to nominate Lynne Patton to lead the HUD department in the New York region. Patton is an event planner who has no experience in housing. Her main qualifications seem to be that she was a former (unpaid) VP of Eric Trump’s foundation, and she helped plan his wedding. She also has a history of substance abuse.
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She sounds as well qualified as most of his picks. Perhaps more so. If you can plan a wedding, you have some serious skills. Now if by “help” you mean having others made decisions and you execute them, that is a different story. Even so, I think she sounds just perfect.
I think my tongue is so firmly embedded in my cheek these days that it may require surgery to remove it.
But, Hillary’s emails!
And Benghazi!