Donald Trump Has No Idea Whether His Company Provides Child Care

Trump Kids is “the closest most children will ever come to feeling like royalty,” Eric Trump boasted at the program’s introduction in 2009.

Guests’ children are pampered with plush bathrobes and slippers, personalized Trump Kids’ business cards, and “kiddie cocktails.” There are specially priced Trump Teen facials and massages and a “Personal Attaché.” The program also provides more common hotel amenities like cribs and nanny services. “So relax,” the Trump Kids site implores parents, “pop in their favorite children’s DVD and see how easy family travel can be with the luxury family-friendly hotels of Trump Hotels™.”

But bathrobes and business cards for hotel guests’ kids are not what people mean when they ask if an employer provides child care. Donald Trump doesn’t seem to know that.

When he bragged about Trump Kids in Iowa last year, he claimed it was a child care benefit the Trump Organization offers its workers: “You know, it’s not expensive for a company to do it. You need one person or two people, and you need some blocks and you need some swings and some toys. You know really, it’s not expensive. It’s not an expensive thing. I do it all over. ... They call them Trump Kids. ... Another one calls it Trumpeteers.”

In fact, neither program is aimed at employees’ kids, and neither the Associated Press nor HuffPost has found any evidence that Trump provides child care for his employees in the U.S.

Trump Kids affords luxury amenities to guests’ children at Trump hotels, adding the cost of many of those services to the parent’s final bill.

The Trumpeteers program provides camps and other activities for the kids of club members and guests at his golf courses in Charlotte, North Carolina; Jupiter, Florida; and Miami. The Trumpeteers Kids Camp at Trump National Doral in Miami costs between $250 and $350 a week, according to a online registration form.

Trump National Golf Club Charlotte

Children participate in the Trumpeteers program at the Trump National Golf Club Charlotte.

On Thursday, AP first reported that calls to Trump hotels and golf courses found no Trump properties that provide child care services for employees. HuffPost reached the same conclusion from its own conversations with employees at every Trump hotel and golf course in the U.S.

HuffPost also searched state databases of registered child care facilities and did not find any at a Trump hotel, golf course or office building. 

Trump National Doral

Children color at the Trumpeteer camp at Trump National Doral.

The Trump International Beach Resort near Miami also offers another program called Planet Kids. A promotional video on YouTube says that “trained counselors will keep your kids happy all day long with beach and pool games, sports, arts and crafts, and evening events.”

But like Trump Kids and Trumpeteers, Planet Kids is neither for employees nor a registered child care program.

The Trump Organization’s vice president and assistant general counsel, Jill Martin, said in a statement that the company “is very proud of the family-friendly environment it fosters.” She added, “We take an individualized approach to helping employees manage family and work responsibilities.”

When HuffPost called the company’s Trump Tower headquarters on Fifth Avenue in New York, the person who answered the phone seemed confused by a question about corporate child care benefits. “You must have the wrong number,” she replied.

Asked about on-site child care, an employee at Trump National Doral said, “You mean Trump Kids?”

A human resources employee at the Trump International Las Vegas said the hotel provided health insurance, paid time-off and 401(k) retirement plans to its white-collar workers. “You know, the basics.”

The hotel does not, she said, provide child care.

This story has been updated with a statement from Jill Martin of the Trump Organization.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.

This Bible-Era Solution For Saving Food Is Making A Comeback

Audrey Berman is no stranger to the farming life.

Over the last three years, Berman has worked on various farms in New York’s Hudson Valley with the intention of one day starting her own farm. But it wasn’t too long before she started to notice disheartening trends.

“We always had to plant more than we could actually harvest ourselves,” Berman told The Huffington Post. “And the demographic we were selling [our food] to was a little more wealthy and well-to-do while, at the same time, good food wasn’t accessible to everyone and a lot of that had to do with affordability. It started to bother me.”

She began to research what she could do about it. And that led to the launch earlier this year of Long Table Harvest, a food recovery group.

Led by Berman and co-founder Laura Engelman, the group works with 16 farms in the Hudson Valley to collect their surplus fruits and vegetables — which would otherwise go to waste — and distribute them to food pantries, community organizations and other charities throughout the region. 

A certain amount of surplus is practically inevitable on farms. Farmers plant more crops than they’ll need for their buyers to protect against losses from pests, weather and other issues. Oftentimes, it’s cheaper for farms to let the surplus rot in the fields rather than pay for the labor to harvest it.

Each Monday, Berman and her small team travel to their donor farms to pick up market leftovers and other extras farms have to offer. They fill up their van and drop off the proceeds at their recipient sites.

In June, the organization was picking up about 940 pounds of produce a week. Two months later, that number has grown to about 1,100 weekly pounds of summer staples like watermelon, cantaloupe, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and corn. 

“It’s all really high quality, all really beautiful and the people receiving it are all excited to get it,” Berman said.

Groups like this often operate under the radar and struggle to make ends meet. Their work ― known as gleaning ― is an ancient practice, one that dates back at least to the days of the Old Testament.

