Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:48 pm
Thursday morning President-elect took to Twitter to fill the swamp more with an unethical push for L.L. Bean, the company of a Trump PAC donor
In his tweet, Trump inaccurately conflates the entire organization of L.L. Bean with his PAC donor, and thus creates an even bigger mess for the company:
Thank you to Linda Bean of L.L.Bean for your great support and courage. People will support you even more now. Buy L.L.Bean. @LBPerfectMaine
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— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2017
Money-in-politics watchdog Every Voice slammed Trump for doing the opposite of his promise to drain the swamp, “Donald Trump is going to need some of those famous L.L. Bean Duck boots to wade through the swamp he keeps filling higher and higher,†said Adam Smith, communication director at Every Voice.
“It wasn’t enough to open his administration to scandal and foreign bribery by failing to divest from his companies, or to give big donors like Betsy DeVos cabinet positions, or to take million-dollar contributions for his inauguration—he’s now personally encouraging his supporters to boost the companies of his super PAC donors. The swamp he promised to drain is about to spill over.”
A boycott of L.L. Bean ensued after it was revealed that Linda Bean, granddaughter of the company’s founder who is a board member and runs “Linda Bean’s Lobster Dreams”, donated $60,000 donation to Making America Great Again LLC, which gave $66,862 in total to the Trump campaign. The problem with this is individual donations are limited to $5000.
L.L. Bean wrote in a statement, “L.L.Bean does not endorse political candidates, take positions on political matters, or make political contributions. Simply put, we stay out of politics,” noting that Linda Bean is one of 50+ family members involved with the family.
Unfortunately for L.L. Bean’s PR attempt to distance themselves from Trump, Donald Trump retaliated by tweeting his followers to support L.L. Bean. This is just one of many reasons why responsible grownups do not abuse their power like Trump is abusing his already.
Trump is using his influence as President-elect to push a product in what looks like a quid pro quo move. Conservatives are following Donald’s orders, claiming to be buying even more products from L.L. Bean.
No matter how one feels about L.L. Bean, what Donald Trump is doing is wrong. He is working to push the product of donor (this is unfair leverage against L. L. Bean’s competitors, or it could be if Trump weren’t so unpopular), a form of corruption he accused Hillary Clinton of with much less evidence. This is the opposite of “draining the swamp.”
Donald Trump’s message is “Give money to the President-elect and you will get a boost from the bully pulpit.”
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