Kleptocracy: Kuwait Changes Event From Four Seasons To Trump DC Hotel
Credit: Vanity Fair
December 19, 2016

Kleptocracy. Learn the definition, and definitely plan to see it used here more often. Here it is for reference:

government by those who seek chiefly status and personal gain at the expense of the governed

Think Progress is now reporting with a high degree of confidence that the Kuwaiti embassy changed the venue for an event after the ambassador was pressured to move it from the Four Seasons Hotel to the new Trump hotel at the Old Post Office.

A source tells ThinkProgress that the Kuwaiti embassy, which has regularly held the event at the Four Seasons in Georgetown, abruptly canceled its reservation after members of the Trump Organization pressured the ambassador to hold the event at the hotel owned by the president-elect. The source, who has direct knowledge of the arrangements between the hotels and the embassy, spoke to ThinkProgress on the condition of anonymity because the individual was not authorized to speak publicly. ThinkProgress was also able to review documentary evidence confirming the source’s account.

In the early fall, the Kuwaiti Embassy signed a contract with the Four Seasons. But after the election, members of the Trump Organization contacted the Ambassador of Kuwait, Salem Al-Sabah, and encouraged him to move his event to Trump’s D.C. hotel, the source said.

Kuwait has now signed a contract with the Trump International Hotel, the source said, adding that a representative with the embassy described the decision as political. Invitations to the event are typically sent out in January.

Here's another word we should keep at the front of our vocabularies: Extortion.

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