The cheque is in the post...

[Gob]

Efforts to highlight Donald Trump’s largesse during his time in office have backfired after his press secretary appeared to display the US president’s personal bank details to the world.



At a press conference on Friday, Kayleigh McEnany announced that Trump would donate his quarterly pay cheque to the Department of Health and Human Services to “support the efforts being undertaken to confront, contain and combat the coronavirus”. So far, so laudable.

However, when she held up the $100,000 cheque for White House reporters to see, it came complete with all Trump’s banking details.

An administration official told the New York Times mock cheques were never used in the briefing, with a White House statement saying, “Today his salary went to help advance new therapies to treat this virus, but leave it to the media to find a shameful reason not to simply report the facts, focusing instead on whether the check is real or not.”

Having such details puts a bank account at risk of hacking or use by others. The relevant details in the cheque have been cropped out of the picture used in this story.

Mike Chapple, a teaching professor of information technology at the University of Notre Dame, told the newspaper that this showed why large promotional cheques were used for TV. “They’re not only a nice prop onstage, but they also omit the sensitive account information that normally appears at the bottom,” he said. “The rest of us should play it safe and keep our account numbers to ourselves.”

Trump made a campaign pledge in 2016 that he would donate the $400,000 presidential salary.

[Bicycle Bill]

After all the money he has grifted from of the federal treasury just in the payments they have made to "Mare-el-Lego" — which he owns, lock, stock, and golf ball washers — for housing the Secret Service at his Florida hideaway, giving back the hundred grand he is paid for being 'president' for three months is like a carjacker taking your car and all your money, but then deciding he's going to show you that he's really a nice guy at heart by giving you back a dollar so you can take the bus and not have to walk home in the rain.

And since he is "giving" this to the Department of Health and Human Services, you can bet your bottom dollar that his tax accountants have already earmarked this as a charitable donation.

-"BB"-