Several of President Donald Trump’s past actions, such as his refusal to ban travelers from the Muslim countries in which he has business interests, have caused some to voice concerns that Trump may not have his priorities straight in regards to Trump’s political career vs. his business career. This time, though, he has really gone too far as a recently leaked recording reveals Trump invited his wealthy associates to join him in choosing his cabinet as a sort of high-roller’s party favor.

The recording was taken at Bedminster golf club in New Jersey back in November when Donald Trump’s election win was still fresh. It was made at a reception dinner, but because the event was closed to the press, what was discussed was unknown to the general public until recently. Two weeks ago, an undisclosed source leaked a recording of some of what Trump said to Politico, who wrote a story about it.

Unfortunately, the recording has been taken down since the time it was posted for unknown reasons — possibly by Donald Trump’s organization because they thought it too much of a smoking gun — but the accompanying story from the reputable politics news source, plus coverage from reliable sites like The Independent, remains.

1) Trump thinks the media is the 'enemy of the people'



2) We're the media



3) We went to CPAC & asked people if they think we're the enemy pic.twitter.com/OfJ2WvuJfa — NowThis (@nowthisnews) March 3, 2017

“We’re doing a lot of interviews tomorrow – generals, dictators, we have everything,” Donald Trump could be heard saying in the recording.

“You may wanna come around. It’ll be fun. We’re really working tomorrow. We have meetings every 15, 20 minutes with different people that will form our government.”

At this point, Trump’s message is reminiscent of the one delivered by John Cleese’s character, Donald Sinclair, in Rat Race, a screwball comedy from 2001. Cleese plays an immensely wealthy Las Vegas casino owner who invites his similarly affluent friends to his casino in order to offer them the opportunity to gamble on monstrously inappropriate events. He did it to show them that “his casino understood men like them” and “wanted to offer them an exclusive experience.”

Like Sinclair, Donald Trump seems to be proud that he can offer the people who contribute to his empire an opportunity no one else can: the “US Politics Experience.” It’s quite an attractive perk to being in Donald Trump’s inner circle.

[Image by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

That’s not the end of Trump’s leaked speech, though. Continuing, he lapses into a cadence somewhere between what America has grown accustomed to hearing in Donald Trump speeches, the over-eager ramblings of Vince from the Slapchop commercials, and what you might expect to hear from a carnival caller on a midway.

“We’re going to be interviewing everybody — treasury, we’re going to be interviewing secretary of state,” Trump goes on. “We have everybody coming in — if you want to come around, it’s going to be unbelievable … so you might want to come along.

You almost expect Donald to top it off with a “step right up, folks!”

Trump finishes off his speech by stressing to everyone there how important they are to him and his organization.

“So, this is my real group. These are the people that came here in the beginning, when nobody knew what this monster was gonna turn out to be, right?” Trump muses.

“I see all of you. I recognize, like, 100 per cent of you, just about. You are the special people.”

When a president has “special people” who are in no way versed in politics and who know him only because they have done business together, it’s never a good sign. It is more than likely that exact scene that has played out at the beginning of countless corrupt dictatorships the world over.

[Image by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images]

The fact that Donald Trump is not the most Presidential material to grace the White House is not exactly news — just take a look at this excellent article on the subject by Vox — but this may be a step over the line, even for him.

[Featured Image by Wilfredo Lee/AP Images]