On Friday night, failed 2020 Presidential candidate Donald Trump gave a speech at a fundraiser for a Big Dog Ranch Rescue, held at Mar-a-lago, during which he pretended to like and care about dogs.

He also hinted at a possible Senate run for Eric Trump's wife, Lara Trump, which is certainly a thing that could happen in Florida. Lara Trump, reportedly, was the reason the event for the animal rescue was held at Mar-a-lago in the first place.

Animal rescues are great! We should all be rescuing all the dogs and all of the cats (those of us who aren't allergic/whose leases allow it anyway) and all of the other animals, and we should also spay and neuter all of our pets so that other animals don't have to be rescued.

But you know what's not great? When there is a dog rescue that is linked to Lara Trump that funnels a significant amount of their dog rescuing money to Donald Trump. By way of spending over a million dollars renting out Mar-a-lago. Which is what Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Palm Beach has done.

Via Huffington Post:

According to a permit filed with the town of Palm Beach, Florida, Big Dog Ranch Rescue estimates it will spend $225,000 at the club where Donald Trump has taken up full-time residence since leaving the White House. All the profit from that spending winds up in his pocket.

Internal Revenue Service filings show that the group has spent as much as $1,883,160 on fundraising costs at Mar-a-Lago and Trump's golf course 18 miles north in Jupiter starting in 2014. Lara Trump, the wife of Eric Trump, started being listed as a chairwoman for charity events in 2018, and the group's president, Lauren Simmons, visited the White House in 2019 for the signing of a bill addressing animal cruelty.

The worst thing any campaign against animal cruelty should do is surprise us in the middle of the night with a terrifying commercial featuring abused animals looking sad while Sara McLachlan's Adia plays in the background, sending us into a panicked frenzy trying to find the remote control. And giving Donald Trump almost $2 million is way, way worse than that.

It is hardly as if Mar-a-lago is the only venue of that sort in Palm Beach. It's a very fancy place with a lot of golf courses, resorts and country clubs and things like that. They're not exactly at a loss for a place to hold a chichi charity event that is not owned by someone who just tried to overturn a United States election.

But the charity's president, Lauren Simmons, is standing by her decision to continue using Mar-a-lago and other Trump properties:

Late Friday night, Simmons issued a statement defending her association with Lara Trump, whom she described as a great advocate of dogs, and her use of Donald Trump's properties.

"The quality of service, beauty of the venue and excellent rate provided us as a nonprofit as well as the generosity of supporters who sell-out our event there every year allows us to rescue and home thousands of dogs. Our investment there and at the other venues mentioned in the article has netted more than $12 million over an eight-year period which allows us to continue our mission," Simmons said.

It's one thing to, in the service of trying to do a good thing, take money from people you might otherwise find objectionable. I would not fault any non-profit for taking Lara Trump's money. Take all of the her money, please! Take money from all of the terrible rich people.

However! Giving money to crap people is a whole other story, particularly when it's not the only option. Palm Beach is, I am pretty sure, where you go if you are the kind of rich person who goes to charity events all the time and wears a lot of Lily Pulitzer. Probably every place there offers discount rates for charity events.

But everyone else has options as well. There are lots of great animal rescues out there that are in no way associated with the Trumps and we are all free to support them instead.

[Huffington Post]

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