(04-08-2019 06:57 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote: So why do we keep seeing news reports of companies lobbying the Trump admin staying at the Trump hotel? Or foreign nationals saying that they stay at the Trump hotel specifically because it’s his hotel?
I don't know why. Maybe because there is a concerted effort by about 95% of the news media to portray Trump in the least favorable light? My guess is that some people stay there because of Trump, and others refuse to stay there because of Trump, and it pretty much balances out in the wash
I don't think you understand how real estate works. Whatever it is worth depends not on whether the prime minister of Slobbvia stayed there last night, but on how many people stay there every night. Any upscale hotel in that location is going to have a pretty high occupancy rate as a matter of supply and demand. If you want to stay there, fine. If you want to stay across the street, fine. But either way, somebody is going to stay there. It's not like the prime minister's dollars go directly into Trump's pocket. That's not how it works.
Quote:Trump is vain and petty - he’s the kind of already wealthy person who can be influenced by people even spending a single night at his hotel, let alone 500 nights that Saudi lobbyists booked, totally over $250k.
And your qualifications to make such an assessment are? From some of your previous comments, I thought you were some kind of engineer.
Quote:I think the difficulty of Trump divesting all of his holdings is a fair comment. But it does not absolve him of any criticism and, frankly, it’s willfully blind ignorance to try and argue that these obvious conflicts of interest do not exist.
I think "obvious conflicts of interest" is vastly overstated. You own a hotel, and somebody pays the rack rate to stay there for a night, that's not enough to buy much interest. You go to congress for 40 years, make $175,000 a year, but you are exempt from the insider trading laws, among others, and you come out worth millions, that's an obvious conflict of interest.
I'm sorry, I just don't see much, if any, conflict of interest here. If you could somehow establish that it was a crappy hotel that would have no customers otherwise, but people stay there strictly to curry favor with Trump, and you could point out obvious cases where such favor was a factor in a significant decision, then you might have something. But transactions in the ordinary course of business just don't reach the threshold.
Say you run a restaurant, and are a democrat. I'm a republican, I bring my family in to have dinner one night. Does that mean you're going to vote for me?