Shocking enough was a recent Washington Post report that President Donald Trump's more than 270 visits to his own properties have squeezed the Secret Service for more than half a million dollars. But what really stands out is the White House's official response to the story. "The Washington Post is blatantly interfering with the business relationships of the Trump Organization, and it must stop," a White House spokesman wrote. He went on to warn that "we are building up a very large 'dossier'" on a co-author of the story.

If spotlighting how Trump uses the presidency for profit constitutes interference with "business relationships," isn't that an official acknowledgement that he is, in fact, improperly appropriating his office as part of his business empire? And threatening a reporter with a "dossier"? Shades of Soviet Russia.

The Post report detailed how the Secret Service has paid some $571,000 to Trump's properties due to his indulgent habit of staying at them frequently. This didn't just encompass typical costs. After the Secret Service was denied rooms near Trump's room at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, because the rooms near him were already booked, it had to accept rooms further away. To avoid this clear violation of security protocol going forward, the agency had to start preemptively booking rooms at Trump's resort in two-week blocks. As the Post put it: "The agency was paying for rooms on nights when Trump wasn't even visiting — to be ready just in case Trump decided to go."

Trump claims to have walled himself off from his business empire while in office, leaving it in the care of his two adult sons. This claim has always been false on its face, since his sons are effectively part of his administration. The Post reports that Donald Trump Jr. racked up a $3,300 Secret Service bill in two days staying at the Trump hotel near the White House.

Most appalling is the written response from White House spokesman Judd Deere. How is it "blatantly interfering with the business relationships of the Trump Organization" to chart what the taxpayers have paid the Trump Organization? Demanding that this "has to stop" appears to mean that the news media shouldn't be allowed to report when a sitting president's businesses rake in profits from the taxpayers.

Deere's statement singles out one of the three reporters on the story. "Please be advised that we are building up a very large 'dossier' on the many false David Fahrenthold and others stories," wrote Deere. Fahrenthold won a 2017 Pulitzer Prize for exposing Trump's history of lies about his supposed philanthropic activities, so it's not hard to figure out where the White House bile is coming from.

What is hard to figure out is why the administration thinks the proper response to allegations that it's behaving like a dictatorial kleptocracy is to confirm it in writing.

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