Was Trump looking for an ‘alternative source of income’?

It’s usually the dimmer bulbs in the Republican Party who say the quiet parts out loud, so I’m probably damning myself with this observation. But I think what no one is saying — no New York Times or Washington Post pundits, no Democratic politicians observing this from afar, no one I’ve seen — is that the FBI swooped into Mar-a-Lago to prevent Donald Trump from selling classified material.

Here you have a guy who claims to be a billionaire, no matter what his bank account actually looks like. Sure, he’d often bankrupt companies and leave his unwise creditors holding the bag. As of 2020, he still had creditors he owed from when he built the Trump Taj Mahal in 1990. But Trump’s 2004 tax documents, obtained by The New York Times, revealed that Trump managed to squander his $413 million inheritance through his terrible business judgment. Even so, when the TV producers of The Apprentice approached him, he was pretending he was still rich, even though he was nearly broke. That sweet, sweet Apprentice money saved Trump’s bacon and made him look as if he really were a successful businessman – if you didn’t look too closely at the bankruptcies and the fines for discrimination. But by the time 2020 rolled around, Trump’s high living, his $25 million fake university settlement, his Trump Foundation settlement, and various other outlays meant Trump was nearly out of money again.

Now, Trump has grifting down to an art. His “Save America” PAC allegedly fights voter fraud, but has spent basically nothing on its purpose; it’s a leadership PAC, so there’s no limit on how he spends the money. In fact, Trump’s PAC spends a lot of money at Trump properties (surprise! surprise!) and funneled $60,000 to one of Melania’s fashion designers and another $60,000 to his son’s fiancée. But it’s just not enough money. The Save America PAC has raised a total $250 million, but only had $103.7 million cash on hand at the end of June. You can’t raise much cabbage when the big donors see you as a liability, and half of your income — oops! Did I say income? — comes from retirees. And, clearly, the money’s going out almost as fast as it comes in.

Which brings us to an alternative source of income.

What Donald Trump had in his basement included top-secret documents — including some on America’s nuclear capability. These are worth a lot to a lot of other countries – even some friendly ones, since spying on friends isn’t unknown. But they’re worth even more to enemies of America. Many of whom are personal friends of The Donald, I want to remind you.

What evidence do I have of this? Just one bit:

Counterintelligence is defined by Merriam-Webster as “organized activity of an intelligence service designed to block an enemy’s sources of information, to deceive the enemy, to prevent sabotage, and to gather political and military information.”

I wonder what Mr. Bratt feared was at Mar-a-Lago? And where he thought this information might be going?

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