U.S. ethics office tweets sarcastically at Trump on his business conflicts

He’s been valued in the low hundreds of millions (by others)

He claims to be worth multiple billions. How many billions is a complex determination involving the day of the week, dosage, how many people might be listening and eye of newt.

He explains this wild discrepency as a result of his holding his own brand, himself, to have variable worth, depending on how he feels…

So…

If we accept his “logic”

As President-Elect, his brand is probably soaring, according to him.

This is the best time to sell!

Oh, no, wait. His estimation of his own brand’s worth would likely be more if he were a sitting President.

Greater still if he can start a war.

World War would mean better returns still.

Now that everything is destroyed, his worth, should he live, continues to grow, by attrition. You all, we all, now have far far less, according to today’s economics, our having less than we did before means he is worth more still!

There’s competition though. Other leaders and such. Maybe they die in the war, maybe not. Better for the eventual divesting if they die!

More white people like him than brown! Opportunity! Is it easier to trick the brown people into liking him, but wait, we’re in or after a massively destructive World War that’s the best, just the best investment ever.

Screw tricking the other colours into liking his brand, they’re just competition… you know what to do!

So there’s the plan, people!

Trum[ can be elevated to his peak by getting on with it! We need a dystopic, post-apocolyptic, post race-war hellscape to get the best value for his brand, so he’ll divest and be in compliance with the OGE.

Get crackin, crackers!

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A week after they get it they will believe - deep in their heart of hearts - that they started from nothing and earned all that wealth. (If they don’t, Donald will have reason to believe they are not related to him.)

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Simple – by congratulating Trump on divesting, the department guarantees that when he’s asked about divesting by the press, he either has to admit that he’s not doing it, or save face by actually divesting. Clever, really.

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Sure he will! He’s gone bankrupt, what, twice now?
He’ll always go for whatever gets him the most praise/attention at any particular moment. No thinking of the long term, no cost/benefit analysis, no critical thinking.

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I do think he believes he was born to play with his toys… er run a business! He didn’t believe he was rushing towards bankruptcy, he honestly never believes he can fail, plus he’s a gambler.

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I wonder if many of us aren’t missing the carefully worded point. He is going to get rid of his"great" business. You know, the one that does not exist. His shitty, scam-ridden, overvalued property business will stay his.

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And, at least for now, his rank-and-file supporters’ comfort with his corruption. That’s the real (sad) story.

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They take pride in his corruption. He is big great American capitalist!

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Or, he can simply do what he did regarding the release of his tax records during the campaign – lie, equivocate, delay, and distract until everyone shrugs and says “whaddyagonnado, huh?” It seems to work for him.

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I know a few serious Trump supporters who are of that working class stripe and it’s not comfort, exactly, but resignation: “well, fuck, if the government is going to be corrupt for the benefit of Goldman Sachs so 28 year olds can get $750K bonuses and 50 year olds can get $15M bonuses, they might as well be corrupt to keep Carrier air conditioning or Ford to keep some jobs here.”

It’s a very sad story. But it’s a story a long time coming.

This is the third trump related story I’ve seen which opens with some form of

“So it has all come to this”

which has been my favorite phrase since a buddhist teacher said that phrase is a good way to think of karma.

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