President Donald Trump is pretty easy to figure out. He lies to practically everyone, but often tells the truth to rich people at any of his many ostentatious private clubs.
There was that time back in November 2016, just after Trump won the election, when he spoke at a dinner reception at his golf club in Bedminster, NJ, and called club members “the special people.” Then he offered paying members access to interviews he and his presidential entourage were conducting of potential Cabinet nominees. Now that’s democracy!
Audio of that evening was leaked and published just a week after Trump turned a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, FL, into a type of Disneyland for the extremely wealthy. Mar-a-Lago guests were treated to a “behind–the–scenes” look at presidential crisis management in real time as the U.S. responded to North Korea’s firing of a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan.
Only it wasn’t a reality TV show, it was real life.
And speaking of Mar-a-Lago, the latest display of what Trump and his administration are really about happened Friday night, details of which were provided by CBS News. According to CBS, Trump started his holiday weekend at the FL resort, which some call the “Winter White House” (again, how democratic!) by telling his friends at a lavish dinner, “You all just got a lot richer,” referring to the GOP tax scam that he had just signed into law.
As CBS notes, membership initiation fees at Mar-a-Lago cost $200,000 (a price that increased once Trump became president), annual dues are $14,000, and “some of the most affluent members of society have the opportunity to interact with the president in a setting while many Americans cannot.”
Those same wealthy individuals with privileged access to our autocratic president are the ones who will benefit most from the GOP tax scam, according to every analyst and expert that’s examined this flaming pile of shit of a bill.
Back in September, Trump claimed the wealthy would not benefit from the Republicans’ tax overhaul.
“The rich will not be gaining at all with this plan. We are looking for the middle class and we are looking for jobs — jobs being the economy,” Trump said, according to CBS. Of course, he was not speaking to his rich friends at one of his private clubs.
In November, Trump claimed he was making a personal sacrifice to fulfill a false populist promise of bringing tax relief to the middle class.
“This is going to cost me a fortune, this thing. Believe me. Believe. This is not good for me. ... I have some very wealthy friends, not so happy with me. But that’s OK,” he said, as MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin points out.
Of course, while we can assume that any time Trump says, “Believe me,” we should do the exact opposite, we also don’t know how the GOP tax scam actually will affect Trump and his family because the president still hasn’t released his tax returns, claiming they’re still under audit.
In the meantime, Happy holidays, everybody! If you’re rich, that is.