One wonders...
Did he apply for them via Twitter?
China may soon be home to Donald Trump-themed escort services. Preliminary approval has been granted for 38 trademarks for Trump-branded escort services, massage parlors, and bars in China, according to public documents. Approval comes as the US President and his family prepare to develop a range of branded businesses in the …
Other famous people do the same, not for opening a business, but it's a preventative measure meant to keep others from registering the trademark. This also is why famous people register "mynameSUCKS.com" for the same reason.
Clodagh really needs to read up on copyright and trademarks to understand this practice.
It could be that - there was an independent TrumpEscorts.com site last year that he made change their name.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/05/27/solving-the-mystery-of-trump-escorts/ (article images possibly NSFW).
At the same time, I wouldn't put it past him to have a few escort agencies on the side.
As for not profiting from his job as POTUS while POTUS.... Er???
Never mind, any critics will be lambasted by him on Twitter for spreading Fake News.
Will he make a state visit to China to hold 'The Apprentice' style interviews to vet the candidates?
The US TV couch potatoes will love it.
My, such savage responses! When will I learn not to post what I think on threads that attract so many Trump haters? I'm already on the "must approve" list because so many of you complained about my opinions. Oh well, not going to self censor anyway, and if I'm banned, so be it.
BJ
Oh, I do hope you aren't banned. Banning is such a silly thing to do for anyone less than the real Adolf Hitler, or Ming the Merciless, and even then I'd be reluctant to see it enacted, and all it creates is yet another bubble of like minded folk. and what is a "Must Approve List" anyway? Another background mechanism of El Reg. Have an upvote if it helps any. I'd hate to see the back of our own Yosemite Sam with his blazing rhetoric and his angry eyes.
I gather that those posters who get too many complaints from other posters are put on probation, and their posts are held up for staff approval. Makes my posts appear much farther down the threads, but there it is.
I didn't help any when I called out certain El Reg authors who started to say things I thought were beneath the high standards of this publication. I really respect El Reg and I'd rather not see it go down the tabloid road. I've learned my lesson tho, and will just let it pass in future.
The other posters are a different matter, however. They will get no free pass from me. Let 'em complain. Let 'em downvote me. The US is in the midst of a major political war, and I intend to call BS wherever I see baseless leftist claptrap that needs refuting.
I would perform that service, but others usually pile on before I can get there. And yes, the right can be just as inane as the left. The problem right now is that the left seems to have declared war on the right because their feelings have been hurt. I'm sorry about that, but someone has to lose every election. Both sides have lost their share, but never in my experience has a party gone this far over the edge because of it. I believe the left is really starting to scare people with their extreme overreaction.
RE: "I believe the left is really starting to scare people with their extreme overreaction."
I know, all those scary leftist snowflakes, melting into a limpid puddle at a moments notice, making all right thinking folk lift their frocks in horror of wetness and kitty hats floating off in the water.
Here's a quote from Warren Buffet to place your statement about hurt feelings in context:
There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/business/yourmoney/26every.html
And you know what, he was right.
He is extremely rich and in a position to see how the system is rigged and is further rigged for the benefit of the richest in society. Is every one who disagrees with you just a partisan or is there anything that might make you think that someone could disagree with you and also have a point worth thinking about?
I've read Buffet's utterances for many many years, and always he says liberal stuff while gaming the economy bigtime for his own benefit. Maybe you would believe Salon Magazine?
It's not that I automatically disagree with him, it's that he trashes conservatism while benefiting from the system it created. Total hypocrite.
@big john "Buffet is a lefty, didn't you know that? He certainly does not represent conservatism in the slightest. So whatever charges HE levels against the right are just partisan bullshite."
I can do syllogisms too. Big John is a Righty. He absolutely does not represent the Left in any way whatsoever. Therefore what ever charges he levels against the Left, or against Buffet, are just partisan bullshit.
You can see the fallacy in your argument, can't you?
I guess the difficulty here is that Trump is attempting to do it legally.
Sure, that's why there is already an investigation underway, because he did it all fully in compliance with the law. FFS, the guy doesn't even know what a blind trust is, and his truth scarecrow had to be "counselled" on breaking the law - evidently without any real further consequences.
As for doing things legal, this morning I saw a respectable publication use the word 'impeachment" for the first time, which sure is a record (not even 50 days in office). Later I found investigations in progress that are going past that. I wonder when the word "treason" shows up for the first time - I give it a month, tops.
