American Bridge Vice President Shripal Shah released the following statement after Donald Trump’s statement this afternoon:

“It’s shocking that in the year 2017, it took nearly three full days and mounting political pressure for the President of the United States to directly denounce racist acts committed on American soil by Nazi sympathizers. That’s not leadership, that’s cowardice, and it’s too late for Donald Trump.  He’s shown where his allegiances lie, and sadly, it’s with the fringe group of racists who have been emboldened by his days of silence.” 

After projecting $2.1 million in losses at the Trump International Hotel DC over the first four months of 2017, the Trump Organization instead beat expectations by a whopping $4,700,000, turning a $1.97 million profit, according to the Washington Post.

Trump’s DC hotel’s success is no coincidence. President Donald Trump is selling access to himself, his family and cabinet; welcoming cash transfers from lobbyists, donors, corporate special interests, and foreign governments; and otherwise abusing his presidential influence, all to up-charge guests 131% versus DC hotels in his competitive set. It’s a pay-to-play scam.

“Trump’s pay-to-play scam isn’t a victimless crime: as President Trump sells access to the highest bidder and welcomes millions in bribes from donors and foreign governments, he’s putting his wallet over the best interests of the American people and compromising our economic and national security.” –Brad Bainum, American Bridge spokesperson

Other examples of Trump exploiting the presidency for personal profit:

Trump  Read more after the jump.

While the President is in the middle of a 17-day taxpayer-funded vacation, editorial boards across the country haven’t taken a break. This week they took Trump to task for threatening to start a nuclear war in between rounds of golf, pushing a reckless and racist immigration plan, stifling new climate change findings, and more. Take a look at what Americans read in their hometown newspapers in our weekly roundup:

8/4

Dallas Morning News: How Trump’s plan to cut legal immigration could backfire

Regrettably, the president seems to have made legal immigration into a boogeyman to join illegal immigration as a reason for job losses and lower American wages. He’s so wrong to fan these flames. Most economists and businesses agree that legal immigration has been a net benefit to the nation and a reflection of the country’s values and diversity. But Trump — along with bill sponsors Sens. […]

The hypocrisy of Trump’s frequent golf trips to his properties in Virginia, New Jersey, and Florida at taxpayer’s expense, is no secret. Despite years of attacking past Presidential vacations and vowing he would never take one if elected, Trump doubled-up President Obama’s travel away from the White House over their first 200 days in office, while putting himself on pace to exceed Obama’s 8 years-worth of taxpayer-funded travel spending in his first year, alone.

The starkest difference between the two presidents as far as “vacation” days are concerned — beyond Trump’s increased time spent golfing, superior drain on taxpayer resources for his family’s travel, and general hypocrisy on the issue (including that he keeps getting caught lying about how he’s not golfing but busy with “meetings”) — is that Trump has spent his time at businesses he owns, turning the trips into promotional tours that funnel taxpayer dollars […]

Remember Anthony Scaramucci? Yeah, that was Monday. This week — which felt like a year — editorial boards across the country once again took the Trump Administration to task, this time making clear that the problems plaguing the White House come from the top that no amount of unceremonious firings can fix it.

From adopting a flagrantly racist new immigration plan, to “jokes” about police brutality, to a new feud with the Boy Scouts of America, the Trump administration continues to be stuck in chaos and scandal. Here’s what Americans read in their local newspapers this week as the President heads off on a two-week taxpayer-funded vacation after accomplishing exactly nothing at work.

7/31

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: White House shakeup still doesn’t fix Trump’s fundamental flaw

Trump, who has repeatedly berated Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the past, got his comeuppance when McCain tipped the balance in voting against […]