U. s president making money with his business

Doral has some of the things you would need. The swamp was never so convenient for doing business, and the president was never so obvious about how to find him before. Trump has illegally received benefits from decisions made by the federal government, including …. But it seems that there are definitely some conflicts of interest at play. The real issue here is establishing a precedent going forward. Among President Trump’s parting words as the G-7 closed were where the summit should be held next year. It’s one of the highlights of the diplomatic year.

2. Trump campaign events at Trump properties.

Last week, Vice President Mike Pence visited Dublin, Ireland to attend several meetings—but confusingly, stayed at a Trump hotel nearly miles away. Just yesterday, the U. Air Force came under scrutiny for overnight stays at a Trump hotel in Scotland while refueling. And Trump himself recently proposed hosting the next G-7 summit at his hotel in Doral, Florida. Cases like these have now opened up a larger investigation by Democrats into President Trump personally profiting from his presidency by using his office to steer customers towards his businesses. According to a New York Times story published over the weekend, Trump properties have hosted thousands of visits by foreign leaders, Republican members of Congress, lobbyists, and political candidates, among. But is there any underlying rule that would stop a president from profiting during their time in office?

Abusing office, breaking promises

That means limiting access of lobbyists, curbing deals with foreign governments, and refusing to profit off the White House. Well, that never happened. In fact, since Trump got to D. Call it Swamp 2. Swamp on Steroids. Since the president continues profiting from his businesses, each of the days Trump spent at his properties in was a marketing event.

Making money in office

Among the early beneficiaries of the tax incentive buiness billionaire bjsiness like Leon Cooperman and business hi like Sidney Kohl — and Mr. Former Gov. Trump; and the family of Jared Kushner, Mr. The initiative allows people to sell stocks or other investments and delay capital gains taxes for years — as long as they plow the proceeds into projects in federally certified opportunity zones.

Any profits from those projects can avoid d taxes altogether. Trump declared at a recent rally in Cincinnati. Instead, billions bsiness untaxed investment profits are beginning to pour into high-end apartment buildings and hotels, j. facilities that employ only a handful of workers, and student housing in bustling college towns, among other projects.

Many of the projects that will enjoy special tax status were underway long before the opportunity-zone provision was enacted. Financial institutions are boasting about the tax savings that await those who invest in real estate in affluent neighborhoods.

The tax benefit also is helping finance the construction of a story, glass-wrapped apartment tower — amenities include a yoga lawn and a pool surrounded by cabanas and daybeds — in a Houston neighborhood already brimming with new projects aimed at the wealthy. Some proponents of opportunity zones note that money is already flowing into downtrodden communities like Birmingham, Ala.

They argue that more funds will follow. And they note that because no data exists on where investments are being made, it is impossible to quantify the benefits going to the wealthy versus mxking poor. But leaders of groups that work in cities and rural areas to combat poverty say ptesident are disappointed with how it is playing out so far. Seybert, the social investment officer at the Kresge Foundation, a community-development group in Troy, Mich. The opportunity-zone tax break was targeted at the trillions of dollars of capital gains held by rich Americans and their companies: profits from investments in the stock market, real estate and other businesses, even short-term trades by hedge funds.

When investors sell those assets, they can incur tax bills of up to 41 percent. Sean Parker, an early presidrnt of Facebook, helped come up with the idea of pairing a capital-gains tax break with an incentive to invest in distressed neighborhoods.

Starting inMr. Parker bankrolled a Capitol Hill lobbying effort to pitch the idea to members of Congress. That effort was run through his Economic Innovation Group. In addition buainess Mr. When Congress, at Mr. Confined to six pages in the page tax bill, the provision can significantly increase the profits investors reap businfss real estate and other transactions.

It allows investors to defer for up to seven years any capital gains taxes on the money they invest in opportunity zones.

Busniess deferral is valuable because it allows people to invest a larger sum upfront, potentially generating more profits businesss time. After 10 years, the investor can cash out — by selling the opportunity-zone real estate, for example — and not owe any taxes on the profits.

The whole administration. The opportunity zones, focused on low-income census tracts, were drawn by officials in each state, maklng well as in Washington, D.

Last year, the Treasury Department approved roughly 8, such zones. The White House and Treasury declined to make senior officials available to discuss the program. Nearly a third of the 31 million people who live in the zones are considered poor — almost double the national poverty rate.

Yet there are plenty of affluent areas inside those poor census tracts. And, as investors would soon realize, some of the zones were not low income at all. Crimson-jacketed waiters serve members who are watched over by oil portraits of elite alumni. Kowalski is barnstorming the country, bouncing from one conference to the next, explaining to real estate investors and developers how to take advantage of the new rules.

Kowalski was an aide to the Trump campaignwhere he worked for the White House policy adviser Stephen Miller. Before that, he mkaing an aide to Jeff Sessions when Mr. Sessions was on the Senate Budget Committee. At the Harvard Club, he dived into an explanation of how opportunity zones work — and mojey whom they work.

Yet this is a vital constituency, since the success of the opportunity-zone program will hinge largely on how much money investors kick in. That is why the Trump administration — and Mr. Kowalski in particular — is promoting the tax break on Wall Street. More than opportunity-zone funds have been established by banks like Goldman Sachs and major real estate companies, including CIM Group of Los Angeles, which has previously been a partner with the Trump and Kushner presidebt on projects.

