Donald Trump says his businesses received payments from foreign governments because he was “doing services” for them.
Trump was at a Fox News town hall on Wednesday, commenting on a recent report from Democratic lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee. The report, published on January 4, said Trump’s businesses had received at least $7.8 million in foreign payments during his presidency.
“That’s a small amount of money. You know, it sounds like a lot of money. That’s small,” Trump said at the town hall.
The former president then explained that the payments were for accommodation at his clubs and hotels.
Money laundering for foreigners has been the basis of the Trump Inc business model since the 1980s. Hell, I think this goes back to his father’s rise to fortune back in the 1950s, even.
Like, yeah. He’s a crook. But he’s the kind of crook this country has been gleefully manufacturing and showering with praise for their genius and entrepreneurial spirit and innovative efforts for over a century.
If he’d been a bit smarter and a bit more ambitious, he could have been a Bernie Madoff or a Sam Bankman Fried, even.