Trump Has No Shame: He Is Commercializing the State of the Union Address
Jan. 30, 2018
Trump Has No Shame: He Is Commercializing the State of the Union Address
Statements of Public Citizen Experts
Note: The Washington Post reports that President Donald Trump is offering to flash the names of donors to his reelection campaign on the screen of his campaign website during a broadcast of his State of the Union speech tonight.
“Donald Trump is commercializing and corrupting yet another national institution, making this just the latest disgraceful degradation by Trump of the presidency and our public institutions. If Trump is going to do this, we at least should have truth in advertising: ‘This presidency is brought to you by Goldman Sachs, Dow Chemical, Koch Industries and Murray Energy.’”
– Robert Weissman, president, Public Citizen
“This inappropriate usage of the State of the Union to advertise campaign access is the opposite of the ‘drain the swamp’ presidency on which Trump based his campaign. This administration has no shame. This latest outrage underscores the need for national reform to our system of moneyed politics.”
– Lisa Gilbert, vice president of legislative affairs, Public Citizen
“Something like this has never been done before. The State of the Union address always has been considered an attempt to be a unifying national event. But Trump now is turning it into a campaign fundraising event, which is quite a perversion of the State of the Union.”
-Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist, Public Citizen
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