Every successful employer in the United States will enter ‘politics’ as a budget item if it is a ncessary cost of doing business.
Trump broke no laws. There are no laws against lobbying members of Congress or the White House to further commercial matters. It is part of the process.
Your condemnation of Trump for doing what every successful employer does as a matter of necessity is to condemn millions upon millions of hardworking people and their companies.
In my own experience, I needed to have a building permit and an architect. My architect was an award-winning architect who was very familiar with the permit process but would not take the lead because he advised me that the lot line adjustments under consideration were beat handled by a competent land zoning attorney and he was right.
I paid $15,000 for the attorney and wrote it as a business expense. On the face of it, the expense was not necessary but ‘politically’ it was necessary because the attorney I hired was in the accepted circle of the City’s Building Directorate and spoke directly to the Director.
If my architect had tried to push through what was needed, even with his valued reputation, he would have spoke to a mid-level reviewer and the matter would have hung indefinitely.
That’s known as politics in the building business and every builder knows what I am talking about and they know it’s true.
The reason is clear. Mid-level reviewers are not empowered to make high-level decisions. To get before a high-level decision maker, one needs special access. In my case, access was achieved via a high-profile attorney who was part of the inner ring of the Mayor’s Office and the City Council, in other words a political person. In Trump’s case he gained access through members of Congress.
There is no difference in the process, only the scale. And every builder, big or small, will agree with me.
So go ahead and act all sanctimonious. When you come up with an idea on how to change human nature which has existed for thousands of years, publish it. If you can’t get it published, then your idea wasn’t any good. And if you don’t like what the publishers say, maybe you should go find someone to cry and weep with. In the meantime, I’ll stick with winners and time-tested methods.
from one worked in the design/build industry in NYC andcwith contracts across the USA and in foreign countries.
And zoning issues with variances and other issues “at the discretion of the (insert ruling authority)” were at the apex of the political aspects.
The “pay off” isn't always directly monetary. Giving up prime ground floor rental space to community organizers to expedite or gain approvals is but one of the back door way for pols to reward their money and vote supports. When the cost of money is high and the project is very large the cost of added weeks quickly runs into six figures and up per month.
People who haven't been involved in such large scale projects are totally unaware of the administrative approval trees and the rather subtle manner in which required reviews can be delayed for months or years.
Even the very smart and capable contractors and developers can suffer losses depending on the high profile issues of the day and the political winds. An illustrative example is the JFK Memorial Library in Dorchester Mass. Originally intended to be sited on Harvard's grounds, the alma mater of so many Kennedys, it endured ten years or so of delays before being re-sited to its final resting place.