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Your Tax Dollars not at Work [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-03-20

The Tesla infomercial at the White House was against the law for government officials not to participate in advertising, or use government facilities for that purpose.

5 CFR 2635.702 states that "An employee may not use their public office for their own private gain; for the endorsement of any product, service, or enterprise."

USA.gov says that "You cannot use government materials in a way that implies endorsement by a government official, agency, or employee."

That seems pretty clear, doesn't it?

What started me off on this was a picture posted by Trump that was created for the Department of Energy:

This cost tax dollars to create a piece of anti-environmental propaganda. It's one thing to say it. But commissioning it using our money to do so is out of line.

Howard Lutnick just said on TV shows yesterday that it was a good thing to buy Tesla stock, because it was so low priced at the moment. The fact that it's going to keep going down didn't occur to him. But saying that, is in direct violation of the law. Actually, a whole bunch of laws regarding securities.

Remember when Trump told those oil executives that he would get rid of all those regulations that stop oil and gas exploration from happening, the day he returned to office? They only had to cough up a billion dollars to his campaign. He's following through on the promise pretty well. Of course, he wasn't a government official at the time. But, I call it taking a bribe.

Now that Trump is president, he is not allowed to advertise any of his merchandise, or if you take it far enough, even his books. Will that stop him? No. He faces no repercussions. If he was a Democrat, all hell would be breaking loose. I'm just waiting for him to advertise one of his own products, not someone else's like Musk's. It really doesn't matter because both are illegal.

Republicans went crazy anytime a White House spokesperson for Biden accidentally made a comment that ran afoul of the Hatch Act. Karoline Leavitt is breaking it every day, and not a word is said.

Next we'll see Pete Hegseth doing ads for Jack Daniel's. Matt Gaetz for Trojan condoms. Tommy Tuberville for Wilson footballs. Marjorie Taylor Greene for PornHub. Lindsey Graham for Nabisco Honey Maid. Tom Cotten for Fruit of the Loom. Tim Scott for the toilet paper. Chuck Grassley for Geritol. Nancy Mace for American Standard toilets. The list is endless.

Then there are people you hadn't heard of before, like McLaurie Pinover, the top spokeswoman for the Office of Personnel Management who filmed fashion videos in her office. She swears she never made any money off of them, but there was a link to the store that generated a commission.

Ethics in Washington. Who needs them when you work for Trump instead of the people?

Donald Sherman, the executive director and chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics In Washington (CREW), said that what she did was small potatoes, but that, "In the context of a president and an administration that are routinely engaged in profiteering and using the office of the presidency for financial gain, in the context of someone who owns a private company, Elon Musk, coming into the administration and dismantling the government as he has, and in the context of OPM being central to the administration's attack on civil servants who actually want to be there to work for the American public, an OPM political appointee engaging in this conduct is egregious."

Trump, of course, has his multitude of real estate deals in foreign countries which could influence his diplomatic decisions.

In January 23, 2017, three days after Trump took office, CREW and several other entities, filed suit against Trump for violation of the Constitution's Emoluments Clause, which forbids any federal official from taking payments or gifts from foreign governments. A district judge dismissed the case in December of 2017, holding the plaintiffs lacked standing. On appeal the suit was reinstated and the suit was remanded back to the district court for further proceedings. In January of 2021, the US Supreme Court instructed the lower courts to dismiss the case as moot because Trump was no longer president. So Trump outlasted the lawsuit, as he has with all of his criminal indictments, except for the 34 felonies he was convicted of in Manhattan. Trump once again learned that all he had to do was delay, delay, delay, and never face the consequences.

The fact that Trump was president didn't, and now doesn't, preclude filing civil suits against him.

Breaking 5 CFR 2635.702 can result in dismissal from a position. Somebody needs to file a case against Trump for the Tesla infomercial.

Elon Musk is a different question. Trump has said he runs DOGE, but Amy Gleason is the acting administrator or director. Is DOGE an agency or an advisory board? It has to figured out soon, as there are seven cases still ongoing against DOGE. Tesla shareholders could easily sue Musk for what his actions have done to the stock price. At the same time, Musk is trying to get back his $56 billion bonus package from Tesla.

Trump signed a Proclamation today honoring the 250th anniversary of Patrick McHenry speech (March 23, 1775) where he said, "Give me liberty, or give me death!"

I hope it doesn't come to that in fighting Trump. We see more rights being stripped away every day. We started the journey of creating America with "no taxation without representation." We're fighting for a lot more now.

Trump also just signed the executive order eliminating the Department of Education. God help us and our children. For those of you that are atheists or agnostics, may the flying spaghetti monster take Donald Trump off the face of the Earth as soon as possible.

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