Hypocrisy of Trump Family Again on Full Display

The hashtag #ByeIvanka has been trending nationwide following the release of a new video highlighting the hypocrisy of President Donald Trump and his administration.  MeidasTouch, a progressive PAC, took Ivanka Trump's widely derided announcement on the federal government prioritizing job applicants’ skills over college degrees, and spliced it with previous comments her father has made about nepotism and appointing rich people.  The 60-second clip also notes how President Trump has recruited members of his own family for senior government roles, despite them having little experience.

To refresh everyone's memory, I thought I would review some of the most notorious examples of Trump's hypocrisy in regards to giving people jobs based on their skills.

Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner was appointed the Director of the Office of American Innovation, Senior Advisor to the President, despite having no experience in the civil service or innovating anything in the private sector.  He struggled to get a security clearance, and was compelled to amend his security disclosure forms numerous times as prior undisclosed potential conflicts of interest were revealed by the media. Eventually his security clearance was simply imposed at the direction of Trump.

Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump was appointed Senior Advisor to the President, without any political experience or any years in the civil service. Based on a brief period of modeling, clothing design, and running cheap made-in-China clothing lines, Ivanka was ushered into the inner sanctum of the most powerful office in the world.  Her government position helped her secure long sought after trademarks from China.

Attorney General Barr got his on-in-law Tyler McGaughey a job in the White House Office of General Counsel.  At least he was a lawyer.

Rudy Giulliani got his son Andrew Giuliani a job as Special Assistant to the President and Associate Director of the Office of Public Liaison.  Andrew’s prior dreams of becoming a professional golfer were lost when he was kicked off the golf team at Duke University.  He is a regular golf partner of Donald Trump’s. His unescorted access to the White House was rescinded by Chief of Staff John Kelly, but reinstated after Kelly was fired.

The Trump inaugural committee paid nearly $26 million to the firm of Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a friend of First Lady Melania Trump, for “event production services.”

In 2017, Ben Carson Jr. organized an agency “listening tour” in Baltimore for his HUD Secretary father. Carson Jr. and his wife Merlynn invited an official from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).  Less than three months later, CMS awarded a $485,000 contract to Merlynn Carson’s consulting company.

John Pence, nephew of Vice President Mike Pence, is apparently serving as deputy executive director on the Trump 2020 campaign. In September 2017 the RNC began paying him $12,000 a month for his work.

Eric Trump’s brother-in-law Kyle Yunaska serves as chief of staff of the Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis in the Energy Department. He has no background in government or energy policy making.

Trump’s longtime bodyguard, Keith Schiller, served as director of Oval Office operations before leaving the White House to receive $15,000 a month from the RNC for “security services.”

Lynne Patton, who arranged Trump golf tournaments and planned Eric Trump’s wedding, was appointed by Trump to head the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Region II.  In that job, Patton will be in a position to distribute billions of housing development funding to the states of New York and New Jersey. Patton, who has no housing experience and whose law school denies she earned a degree, oversees the distribution of billions of dollars.

And finally-- Brett Talley, husband of Ann Donaldson (Former Chief of Staff to White House Counsel) was given the position of Deputy Attorney General, Department of Justice.   Trump originally nominated him to a lifetime appointment as a Federal judge despite his never having tried a case as a lawyer and earning an unqualified rating from the ABA. His nomination hit the rocks when it was revealed he failed to disclose his marriage to the White House Counsel’s Chief of Staff (which would have created conflicts of interest had a case involving Trump appeared before him).