'Trump never has to tell us': Questions raised over where  inaugural cash will end up

With a reported $250 million expected to flow into Donald Trump's inauguration coffers, with tech billionaires and business execs providing a substantial amount of the cash, Politico is reporting that much of it will end up being excess that the president-elect can do with as he pleases.

As Politico's Alice Miranda Ollstein, Caitlin Oprysko and Irie Sentner are reporting, the U.S. government already funds much of the inaugural activities so, with a record haul, Trump may find himself with millions he can divert elsewhere and that has raised questions.

With the alarming flood of cash already raising eyebrows over legitimate concerns of bribery, one health care lobbyist, who asked to remain anonymous, admitted, "Everyone’s trying to kiss the ring and curry favor with the new administration. We’re hopeful this new administration will be friendlier than the previous one.”

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A former member of President Joe Biden’s Presidential Inaugural Committee pointed out, "So much of the inaugural resources are public dollars. So if people think that [Meta CEO Mark] Zuckerberg’s million dollars are going to go to something like the swearing in ceremony, that’s just not true.”

According to Politico, Trump's people have 90 days before they have to make public the names of donors, but they do not have to document how the money was spent or where it ended up.

That has led Craig Holman, of watchdog group Public Citizen, to note, "Is it going to go to Trump’s businesses? To Trump’s Super PAC? We don’t know and Trump never has to tell us.”

Politico is reporting, "even this limited transparency into the inaugural committee’s fundraising will be far more than the public is likely to get on Trump’s transition — the first in modern history to reject public funding and the restrictions and disclosure requirements that come with it. Though Trump’s transition promised in late November to reveal its private donors, it has not yet done so, and no legal mechanism exists to hold them to that pledge. The transition did not respond when asked whether, when and how it would disclose its funders."

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