Donald Trump Mixes Corporate With Campaign
The lines are blurred between his campaign events and his corporate ventures.
— -- It’s a joke Donald Trump has made often.
"I always said I'm getting to Pennsylvania Avenue one way or another, so here I have," Trump said Tuesday in Sanford, Florida.
Today he left his run-through of battleground states for a stop in the city where he hopes to reside. He officially opened his new hotel, Trump International, in the Old Post Office at 1100 Pennsylvania Ave.
"Today is a metaphor for what we can accomplish for this country. Same kind of thing. This building is a historical landmark, a true American original. It had all of the ingredients of greatness, but it had been neglected and left to deteriorate for many, many decades," Trump said, accompanied by his three eldest children.
It is yet another example of the Republican nominee's mixing business with presidential — which is growing more common as the election nears its close.
The hotel opening in the nation's capital was not billed as a campaign event; technically he was there as the developer. But Trump couldn't help reverting to campaigning, at times lapsing into his stump speech, attacking "Obamacare" and the underfunding of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The mix has gone both ways.
On Tuesday the campaign hastily summoned the press to the Trump National Doral golf course near Miami. Trump took the stage and began to tout the refurbished facilities.
"So we are very proud of this," he said. "We could have renovated the inexpensive way with paint, but instead we ripped it down to the steel, rebuilt Doral. Even if you look at the ballroom, that's a brand new ballroom that didn't exist. We took it down to the absolute steel."
At the event, Trump was flanked by employees who took the stage when called to deliver glowing reports about the Republican nominee. As the multicultural group spoke, he joked with one employee, "This guy better say good or else I’ll say, 'You’re fired.' I’ll say, 'Who is that guy?'"
A Latino employee said that it was an honor to work for Trump and that he supports him completely.
"And I didn’t pay you to say that, right?" Trump said. But of course, since the man is an employee, Trump had.
Trump was eager to remind everyone there that before he was a politician, he was a businessman. If the election doesn't go his way, he will still be one after Nov. 8.