Profiting from an elected office is a time honoured tradition.
Like how did Sen. Elizabeth Warren make an additional $15M in four years on a senator's salary of $174K/year?
Why does every congressperson from both parties in Washington have Cayman Island bank accounts which we are not supposed to talk about? Mitt Romney brought up Obama's Cayman Island bank account during the 2012 election, which all the media and both parties quickly shut up about.
When corruption becomes institutionalized it is treated as normal.
> "When corruption becomes institutionalized it is treated as normal."
Right, and instead the media tries to pile on Trump for openly (and legally) selling his cachet, rather than engaging in secret influence peddling like Warren and Clinton.
Maybe one can argue with the legality based on conflict of interest, but it's not in the same league with Hillary's 100's of millions taken in obvious bribes by foreign leaders, but insistently called "donations to charity." And the minute it becomes clear she won't be President, those donations completely dry up, go figure.
Never mind, any critics will be lambasted by him on Twitter for spreading Fake News.
But but... he's using fake news to lambast critics, etc. The whole wiretap thing is apparently coming off of one source... just one... formerly run by his Chief of Stafff. What's fake anymore? What's real? I weary of this whole mess and wish for at least a bit of dignity from our elected officials instead of childhood tantrums via Twatter.
I mean, how ridiculous would it be? Is someone pulling the newsies' legs again? Wouldn't be the first.
I honestly find it hard to believe even Trump would be this tasteless, or sailing this close to the wind legally. But easy to believe that everyone would be suckered into re-posting this bit of 'news', given the popularity abroad of POTUS.
These guys have a different spin on it, more like Taylor Swift TM-ing everything under the sun:
http://www.spin.com/2017/03/trump-escorts-china-trademark/
But I do wonder - trademarks don't force you to trademark every possible combination of what you are protecting, so would Trump Escorts really be necessary if Trump in general was TM-ed? Mc Donalds for example, manages to screw over pretty much anyone getting close to its name.
This post has been deleted by its author
RE: "because Russia- and China-based banks basically own his soul."
Based on Trumps rhetoric I'd guess mostly Russian based banks own his soul. Perhaps China banks own one of his tiny hands.
But, much as I enjoy trashing the way he looks, a part of me cringes that I'm indulging in using a persons appearance to maul him, when what he does and who he chooses to help him do it are much better targets and, what he does has much worse effects on real people than his appearance does.
The Republican moves to wind back health care to where it was before Obama tried his best to improve it are much more deadly than his hair style and language.
To return to appearance for a moment though: Trumps Brain, Bannon, looks like a drunk, and a mean, bitter, far right drunk who has failed in so many things is a dangerous man to have so close to the levers of power and influence. The far right must be wetting themselves to have one of their own in such a position. I feel the danger lies in Bannon hiding behind Trumps distractions and idiocies, plotting who the hell knows what is far more dangerous than Trumps Twitter wars. I suspect Bannon has no more respect for Trump than do the rest of us here laughing at Trumps hair style, but is using the Twitterous one for his own ends.
-- I regret teasing a fellow commentard more than I regret mocking Mr. Trump's physique, so I withdrew the post.
I believe Bannon said, of his own apocalyptic Fourth Turning / Grey Champion / War Against Islam ideology, "I don't know that Donald 'get's it'". So I agree with you: Bannon is using Trump, and Bannon has the more dangerous, off-the-rails political ideas. Trump, I think, really has no coherent ideology; it's mostly just "Corporations, good! Money, good! Little people losers! Me winner!" and of course the narcissistic need to be adored.
"...Well, to be fair, that's not a high bar to jump since there have only been four US presidents so far this millennium...."
Four? Who's the fourth? Dubya, Barrack, The Donald, ? I suppose technically Bill, as he was Pres until Jan 20, 2000. I don't think conventionally Bill would be considered a 21st century President.
This post has been deleted by its author
RE "Four? Who's the fourth? Dubya, Barrack, The Donald, ?"
You could count Kerry as the fourth President who never was since Dubya probably didn't actually win. President in an alternative reality, perhaps, just a single molecule aside from this one.
Where we are, and in which millennium, depends on your initial reference point. For example, which of the many totally arbitrary calendar systems that humanity has invented do you subscribe to?
Me, I follow the solar cycle ... I couldn't tell you for the life of me which "solar millennium" we are in, nor do I care. All I care about is my planting and animal breeding cycles ...