One More Example of the President Profiting Off Being President
“Enter now for a chance at this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” urges the National Republican Congressional Committee in a fundraising plea on its website.
The once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is to win an all-expenses paid trip to the Trump winery in Charlottesville, Virginia. It would appear to be a direct conflict between President Donald Trump’s businesses and his position as the head of the Republican Party – in short, one more example of the president profiting off being president.
There is no statement on how much the NRCC is paying Trump or the Trump Organization for the use of the winery. But even if Trump were not being paid for the use of the winery it is a massive campaign giving free advertising to the winery.
“Last election, you an your family helped get our president’s message out,” an email being sent to previous contributors reads. “That’s why we want to reward your entire family for Mother’s Day.”
“Help defend the Republican majority,” it pleads.
The Trump Winery is owned by The Trump Organization and Eric Trump Wine Manufacturing LLC.
“A Virginia winery owned by President Donald Trump’s son Eric is seeking permission to hire 23 more foreign guest workers,” Buzzfeed reported last month. “The work on the 1,300-acre estate, which would pay $11.46 an hour, is to start in March and could run through late October.”
The Department of Labor approved a request late last year to hire six foreign guest workers.
Buzzfeed notes that “in the past, foreign workers at the winery have been warned they would have to labor outside in weather as cold as 10 degrees while ‘on their feet in bent positions for long periods of time.'”
In 2012 the Trump’s Winery was among the sponsors of a 20th anniversary celebration of the American Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation, honoring then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, as The New York Times reported last year.
Some responses to the NRCC fundraising event via Twitter:
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