Bot, bot it has to be real, she loves me
-- In another one of Trump’s tweets since he began his vacation, he thanked a supporter named “Nicole Mincey” for her praise of his leadership. But, as Abby Phillip reports, “Here’s the problem: There is no evidence the Twitter feed belongs to someone named Nicole Mincey. And the account, according to experts, bears a lot of signs of a Russia-backed disinformation campaign. On Sunday, Twitter suspended the Mincey account, known as @ProTrump45, after several other users revealed that it was probably a fake, created to amplify pro-Trump content. The incident highlights Trump’s penchant for off-the-cuff tweeting — and the potential consequences for doing so now that he holds the nation’s highest office. … Aides and advisers have hinted that Trump has been urged to tone down his tweeting habits, but the president has shut down those conversations quickly[.]”
Who's the cosmopolitan?
-- Senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller slammed CNN’s Jim Acosta as “cosmopolitan” during a tense briefing room exchange last week. “[But] it turns out that Miller calls home a nearly $1 million condo in CityCenter, one of Washington’s poshest addresses and a complex that proudly offers residents an upscale, urbane lifestyle,” Emily Heil reports. “Miller bought the two-bedroom CityCenter condo in 2014 for $973,000 … At the time, he was a 28-year-old Senate staffer with a $129,000 salary — not too shabby for a public servant. He plopped down a half-million dollars toward the purchase price, according to records."
Made in America week dummies, not hire Americans week
-- As Trump pressures U.S. companies to “hire American,” his own businesses have failed to heed that same advice. The Post’s David Fahrenthold and Lori Rozsa explored the hiring practices at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, which relies heavily on overseas workers during the winter season: “Late last month, the club placed an ad on page C8 of the Palm Beach Post, crammed full of tiny print … The ad gave no email address or phone number. ‘Apply by fax,’ it said. It ran twice, then never again. This was an underwhelming way to attract local job-seekers. But that wasn’t the point. The ads were actually part of Mar-a-Lago’s efforts to hire foreign workers for those 35 jobs. About a week before the ads ran, the president’s club asked the Labor Department for permission to hire 70 temporary workers from overseas.”
But Mar-a-Lago’s request for the H-2B visas was particularly noteworthy because it came in the middle of “Made in America Week” at the White House, our colleagues note. “Even as Trump urged other U.S. businesses to ‘hire American,’ his business was gathering evidence to prove that it couldn’t …”
“In the past, Trump’s club has followed the same pattern of searching for — and not hiring — American workers. Two years ago, for instance, Jeannie Coleman, who lives in nearby West Palm Beach, applied for a job as a housekeeper. Mar-a-Lago called back. She had an interview. Then: nothing. ‘I was very disappointed. At that time, I really needed a job,’ said Coleman, now 50, who works at a clothing store. ‘I had the qualifications. The interview went great. But they never even did the common courtesy to call me …’”
The family business, fleecing America(ns)
-- Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, is “running the show” at his new Trump TV project in New York City — including a series of quasi-propaganda videos titled “Real News” — which are funded by the president's reelection campaign. The Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng report: “Lara isn’t just a campaign surrogate … she is deeply involved in the mechanics of the president’s reelection effort through her role for its top vendor, consulting firm Giles-Parscale, [which is doing] some editing and graphics work on the ‘Real News’ videos ... Co-owned by former Trump campaign digital director Brad Parscale, Giles-Parscale was by far the largest recipient of Trump campaign money last cycle, bringing in more than $90 million in consulting fees ... Giles-Parscale hired Lara in late March. Since then, she has taken over its Trump campaign work, practically replacing Parscale on that front in all respects but his official campaign title.”
That last one really looks like she has joined the family business, the money laundering business. Money from GOP donors, she apportions it for campaign advertising and content, the contract is with a company she works for, then she is the producer and occasional "on air" talent for which she gets paid (maybe twice). From people to Trump bank account. in three easy steps. She will have to up her game if she is going to spin rubles to green backs.
