The latest hyperventilating outrage for the Trump Deranged to get furious over is this:
“President Donald Trump gave $45,000 cash gifts to his executive assistant Natalie Harp and two of his other young, loyal White House employees, according to financial disclosures released by the administration. On their disclosure forms, which were released publicly late last week, the three women described the payments as “Cash Gift for Holidays.” The gifts amount to about one-third of the $150,000 salaries they each earn from their White House positions, according to an annual report to Congress.”
The Washington Post predictably runs to NeverTrump Bush White House legal ethicist Richard Painter, who wanted to impeach Trump in 2016 before he took office. “Richard Painter, the former chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush and a critic of Trump,” the Post tells us, “said the payments appear to violate a federal statute that prohibits the supplementation of federal employees’ salaries from outside sources.” “He’s clearly trying to make it easier for them financially to work in government service at the White House,” Painter said. “You can’t do that.”
Wouldn’t you think a responsible and objective news source would begin by highlighting the opinion of a lawyer and ethicist who hadn’t already made it clear that one of his main goals in life is to “Get Trump”? If the gifts were the slam-dunk offense Painter says it is, shouldn’t it be easy to find other “experts” to weigh in on the matter? Eventually, the Post does bring another “expert” into the mix, but only after quoting Painter extensively. [Full Disclosure: the best legal ethics website that I have ever had the pleasure to visit was John Steele’s Legal Ethics Forum. It managed to stay non-partisan and therefore useful until Painter ruined it with his routine anti-Trump rants. Steele eventually gave up and let the website slide into misuse. The partisan ethics rot that killed that site has also seeped into the listserv of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers. I can’t blame Painter for the whole phenomenon, but he was one of its architects, and yes, I resent it.]
That second voice does not echo Painter’s predictable condemnation. Don Fox, the former acting director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) in the Obama administration, tells the Post:
“…it was not clear from the available facts that the payments violate the prohibition on supplementation. He said that would be the case if Trump made the gifts after one of the employees said they were leaving for the private sector because they couldn’t live on what they were making, and he gave them a supplement to level the disparity in salaries. There are rules that restrict employees from giving gifts to their superiors over concerns they could be abused to curry favor. But a large payment to a subordinate is “not a circumstance that OGE ever really envisioned,” Fox said. “This just doesn’t happen.”…Even in the absence of any violation, however, Fox said he still found the payments “troublesome” because they could leave the aides indebted to Trump. “I would feel somewhere between really uncomfortable and then beholden to the person who gave me such a large gift,” he said.
Oh-oh! There’s another one of those “democratic norms” that Trump keeps breaching!
The Post reveals,
Harp, Martin, Harris and Nauta all have ties to Trump dating from his first term, and they were all among a small inner circle of aides who worked for Trump in Florida in between his presidencies. Harp, Martin and Harris have limited work experience that isn’t tied to Trump…Harp gained national attention in 2019 for a LinkedIn post in which she credited a law Trump signed in 2018 expanding access to experimental treatments with saving her life following a Stage 2 bone cancer diagnosis. Medical experts have cast doubt on those claims. Harp spoke about the experience at the 2020 Republican National Convention. As an anchor with One America News, she frequently promoted Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election. She began working for Trump in 2022 after leaving the network.
Martin began working for the Trump White House as a press assistant in 2019 and continued to work as a press secretary for Trump after the inauguration of President Joe Biden. Harris began her career at the White House and was known as the “receptionist of the United States” during Trump’s first term.
Nauta is a Guam native who enlisted in the Navy in 2001. By 2021, he was promoted to the rank of senior chief culinary specialist, according to military records. Nauta was working in the White House at that time, and Trump promoted him to be his valet, according to court records. Valets are often known as “body men,” following politicians closely so that they can provide them with everything from snacks to schedules.
Here is the Federal law that Painter references, 18 U.S. Code § 209 – Salary of Government officials and employees payable only by United States, which states in relevant part,
Did the money come Trump’s own pocket, or from the same source their regular salary comes from?
His own pocket.
I find this law to be unethical. To deny a superior from giving a subordinate a monetary gift from his or her own pocket with no strings attached seems counter productive. I read the law and theoretically this would bar the superior for picking up a dinner bill for the staff and not charging the taxpayer. Where is the outrage that Fauci received royalties and other compensation from third parties while employed by the federal government? Where is Painter and the others on the rampant insider trading that supplements legislator or executive incomes?
It should be noted that justice and revenge cannot be equilibrated except when defined by legislation. What is happening is not defined and appears to be a never ending torment. To suggest that a perpetual campaign of destruction because of some insults during a campaign is justice tells me that the Bush, Cheney, and McCain cabals were not worthy of my past support. The issue with McCain is especially a problem for me such that he, by his yeah vote on Obamacare just to piss off Trump, tells me he is far more narcissistic than Trump because he chose to say screw the people so he could get revenge.
It won’t matter what Trump does the Democratic Socialists of America will find a willing player to serve up a complaint that will give the DSA a reason to mobilize their fundraising apparatus which will cause the weenies of the world to unite.
Not certain I’m following the legal minutiae here, but as individuals, the President and First Lady can each make non-taxable gifts to other individuals. The 2026 gift exclusion is $19,000 so $38,000 total to each recipient is tax excluded. Presumably Mr. and Mrs. Trump will pay a gift tax on the excess.
If a corporation gives a cash ‘gift’ to an employee, it is probably taxable as wages under payroll law. There are certain exemptions, such as de minimis fringe benefits, achievement awards and scholarships. The rules are strict, well defined and have been in effect for decades. So a cash Christmas bonus should be payroll taxed and included in your W-2. Sorry.
Of course I included that “bonus” as income for tax purposes. The check was from the company’s owner, not the company. Law firm bonuses are considered supplements to the salary. The President is a Dollar-a-Year man, and his “bonuses” are definitely personal gifts.