The main takeaway from Trump’s fundraiser was how he told the billionaires that he’d keep their taxes low if they help get him back into the White House. He claims he raked in $50.5 million but few believe believe that figure is even close to what he really brought in, although those allowed to sit at Señor T’s table, each paid $824,600. Newsweek, though, had a different perspective on what happened: another instance of Trump breaking the law.
The event was sponsored by Border911 a Trump-backed charitable organization led by Tom Homan, his former Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief. It has a tax exemption from the IRS that precludes it from participating in partisan political campaigns. “According to IRS rules,” wrote Kate Plummer, “charities ‘are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.’ The IRS can revoke a charity's status if it violates these rules, according to the agency's website.” Eric Lisann, a former federal prosecutor, tweeted this:
Whether they raised $50.5 million or $5.5 million, if Trump has his paws on it— either for his campaign or for his criminal trials— he’ll have to pay taxes on it. And Borders911 will lose its tax exempt status. But there was something else noteworthy about the event and the NY Times caught it yesterday. Maggie Haberman and Michael Gold reported that Trump “lamented that people were not immigrating to the United States from ‘nice’ countries ‘like Denmark’ and suggested that his well-heeled dinner companions were temporarily safe from undocumented immigrants nearby, according to an attendee. “About midway through his remarks, the attendee said, Trump began an extensive rant about migrants entering the United States, at a time when President Biden has been struggling with an intensified crisis at the Southern border. ‘These are people coming in from prisons and jails. They’re coming in from just unbelievable places and countries, countries that are a disaster,’ Trump told his guests, according to the attendee. The former president has made a similar claim the heart of his campaign speeches. He then appeared to refer to an episode during his presidency when he drew significant criticism after an Oval Office meeting with federal lawmakers about immigration during which he described Haiti and some nations in Africa ‘shithole countries,’ compared with places like Norway. ‘And when I said, you know, Why can’t we allow people to come in from nice countries, I’m trying to be nice,’ Trump said at the dinner, to chuckles from the crowd. ‘Nice countries, you know like Denmark, Switzerland? Do we have any people coming in from Denmark? How about Switzerland? How about Norway?’”
During his rallies, Trump frequently laments migrants from a list of countries from Africa, Asia and the Middle East as he stokes fears around the surge at the border, which he blames for a spike in crime, blame that has not been supported by available data.
At the dinner, Trump also lamented the surge of migrants, particularly from Latin America, saying that gang members “make the Hells Angels look like extremely nice people.”
“They’ve been shipped in, brought in, deposited in our country, and they’re with us tonight,” Trump said.
“In fact, I don’t think they’re on this island, but I know they’re on that island right there. That’s West Palm,” Trump said, gesturing across the water, according to the attendee. “Congratulations over there. But they’ll be here. Eventually, they’ll be here.”
If “they’ll” be in Palm Beach eventually, they’ll be very wealthy since the median home listing price is $3.2 million. And even in West Palm Beach, which Trump and the billionaires were snickering at, the median home listing is $460,000. Trump then said he wouldn’t use the Resolute Desk again because, he claimed, falsely, that Biden had defecated on it. Aping Democrats, he then said “This could very well be the last election this country ever has.” A prediction if he wins?
By the way, speaking of immigrants from “nice” countries (by which he clearly meant countries with lots of white people), his own grandfather migrated here from Germany and opened a whore house. Suppose someone in Gabon wants to migrate to the U.S., the first step is to determine if she’s even eligible to immigrate. Common pathways for permanent immigration include family sponsorship, employment sponsorship, refugee or asylee status and the diversity visa lottery, a program that randomly selects individuals from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S. to receive immigrant visas. She can enter the lottery— in a specific time period that happens once a year— if she meets certain criteria (like a high school diploma and, eventually, proof that she has the means to support herself financially in the US.
Even if she wins the lottery, that’s just the beginning of lots of hoops she’ll be jumping through before she gets the visa, including endless documents, personal interviews and background checks and considerable expenses. It rarely takes under a year and sometimes takes several years. Trump’s fear-mongering is just that: fear-mongering meant to stoke racism and xenophobia, easy to do when you’re speaking with Republicans and other conservatives.
