Trump for Sale

Rick Klein: “Twice in the last week, access to Donald Trump’s children has literally been put up for sale. Both times, those sales were canceled, or at least scaled back, following public scrutiny. But the process that allowed those offerings to go forward at all – an auction for coffee with Ivanka, and a hunting trip with the two eldest Trump sons for big inauguration donors – suggests something in the territory of chaos and/or indifference inside the president-elect’s inaugural planning.”

“These are the sorts of arrangements that should set off bright red flags – particularly after a campaign where the Clintons were accused of all manner of pay-for-play arrangements. The Trump operation has done virtually nothing to specify its safeguards, even while new arrangements testing any planned boundaries pop up. One good way to ensure that individuals and companies don’t try to buy access and influence? Don’t offer it to them.”