Trump said HUD official Lynne Patton could star on a reality TV show — and she's going to do it while she's still working at HUD.
It looks like Lynne Patton, who Trump inexplicably picked as a HUD official after she organized his son Eric's wedding, will get her reality TV show after all.
At first, it looked like the reality TV idea was too unreal, even for this administration, and it was reported that HUD had denied her request to star in the show.
Nevertheless, Patton pushed ahead and has received permission from both Trump and HUD to star in a television show about black Republicans — and it will be filmed at the same time she is employed by the administration.
One of the most amazing things about all this is that Patton seems to think of her job as a 40-hour per week commitment and that she has tons of free time in which to star in reality shows.
She explained that the HUD lawyers who reviewed the deal "had no problem with me filming after work hours."
Patton oversees HUD's regional offices in New York and New Jersey. That encompasses the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), which serves over 600,000 New Yorkers in various capacities.
Usually, someone with zero expertise in housing and urban development might be expected to spend extra time learning about the job rather than doing television, but not while Trump's in charge.
Patton may have realized just how bad this story looks, regardless of Trump's approval. She took to Twitter attempting to deny this story and calling CNN "fake news" for having reported it. In fact, she's insisting that she didn't say she had Trump's blessing. No, per Patton, she said "the exact OPPOSITE" and has that on tape.
This might ring truer but for the fact that CNN also talked to the spokesperson for the show's production company, who confirmed that Patton has already signed an agreement to work on the show. That doesn't seem to be the action of someone who has been told by her boss, the president of the United States, that she does not have his blessing to pursue a reality tv show.
Additionally, Patton is quoted at length in the CNN piece talking about how the Trumps were supportive and how the HUD lawyers reviewed the deal. A spokesman for HUD also seemed to confirm extensive discussions had taken place, saying that the HUD Ethics Office had provided Patton with advice on outside employment.
Patton's also mad that people keep saying she planned Eric Trump's wedding. In the past, she has insisted that all she did was help as a friend. It doesn't seem to occur to Patton that such a correction makes her thin resume even thinner.
This is the same woman who padded her resume to say she went to Yale for undergrad and attended law school for two years. She only attended two semesters of law school and she only took some summer classes at Yale. She's not remotely qualified for her job.
She is, ironically, entirely qualified to star in a reality show. Particularly during this presidency.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
