SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
President Donald Trump attends a meeting with U.S. company representatives and featuring products made in the United States. (Photo: Michael Reynolds/Getty Images)
'Swamp's Doing Fine': Amid White House Turmoil, Trump Cozies Up to Right-Wing Donors
Billionaires Robert Mercer, Joseph Craft, and Diane Hendricks all dined with Trump this week
Aug 19, 2017
His party is publicly rebuking him, corporate executives are rushing to distance themselves from his administration to safeguard their own reputations, and rumors of more White House departures are swirling after Chief Strategist Steve Bannon's ouster. But it appears that President Donald Trump can still count on one bedrock of stability: major right-wing donors.
"While corporate America is distancing itself from Trump, wealthy rightwingers are still cozying up."
-- Robert Reich
The New York Times on Friday reported that amid the outrage sparked by his "unhinged" response to the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville last weekend, the president dined with loyal, well-heeled Republican benefactors who seem perfectly willing to weather recent storms, just as long as their agenda remains the administration's top priority.
"The dinner was scheduled weeks ago as part of a donor-outreach initiative by the Trump administration as it prepares an overhaul of the tax code," noted Maggie Haberman and Kenneth Vogel, who broke the story for the Times.
As Common Dreams has reported, if implemented, Trump's tax proposals would overwhelmingly favor the wealthiest--and the president himself--while potentially raising taxes on low-income and middle class Americans.
Haberman and Vogel continued:
The invited donors and their families have combined to donate millions of dollars to committees supporting Mr. Trump's campaign and inauguration, and Mr. Trump's team hopes they will contribute millions more to groups pushing his legislative agenda. They included the New York investor Robert Mercer, the Kentucky coal executive Joseph W. Craft, and the Wisconsin roofing magnate Diane Hendricks, according to people familiar with the dinner.
Many observers have pointed out that while Trump has few legislative victories to speak of, his administration has been extremely successful in rolling back major environmental, civil rights, and workplace regulations.
The Trump White House has also taken aim at crucial rules designed to both protect consumers from predatory corporations and prevent another financial meltdown.
"With the Trump administration's chaos sucking up all the attention, it's been able to move forward on a range of its priorities, which tend to be more focused on regulatory matters anyway," wrote The Atlantic's David Graham earlier this month. "It is remaking the justice system, rewriting environmental rules, overhauling public-lands administration, and greenlighting major infrastructure projects. It is appointing figures who will guarantee the triumph of its ideological vision for decades to come."
For these reasons, progressive groups and commentators have urged Americans to keep their eyes on what Trump is doing "every single day" that will have both short-term and long-term effects.
Trump's dinner with right-wing donors on Thursday was a "reminder of who controls the country," wrote Samuel Oakford of Airwars.
"Swamp doing fine, thank you very much," noted another commentator in response to the Times report.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
His party is publicly rebuking him, corporate executives are rushing to distance themselves from his administration to safeguard their own reputations, and rumors of more White House departures are swirling after Chief Strategist Steve Bannon's ouster. But it appears that President Donald Trump can still count on one bedrock of stability: major right-wing donors.
"While corporate America is distancing itself from Trump, wealthy rightwingers are still cozying up."
-- Robert Reich
The New York Times on Friday reported that amid the outrage sparked by his "unhinged" response to the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville last weekend, the president dined with loyal, well-heeled Republican benefactors who seem perfectly willing to weather recent storms, just as long as their agenda remains the administration's top priority.
"The dinner was scheduled weeks ago as part of a donor-outreach initiative by the Trump administration as it prepares an overhaul of the tax code," noted Maggie Haberman and Kenneth Vogel, who broke the story for the Times.
As Common Dreams has reported, if implemented, Trump's tax proposals would overwhelmingly favor the wealthiest--and the president himself--while potentially raising taxes on low-income and middle class Americans.
Haberman and Vogel continued:
The invited donors and their families have combined to donate millions of dollars to committees supporting Mr. Trump's campaign and inauguration, and Mr. Trump's team hopes they will contribute millions more to groups pushing his legislative agenda. They included the New York investor Robert Mercer, the Kentucky coal executive Joseph W. Craft, and the Wisconsin roofing magnate Diane Hendricks, according to people familiar with the dinner.
Many observers have pointed out that while Trump has few legislative victories to speak of, his administration has been extremely successful in rolling back major environmental, civil rights, and workplace regulations.
The Trump White House has also taken aim at crucial rules designed to both protect consumers from predatory corporations and prevent another financial meltdown.
"With the Trump administration's chaos sucking up all the attention, it's been able to move forward on a range of its priorities, which tend to be more focused on regulatory matters anyway," wrote The Atlantic's David Graham earlier this month. "It is remaking the justice system, rewriting environmental rules, overhauling public-lands administration, and greenlighting major infrastructure projects. It is appointing figures who will guarantee the triumph of its ideological vision for decades to come."
For these reasons, progressive groups and commentators have urged Americans to keep their eyes on what Trump is doing "every single day" that will have both short-term and long-term effects.
Trump's dinner with right-wing donors on Thursday was a "reminder of who controls the country," wrote Samuel Oakford of Airwars.
"Swamp doing fine, thank you very much," noted another commentator in response to the Times report.
His party is publicly rebuking him, corporate executives are rushing to distance themselves from his administration to safeguard their own reputations, and rumors of more White House departures are swirling after Chief Strategist Steve Bannon's ouster. But it appears that President Donald Trump can still count on one bedrock of stability: major right-wing donors.
"While corporate America is distancing itself from Trump, wealthy rightwingers are still cozying up."
-- Robert Reich
The New York Times on Friday reported that amid the outrage sparked by his "unhinged" response to the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville last weekend, the president dined with loyal, well-heeled Republican benefactors who seem perfectly willing to weather recent storms, just as long as their agenda remains the administration's top priority.
"The dinner was scheduled weeks ago as part of a donor-outreach initiative by the Trump administration as it prepares an overhaul of the tax code," noted Maggie Haberman and Kenneth Vogel, who broke the story for the Times.
As Common Dreams has reported, if implemented, Trump's tax proposals would overwhelmingly favor the wealthiest--and the president himself--while potentially raising taxes on low-income and middle class Americans.
Haberman and Vogel continued:
The invited donors and their families have combined to donate millions of dollars to committees supporting Mr. Trump's campaign and inauguration, and Mr. Trump's team hopes they will contribute millions more to groups pushing his legislative agenda. They included the New York investor Robert Mercer, the Kentucky coal executive Joseph W. Craft, and the Wisconsin roofing magnate Diane Hendricks, according to people familiar with the dinner.
Many observers have pointed out that while Trump has few legislative victories to speak of, his administration has been extremely successful in rolling back major environmental, civil rights, and workplace regulations.
The Trump White House has also taken aim at crucial rules designed to both protect consumers from predatory corporations and prevent another financial meltdown.
"With the Trump administration's chaos sucking up all the attention, it's been able to move forward on a range of its priorities, which tend to be more focused on regulatory matters anyway," wrote The Atlantic's David Graham earlier this month. "It is remaking the justice system, rewriting environmental rules, overhauling public-lands administration, and greenlighting major infrastructure projects. It is appointing figures who will guarantee the triumph of its ideological vision for decades to come."
For these reasons, progressive groups and commentators have urged Americans to keep their eyes on what Trump is doing "every single day" that will have both short-term and long-term effects.
Trump's dinner with right-wing donors on Thursday was a "reminder of who controls the country," wrote Samuel Oakford of Airwars.
"Swamp doing fine, thank you very much," noted another commentator in response to the Times report.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.