The law does not require public disclosure of who are taking advantage of the initiative or how they businss deploying their funds.

Among those who have invested money or said they intend to are Mr. Kohl, a founder of the department store chain that bears his name; Steve Case, co-founder of AOL; Alexander Bhathal, part owner of the Sacramento Kings basketball team; and Richard Forman, the former owner of the Monet Mills chain of clothing stores, according to interviews and other public statements.

Many others are lesser-known business executives who recently sold small companies or real estate and are looking for ways to avoid large tax bills. Paul DeMoret, for example, recently sold his auto-industry software company in Oregon. He said he was using some of those capital gains to help finance a Courtyard by Marriott in Winston-Salem u. s president making money with his business, N.

He is making the investments through a private equity firm, Virtua Partners. The tax break is largely benefiting the real estate industry — where Mr. Trump made his fortune and still has extensive business interests — and it is luring witb with personal or professional connections to the president. Christie, a onetime adviser to Mr. Trump, has raised money u. s president making money with his business opportunity-zone investments including an apartment building in Hackensack, N.

Cadre, an investment company co-founded by Mr. Kushner and his brother, Joshua, is raising hundreds of millions of dollars that it hopes to use on opportunity-zone projects. The company is eyeing neighborhoods in Savannah, Ga. LeFrak, a longtime confidant of Mr. Not far away in the Design District, Daniel Lebensohn is planning to build his high-end office budiness. Lebensohn previously joined the Trump Organization to sell luxury condominiums at the Trump Hollywood complex north of Miami.

And Ppresident. They include a pair in Miami, where Kushner Companies plans to build moeny apartment luxury high rise with sweeping views of Biscayne Bay, according to a company presentation for potential investors. A representative for the Kushner family confirmed that it was hiw opportunity-zone funding for some developments, but said it would probably not use the bsiness for the Miami projects.

Backers of the opportunity-zone program say luxury projects are the easiest makinh finance, which is why those have been happening. Over the long run, they say, those deals will be eclipsed by ones that produce social benefits in low-income areas. At least some struggling neighborhoods are already starting to receive investments. In Birminghamfor example, a developer is using opportunity-zone funds to convert a building, vacant for decades, into apartments primarily aimed at the local work force.

Similar projects are getting underway in Erie, Cleveland and Charlottesville, Va. Case, the AOL co-founder, and Derrick Morgan, a former professional football player, are among those who have announced that they will invest in opportunity-zone projects that are designed to address clear social and economic problems.

As he announced his retirement from the Tennessee Titans in July, Mr. Emanuel J. Friedman, a hedge fund manager, is using some of his capital gains and money he has raised from others to build 11 warehouses in rural Jasper County, S. Friedman said. It is the best thing I have ever.

But even supporters of the initiative agree that the bulk of the opportunity-zone money is going to places that do not need the help, while many poorer communities are so far empty-handed.

Some opportunity zones that were classified as low income based on census data from several years ago have since gentrified. Others that remain poor over all mony large numbers of wealthy households. And nearly of the 8, federally designated opportunity zones are adjacent to poor areas but are not themselves considered low income.

Under the law, up to 5 percent of the zones did not need to be poor. The idea was to enable governors to draw opportunity zones in ways that wlth include projects or businesses just outside poor census tracts, potentially creating jobs for low-income people.

In addition, states could designate whole sections of cities or rural areas that would be targeted for investment, including some rpesident census tracts. In some cases, developers have lobbied state officials to include specific plots of land inside opportunity zones. In Miami, for example, Mr. In springas they planned the so-called Sole Mia project, Mr. Spring, the city manager. They did so, and the Treasury Department made the designation official. This is the new home of Pershing Square Capital Management, the prominent hedge fund run by the billionaire Bill Ackman.

He said he was using its location inside an opportunity zone as a lure. That is because investors can use their capital gains to invest not only in real estate but also in businesses inside opportunity buslness. A company that sets up shop inside Mr.

Financial institutions are not even wlth to make it look as if their opportunity-zone investments were intended to benefit needy communities. Because many students do not have jobs, census data often wrongly suggests that college towns are poor neighborhoods. The projects include a story retail and office building in Downtown Brooklyn and an upscale apartment building in New Rochelle, N. Other companies have set up subscription databases showing which zones have the highest incomes and fastest-growing populations to witn investors steer their money to the most lucrative and least presifent destinations.

Coesvice president at Smart Growth America, a nonprofit group that encourages investments in American cities. Mmoney are hipster barbershops. Boutique hotels spill well-heeled tourists onto the red brick sidewalks. High-end coffee shops are packed with young people buried in their MacBooks.

Trump: the Real Estate Empire Behind the President

1. Trump’s hotels

The Justice Department asked a federal appeals court on Monday to throw out or at least temporarily halt the attorneys general lawsuit. There seems to be nobody in the White House who’s going to stop. China, Malaysia and the state of Maine. The main reason, of course, is to avoid conflicts of. China, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and the state of Maine. After he was businwss, ethics experts from both parties urged Mr. Likewise, every time someone stays at the Old Post Office in D. Trump earns royalties from the distribution of The Apprentice and its spinoffs in dozens of u. So that’s money that goes straight to the president. The practical effect is that Trump gets away with it.