Trump's Taxes Show He Engineered A Sudden Windfall in 2016

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. Quid pro quo: Republicans in 2017 stopped blocking funding for a Las Vegas rail link

In broad strokes: Trump and his campaign were both out of cash in the fall of 2016; a company he owned with Ruffin put $21 million in his pocket more or less out of the blue; Trump suddenly had $10 million to spend on his election; and in 2017 a long-stalled project to build a train into Las Vegas suddenly got greenlighted.
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In the background of all this, Ruffin and basically every other businessperson in Las Vegas has been trying since forever to build a train that would connect Los Angeles (or thereabouts) to their town. The Obama administration tried to get it financed with a $5.5 billion federal loan, but Jeff Sessions and Paul Ryan killed that deal in 2013.

"We tried and tried and couldn't get it done," Mr. [Harry] Reid said in a recent interview. Along the Strip, though, he joked that the only dissension was over whose casino would be closest to where the train would stop. "They know it would be a godsend to their businesses," he said.

Trump himself famously killed high speed rail in California, but when it comes to the project that would benefit Las Vegas — where he himself still owns a stake in that hotel — his views are different. After Ruffin personally lobbied Trump, Steven Mnuchin, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, the Transportation Department approved the last billion dollar tranche of tax free bonds to finance the project. KA-CHING.

https://www.wonkette.com/trumps-tax-returns-the-vegas-hotels-edition