Under Donald Trump, cash comes easy for the GOP
Daily Trump Tracker: The GOP raises a lot of money, voices are raised in the White House, and two men raise their political sights
Model plane builder Otto Dieffenbach III makes his remote control plane resembling U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump release fake money as it flies over the beach in Carlsbad, California, U.S. September 15, 2016. (Mike Blake/Reuters)
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Ka-ching
It was a good Q1 for the new Washington establishment, with the Republican National Committee and Trump’s re-election campaign reportedly raking in $53 million-plus. And like the slot machine punters that bankroll casino operations like the Donald’s, the pile of gold consisted of a lot of small-dollar amounts.
The right and far-right hands are fighting
The White House ain’t big enough for Stephen Bannon and Jared Kushner. Trump’s ear-whisperer and his favourite surrogate are reportedly spatting in public and sniping in private. The two majordomos are supposedly feuding over policy, with Bannon seeing his boss’s son-in-law as ideologically suspect.
When you put it like that
A week after members of his cabinet indicated the conflict had slipped off the administration’s list of priorities, and the day after he condemned a chemical weapons attack there, the president revealed some new thinking on Syria. “I guess he’s running things, so something should happen,” Trump said, when asked if Bashar al-Assad ought to remain in charge. Following that strong policy pronouncement, the president is set to be presented with military options by his duo of generals Secretary of Defence James Mattis and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, tonight.
Run, Romney, run
Mitt Romney is to Washington, D.C. as Tim Sherwood is to English football: Linked to every open position. The sometime private equity executive, governor and presidential candidate’s name was bandied about by #NeverTrump Republicans looking to replace the Donald on the GOP ticket before the election and featured in the conversation around the Secretary of State job after it. The latest scuttlebutt is that Romney is being courted to run for the Senate in Utah next year.
Dynasty Trump?
Also considering a run for public office is the president’s namesake son. Donald the Lesser reportedly told his gun club that he fancies being governor of New York some day. (Buyer beware: The news was carried by Page Six, the gossip vertical of the New York Post, which is part of the Trump-friendly Newscorp media empire). Now the family just needs Eric to run in, say, California, and the Trumps will have their Bush 2.0 act all sewn up.