Donald Trump appears to have personally profited financially from Charlottesville white supremacist rally

| 12:15 am EDT August 26, 2017
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It turns out two of Donald Trump’s biggest scandals may have been at least tangentially intertwined. Trump has been using his office to steer business to his Trump International Hotel in Washington DC, in clear violation of the law, for which he’s being sued. And now it appears at least one planner of the Charlottesville white supremacist rally was a paying customer at Trump’s hotel while planning the rally.

The story starts with the New York Times having spotted white supremacist Richard Spencer at the Trump International Hotel earlier this month (link). From there, Business Insider claims that Spencer told NY Times reporter Katie Rogers that he was “too busy planning a rally” to answer her questions about his stay at the hotel (link). Business Insider has a tabloid streak, but if it’s indeed telling the truth about the exchange between Rogers and Spencer, then it’s highly noteworthy.

It’s not clear if Richard Spencer was a paying guest at the hotel. But if he did spend money on a hotel room, or even if he so much as spent money buying food or drinks at the hotel bar, then a portion of that money went into Donald Trump’s pocket. Even if it was one dollar, it’s still a violation of the law. And because Spencer was apparently using Trump’s hotel in some fashion while planning the Charlottesville rally, it means Donald Trump took money from a white supremacist who was planning a stunt that culminated in a deadly terrorist attack.

Again, it doesn’t matter how much or little money Richard Spencer may have spent at the Trump International Hotel in the name of helping to plan the Charlottesville rally. The point is that Trump, in his brazen desire to cash in on his office, may have taken money from a de facto domestic terrorist plot.