When President Trump holds official taxpayer-funded events outside Washington, his audiences are treated to campaign-style speeches and rock music playlists drawn from his political rallies. The president followed up on Wednesday with his own photograph, featuring the company’s products arrayed on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. Mr. Trump and his advisers have long tested — and often crossed — the boundaries between the official and the political. Staff members with the watchdog group said they could recall only two such instances under President Barack Obama. But with the general election in November little more than 100 days away, the coronavirus quashing Mr. Trump’s raucous rallies, and the White House lacking a clear policy agenda, the Trump administration seems almost entirely unconstrained by traditional divisions between politics and governance.

Source: New York Times July 16, 2020 18:37 UTC