Year: 2018

Pruitt Aides Made $45k Trip to Australia on Government’s Dime

Buck Banks

$45,000

“Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, under fire from lawmakers for travel and security expenses, spent about $45,000 in government money to fly five people to Australia to prepare for a planned trip that was later canceled,” Reuters reports. “Two of his aides and three security agents flew to Australia last August on business-class tickets costing roughly $9,000 each to set up meetings for the EPA administrator.”

GOP Lagging Behind Democratic Fundraising Efforts

Buck Banks

43

“A whopping 43 House Republicans raised less money than Democratic challengers in the first three months of 2018 — nearly the same number of stragglers the GOP had at the end of last year,” Politico reports. “An overlapping group of 16 Republican incumbents already have less cash on hand than Democratic challengers, up from the end of 2017, despite hopes that tax reform would open more donor wallets.”

Trump Trade Official Spends $1 Million on Furniture, Blames Obama

Buck Banks

$1 million

“President Trump’s trade representative is spending nearly $1 million on new furniture — and blaming the Obama administration,” the New York Post reports. “U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer spent more than $917,000 to furnish the two trade offices near the White House… That’s a significant increase compared to the last two trade reps.”

The Last Phase of the Trump Presidency?

Jon Ponder

New Yorker writer Adam Davidson says the chaos in the White House today brings to mind his experiences in Iraq after the invasion in 2003 when it became clear that conditions were deteriorating beyond repair and in New York in 2007 when the Bush administration and others were ignoring signs that the economy was on the brink of collapse:

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