President Donald Trump approaches his 100th day in office the most unpopular U.S. leader in modern history for a reason.
Exacerbating his failure to uphold his populist campaign promises, a new report found that Trump spent the majority of his presidency enriching his own business empire while appointing fellow “corporate cronies” at the highest levels of government leading to what Public Citizen describes as “an unprecedented corporate takeover.”
“The corporate capture began at the same moment as the Trump presidency.”
—Robert Weissman, Public Citizen
Published on Monday, For-Profit President (pdf), chronicles each day of Trump’s tenure thus far and what actions or appointments were made that either enriched his private business empire, placed the importance of “profits before people,” or highlighted the “corporate takeover” of government—despite candidate Trump’s repeated pledge to “drain the swamp.”
Case in point, on Day 12 of his presidency, Trump met with a group of Big Pharma CEOs. Public Citizen reports:
According to the day-by-day calendar, even Trump’s many weekends spent at the so-called “winter White House” in Palm Beach, Florida do not provide a respite for the American people.
For example, on Saturday, February 18 or Day 30, the president “kick[ed] off his 2020 campaign with a rally near his Mar-a-Lago resort,” according to the report.
The consumer rights group notes that the “wealthy members of Mar-a-Lago have an unprecedented degree of access and influence with the President of the United States. Members include fossil fuel billionaire William Koch, the lesser-known brother of the more politically active Charles and David Koch, electronic trading billionaire Thomas Peterffy, and various corporate executives.”
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