President Trump promised to “Drain the Swamp”of corruption during his history-making run for the Oval Office. Little did we know he planned to replace it with a presidential campaign working to enrich his family members.
At least, this shady behavior is alleged by new reporting from the University of Florida student newspaper The Alligator. The paper reports that Trump campaign official Caroline Wren directly emailed the university’s student body president and requested that he bring Donald Trump Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Republican National Committee official Tommy Hicks to campus for a paid speaking opportunity. The emails coordinating this event have been posted publicly, and it appears Wren signed off in her official capacity as national finance consultant for the Trump campaign.
“Emails show a Donald Trump re-election campaign official personally asked UF Student Body President Michael Murphy in September to bring Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle to campus the following month.”
Get yourself an indy school paper like UF’s https://t.co/7Y7xJ507Gf
— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) October 31, 2019
The students obliged, and Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle hosted a well-attended campus event on Oct. 10. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course, as it’s good to have diverse campus speakers, and they’re both prominent pro-Trump voices whose perspectives are worth hearing. If student groups want to host them, they should.
However, in this case, Trump Jr. received $50,000 in speaking fees funded by student tuition per The Alligator. That is not something the president’s reelection campaign ought to be facilitating. The Washington Post’s Radley Balko took a critical tone to the whole affair, deploring that “Trump Jr. got $50K in mandatory student dues to come campaign for his dad.”
Student newspaper finds evidence that the Trump campaign arranged for Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle to speak on the UF campus. Which means that Trump Jr. got $50K in mandatory student dues to come campaign for his dad.
— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) October 31, 2019
It’s improper that the official Trump campaign would be involved with such an event. It has no business helping to enrich the president’s son. This is especially ironic considering Trump Jr.’s recent criticisms of Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Trump Jr. has blasted Hunter Biden’s (to be sure, quite shady) business dealings, saying, “I wish my name was Hunter Biden. I could go abroad, make millions off my father’s presidency. I’d be a really rich guy.”
I feel like Don Jr. isn’t the best guy to make the case against nepotism… https://t.co/OocWc7Womf
— Brad Po-sometimes-scum-BOO? (@brad_polumbo) October 31, 2019
Apparently, self-awareness isn’t Trump Jr.’s strong suit. It looks like the Biden and Trump’s sons have more in common than either would like to admit.
UPDATE: In a statement to The Alligator, Caroline Wren said that she used a campaign-related email signature by accident, and that she was communicating “via my private email in my personal capacity and mistakenly forgot to remove my Trump Victory signature.”
