MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace on Wednesday sought to put into perspective just how wild Donald Trump’s $45,000 cash gift to his devoted aide Natalie Harp — and similar gifts to other staffers — was by comparing it with what she received from former President George W. Bush for her wedding.
“I got married, and George W. Bush gave me like a spoon, and I had to disclose the gift on so many forms. I was like, ‘Can I give this back?’” said Wallace, who served as White House communications director in Bush’s second term.
“It’s lovely, but my God. I mean, the idea that cash lump payments are being given to someone that Donald Trump describes as ‘loving me more than my wife and kids,’ is so bananas, we need another fruit,’” she added.
Wallace’s gift revelation cracked up MS NOW senior political analyst Alex Wagner, while Norm Eisen, an Obama White House ethics lawyer, appeared to struggle to keep a straight face as he detailed his take on what he called the ongoing “saga of Donald and Natalie,” whose relationship has come under increasing media scrutiny.
“It’s totally foreign to ethics and law,” said Eisen of the gift. “Under 18 U .S .C. 209, it is illegal to supplement salary. It’s one of the most fundamental rules. If I had gone into the Oval Office and said, ‘Uh, President Obama, would you like to give $45,000 gifts to the people who work?’ He would have thrown me out. It’s illegal.”
The payments also raise the question of “what kind of loyalty is Donald Trump buying from his closest aides?” he added.
Wagner called the gift situation “so disturbing.”
She continued, “I mean, just like take a step back. You have a group of young single women who personally enable Trump’s most lurid and ludicrous impulses and are quite clearly significantly reliant on daddy’s largesse. What relationship, what dynamic does that remind you of? It is just like, there are so many ethical questions this raises, if not legal ones.”