Vice President Mike Pence was slated to meet with leaders in Dublin, Ireland, until President Donald Trump told him to stay at one of Trump's resorts, on the other side of the country. Pence claimed it was because his entourage was so large.
The reality, however, is that Trump has forced his underlings to be just as complicit in his grifting.
"The grift never ends here," said Bulwark editor Charlie Sykes. "And what's really striking about it is they're almost not pretending anymore. Bill Barr, Mike Pence, clearly eager to curry favor with the president, enriching the president's business and his family's by staying there."
Sykes wondered why Trump and Pence couldn't come up with a better explanation for why they went to Trump's resort instead of something closer.
"The president suggested it, and there's no place in Dublin," Sykes repeated the White House excuse. "By the way, Dublin is kind of a big city. A lot of hotels there. A lot going on. I think he could have done this. Yet, you'll stick the taxpayers, the American taxpayers with the cost of shuttling him back and forth from the Trump properties."
The distance is so far from the meeting site that Pence was slated to attend that he must fly from Trump's property each day. Host Chris Jansing joked that Pence could be Beyonce and that's why he needs such a substantial entourage and a place to accommodate them.
"When you think about it, in a different world, this ongoing self-dealing, the president of the United States using his power to enrich himself, his underlings eagerly going along with it would be a top-three scandal. In the Trump era, it barely makes the top ten."
Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart noted that Trump is not being held accountable for any of this, so that's why it continues.
"If we had a functioning government, Congress would be in full throttle investigating this administration," Capehart said. "But because one of the houses of Congress is in control of -- by the president's party, you think Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is going to step out there and investigate his own president when he has judgeships and Supreme Court seats and more tax cuts and budget things they want to get through, long-held Republican and conservative majorities -- they are looking the other way."
He explained this is exactly why Trump is able to get away with anything he wants.
Jonathan Chait at the New York Magazine, noted in his recent report that Trump isn't the only one responsible for lining his pockets, he's forcing people like Pence and other leaders to follow along.
"What mobsters do, and what folks in the mob do, is in order to make underlings complicit, they get them to be a part of the wrongdoing," Capehart said. "By getting Pence to stay at his resort, Donald Trump is, in essence, putting Vice President Pence in his pocket. He has Vice President Pence has now bought his own loyalty to the president. And now the president feels that Pence is loyal."
Trump keeps name-dropping his properties in public speeches and has said that he wants to host the next G7 at his Miami resort.
Watch the full conversation below:
