Dems Introduce MAR-A-LAGO Act to Force Trump to Publish Visitor Logs to the Public


Dems Introduce MAR-A-LAGO Act to Force Trump to Publish Visitor Logs to the Public

Susanne Posel ,Chief Editor Occupy Corporatism | Host of Hardline Radio Show

According to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Donald Trump plans on staying in Washington, DC over the weekend, breaking a 7 week tradition of trips to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

Trump’s absence in Florida over the weekend is curious considering that the Palm Beach County GOP annual dinner will be held at his for-profit resort. This is the biggest fundraiser for the republican organization with attendees paying upwards of $300 a head. An estimated 750 guests are expected to be at the event.

In 2016, Trump was the keynote speaker at the annual fundraiser, after also attending the event 2 years prior.

The PBC-GOP will spend $144,000 to rent Mar-a-Lago’s main ballroom for the night, which might be an optical reason why Trump will not be present. As the president, Trump’s decision not be attend the dinner could signal that he does not want to be perceived as capitalizing on his presidency.

But beyond optics, some lawmakers are concerned that whether or not Trump is present, when it comes to Mar-a-Lago, he could be monetarily benefitting from his presidency.

So they have introduced the “Making Access Records Available to Lead American Government Openness Act”, otherwise known as the MAR-A-LAGO Act.

Senators Tom Udall, Sheldon Whitehouse, Tom Carper, and Mike Quigley are the sponsors of the bill that would “mandate the release of visitor logs at other locations where the president conducts business” among other things.

And since Trump refers to Mar-a-Lago as the “Southern White House”, these 4 senators believe that the American people have the right to know who is staying at the for-profit resort.

Senator Tom Udall explained: “”By refusing to release the White House visitor logs, President Trump is only validating the rampant concerns about who may be pulling the levers in his administration. The president should end his administration’s disturbing pattern of stonewalling information and immediately reinstate the previous administration’s policy of publishing White House visitor logs. And given President Trump’s unprecedented decision to conduct official business at his private business properties, the Trump administration has an obligation to make public the visitor lists at places like Mar-a-Lago and Trump Tower.”

Based on the trend Trump has created by spending every weekend at Mar-a-Lago, he is poised to cost American taxpayers much more for his constant vacations than Obama ever did. So far, with Trump going to his for-profit resort every weekend since his inauguration, he has cost the US Treasury an estimated $10 million , and each trip is expected to have a $3 million or more price tag.

If this keeps up at the rate it’s going, Trump will spend $156 million a year just on trips to Mar-a-Lago. That cost estimate surpasses the monies spent by the Obama’s for all their vacations combined.

Should Trump remain in the White House for 4 years, that cost jumps to over half a billion dollars – a total of $624 million by conservative estimates.

In addition, the benefits to Trump regarding Mar-a-Lago are becoming obvious. The day after the inauguration, the Florida resort’s membership fee of $100,000 was raised to $200,000; and along with that an increase in members.

Attorney Norm Eisen said about Trump’s exploitation of his current status: “This type of naked profiteering off of a government office is what I would expect from King Louis XVI or his modern kleptocratic equivalents, not an American president.”


Susanne Posel

Susanne Posel



Chief Editor | Investigative Journalist
OccupyCorporatism.com



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