President Donald Trump’s eternal pursuit of self-aggrandizement will be his downfall, one Democratic lawmaker argues.
Appearing on the latest episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, Colorado Rep. Jason Crow said that Trump’s desecration of Washington, D.C. landmarks, such as his botched renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, exemplifies the flippancy and vaingloriousness with which he wields the powers of the commander-in-chief.
“It’s wild, really, because there are so many physical manifestations of the corruption of this administration,” the Democratic congressman, 47, told host Joanna Coles. “In the past, it would be almost kind of abstract and ethereal, right? Like some kind of fraud scheme or something.”
“And that stuff still happens, actually, in spades, right? Like, most of the corruption just quantitatively is that type of stuff,” he continued. “The pay-to-play operations, how they’d monetize the government and their setting up all their buddies and cronies and the over $2 billion that the Trump family has benefited over the last year and a half.”
Trump, 80, and his family have raked in nearly $2.5 billion since he took office last year, according to the House Oversight Democrats’ Trump Family Digital Grift Wealth Tracker.
“But then there’s all these physical manifestations of it,” Crow explained. “The huge UFC cage that was erected on the South Lawn, the demolishing of the East Wing. And that was actually... a turning point, I think, in people’s view of the conduct of this administration, when he demolished the East Wing.”
Aside from constructing a ridiculous metal contraption dubbed “The Claw” on the South Lawn for his 80th birthday bash, and trying and failing to plaster his name on the historic Kennedy Center, Trump has frequently bragged about his tacky ballroom/bunker pegged to replace the now-demolished East Wing.
Despite the president claiming that the project, initially estimated at $400 million, would not cost American taxpayers a dime, records obtained by The Washington Post show that the full cost actually sits at around $600 million, with taxpayers footing about half the bill.
“People on both sides of... the spectrum really disliked that, right? Because it’s a sacred place for Americans,” Crow said. “And we’re not against reform or repair, but you just don’t go in there and trash it without a plan.”
“And, of course, you don’t want to spend over $1 billion for a gilded ballroom, and... 20 million Americans are at risk of losing their healthcare,” the congressman added. “At least, you know, most normal people don’t.”
Reached for comment, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told the Daily Beast: “Trump Deranged Dumocrats and the glue-sniffers at the failing Daily Beast continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are irresponsible and reinforce the public’s distrust in what they read. President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public—which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses. President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest.”
Ingle, 32, is a communications graduate of Florida’s Southeastern University, where his father, Kent Ingle, a Newsmax contributor, is president. The school boasts that the majority of its students attend online or through extension courses at 200 “partner sites,” which do not have to be accredited.
Asked by Coles how his Republican colleagues feel about Trump’s antics in D.C., Crow said that they’re certainly feeling the ramifications among their constituents.
“They’re getting beat up in their constituencies, and they should,” the congressman replied. “A whole bunch of them are gonna lose, and I’m... actually making sure of that and doing a lot of work to send them home because they’re... getting crushed by their constituents.”
“Many of them have stopped doing town halls and public events because they know they can’t face their constituents anymore, because it’s gotten so bad for them,” he added.
Crow said that the Trump administration’s handling of issues like healthcare and tariffs has left a bad taste in the mouths of many Americans, leading GOP lawmakers to avoid meeting with their electorates.
“The situation that they have designed for themselves, the bed that they have made that they now have to sleep in, is they have supported an administration that has done things that have... devastated their constituents,” the congressman explained. “And they’ve done that just to placate Donald Trump and the MAGA base.”
“And now, they’ve set up a situation where they’re damned either way. And they should be,” Crow asserted. “So we’re gonna send those folks home... We’re gonna beat them in the midterms and hopefully bring... a new generation of folks in to kind of reset things. That’s my hope—and get us past this dark phase."
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