X

David Gura Guest: Trump Is Giuliani's 'Product,' Not His Client

Business Insider columnist Linette Lopez makes a good case for us to stop thinking of Donald Trump as Rudy Giuliani’s pro bono client and start thinking of him as a product Giuliani is selling.

After reading a Rudy Giuliani tweet in which he boasted about getting “paid zero” for his work in Ukraine, MSNBC host David Gura noted dryly, “Here’s a guy who works for free for a lot of people, doesn’t he - be it the president or be it the government of Ukraine.”

That prompted guest Lopez to urge us all to reconsider Trump's relationship with Giuliani.

LOPEZ: Aside from the fact that Rudy Giuliani sounds crazier than a bag of scorpions on meth, we have to think about what he's doing here. The president is not paying Rudy Giuliani but he's trying to get all these Ukrainians oligarchs and a Venezuelan billionaire who has interests in PDVSA, which is the Venezulan state oil, you know, very shady stuff. All these people are paying him, but the president doesn't pay Rudy Giuliani?

The president is not a client. He is not a customer. He is the product. He is what is getting served. He is not the one who is having services performed for him.

When you log on Facebook and it's for free, you know that your data is getting sold. You know that advertisers are paying for your eyeballs. You are not the customer, you are the product because it is for free. Donald Trump is not the customer of Rudy Giuliani, he is the product. He is what is getting served to the people who pay Rudy Giuliani.

So, yeah, okay, I guess Trump enjoys being carved up and served up to Turkish billionaires and shady Venezuelans and Ukrainian oligarchs. I think maybe that Trump has been selling his services to people like that his entire life so maybe that doesn't bother him, but for the American people, knowing that the president is the product should be pretty disturbing.

None other than Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe called Lopez’s analysis “spot on.” And he raised the important question we need answered: Who is the purchaser?

More C&L
Loading ...