President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

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Honestly, if they'd do more things like this maybe the gridlock and partisanship in DC could thaw a bit.

 

It probably means the same thing as the "Trump's America" posts on this thread.

 

Jeff Sessions moves those goal posts around almost as well as YF.

Jeff Sessions' explanation for firing Comey just doesn't make sense - CNNPolitics.com

 

But @Michael_ Gee told me Trump ordered them to praise him.

 

Interesting, that LLCs accounted for 4 percent of Trump property buyers before he wrapped up the GOP nomination vs. 70 percent after he did.

Most Trump real estate now sold to secretive buyers

(Full disclosure: I use an LLC to buy property too.)

 

USA TODAY found no sales by Trump's companies that were obviously above the market rate, based on analysis of comparable properties in the same buildings and neighborhoods.

In Las Vegas, condos sold by Trump’s companies sold within a few dollars per square foot of other resellers’ units in the building. Prices were near flat, moving up $6 per square foot since Trump took office compared to before he announced he was running.

In New York, the tiny number of sales and uniqueness of each skews comparisons. Two were below-market sales by Trump to his son, Eric. The two since the election are at opposite ends of the spectrum. One $16 million deal was a short sale of a penthouse at Trump Park Avenue. At $3,800 per square foot, it sold in the low end of the range of a dozen comparable units in its Manhattan neighborhood. A smaller $2.5 million condo at Trump Parc East, at $3,085 per square foot, was at the high end of the range for 47 recent sales of comparable condos in the area.

 

USA Today didn't find this to be odd:

Say hello to your permanent neighbors, Washingtonians: The Obamas have officially bought the house they've been leasing in the Kalorama neighborhood, according to the Washington Post.

The house, previously owned by former Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart, was sold for $8.1 million to Homefront Holdings LLC, which is controlled by Barack and Michelle Obama. The family have lived on the property since January, at the end of the former president's term.

The Obamas bought a house in Washington

 

That wasn't the angle of the story.

 

Yeah. There was no angle.

It was a SMOKE!! article, with no evidence of a fire.

 

That's because they don't find it odd for famous or wealthy people to use an LLC to purchase property. To wit:
"The method is more common among the wealthy or famous in the buying of multimillion-dollar properties. For instance, President Obama and his wife are behind Homefront Holdings LLC, a corporation registered in Delaware which in May purchased the family’s home in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington D.C. for $8.1 million, according to district property records."

The question USA Today is posing is why the sudden spike in purchases by LLCs after the election? Only nine of the 212 properties sold by the President's organization in the two years prior to the election were purchased by LLCs. Since the election, 29 of 41 properties sold have gone to LLCs.

That is the part that is odd.

 

A jump from 4 percent to more than 70 isn't eyebrow raising to you?

 

Right. It's not odd, especially when the purchase is as an investment.

And, the people who are purchasing million dollar plus properties are wealthy people.

But, because Trump is involved, USA Today can only see SECRETIVE SALES!!!! and SMOKE!!

Their concern is that the secretive sales create an extraordinary and unprecedented potential for people, corporations or foreign interests to try to influence a President. Anyone who wanted to court favor with the President could snap up multiple properties or purposefully overpay, without revealing their identity publicly.
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There are more nefarious reasons to use LLCs, including to illegally hide assets, shield profits from taxation and launder drug money or funds embezzled from a foreign company or government. Even when LLCs are used legally, they can hide the identities of the buyers.