It is written in the Bible that Ruth would glean the fields of the well-to-do farmer Boaz, collecting any produce left after harvest was completed and redistributing it to the poor. The practice is said to have continued in Europe throughout the Middle Ages, too.

Today, gleaning is experiencing a resurgence of interest as Americans become aware of the estimated 70 billion pounds of food the country wastes each year. Some of this loss is due to surpluses on farms. As a result, recovery groups like Long Table Harvest have popped up across the country ― the National Gleaning Project lists more than 400 food recovery organizations ― and are likely saving many tons of food from being left to rot in farmers’ fields or sent to landfills.

While there is no national estimate for how much food these groups are diverting to people who need it, some organizations reclaim hundreds of thousands of pounds each year. Oregon’s Salem Harvest, for example, gleans 300,000 pounds of fresh produce annually.

It’s safe to assume these organizations, collectively, are preventing millions of pounds of produce from being tossed each year.

Long Table Harvest

Long Table Harvest's van gets filled many times over during the busy summer months when bumper crops and other factors can leave farmers with surpluses.

Funding this work is a challenge, however. Berman and her Long Table Harvest team worked diligently applying for grants and fundraising ahead of their launch; an Indiegogo campaign raised over $11,000. But their operation has been limited in size, with just one van and one paid staff member, because they haven’t been able to secure major funding.

While financial struggles are not unusual for nonprofits of all kids, food recovery organizations appear to be facing unique challenges. Among them is that there is little federal or state-level grant funding available for this work, though the farmers who donate their surplus to food recovery groups can receive tax incentives in many states.

One initiative offered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture is the Community Food Projects competitive grant program, which was funded most recently at the level of $8.6 million. Though gleaners are eligible for this grant, which focuses on meeting the food needs of low-income communities through food distribution and community outreach, it is not specifically catered to food recovery. 

Some states, like New Jersey, do offer grants specifically geared toward gleaners, but these programs are not particularly common. 

Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images

Lovin' Spoonfuls' Meg Kiley loads donated produce onto a truck during a 2013 pickup from Whole Foods. Their group picks up surplus fruits and vegetables from stores and farms.

Most organizations rely overwhelmingly on individual donors, fundraising and corporate support to sustain their operations.

The Ithaca, New York-based Friendship Donations Network, a gleaning group, noted that while it does receive support from local foundations, it has never received state or federal funding and derives about 70 percent of its operating budget from individual donations. 

Another prominent food recovery group, the Boston-based Lovin’ Spoonfuls, said it currently receives no government support and also depends primarily on individual donors, events and grants from local groups.

That funding just isn’t enough. Food recovery is “chronically underfunded at every step,” Dana Gunders, a staff scientist specializing in food waste at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told HuffPost earlier this summer.

The lack of financial support is also reflected in gleaning groups’ heavy reliance on volunteers to gather surplus produce from participating farmers. Though well-meaning, these volunteers typically aren’t particularly accustomed to the task at hand and don’t tend to work all that efficiently. 

“Gleaning is good, but it’s not the most efficient way to get produce off the farm, even for donation, in terms of getting large volumes,” Gunders added. “Volunteers picking stuff are not trained and not nearly as fast” as farmworkers, she said.

In addition, gleaning groups often struggle to gain the attention of media and potential funders when compared to flashier food waste solutions.

“There’s a lot of excitement around people who are making apps or making a big splash in terms of media and promotional campaigns,” Berman said. “I’m really trying to do the work and connect the farmers with our recipients at our distribution sites and I’m not out there proselytizing the work. I’m trying to figure out the balance to that, but it’s a little disheartening.”

Though the practice of gleaning is far from groundbreaking, Jordan Figueiredo, the anti-food waste activist behind the Ugly Fruit and Veg campaign and a petition drive asking Walmart to more widely sell cosmetically imperfect produce, agreed that it’s deserving of more support.

“Overall, I think technology is not the answer [to food waste],” Figueiredo said. “I see those articles all the time — ‘The App That’s Going to End Food Waste.’ No one app is going to do that or make a big dent, even. Overall, it’s about valuing [food] enough so that we’re paying attention to the easy, old solutions like gleaning and putting money into them.”

Despite all the obstacles faced by groups like hers, Berman is optimistic that change is happening as Americans begin to value food more — and are adopting that mindset in their neighborhood grocery stores and kitchens.

“The biggest impact we can have is with ourselves and the decisions we make as individuals. How we live our life, what we buy and [do] not buy, what we cook and don’t cook,” Berman added. “If people say, ‘Hey, I’m a part of what seems like this big problem, but I can start with myself,’ I think that would be really exciting.”

_____

Joseph Erbentraut covers promising innovations and challenges in the areas of food and water. In addition, Erbentraut explores the evolving ways Americans are identifying and defining themselves. Follow Erbentraut on Twitter at @robojojo. Tips? Email joseph.erbentraut@huffingtonpost.com.

More stories like this:

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• This Guy Spends $2.75 A Year On Food And Eats Like A King
• The Food Your Grocery Store Doesn’t Want You To See
• Meat Eaters Should Have Been Listening To Vegetarians All Along
• Farmer Forced To Dump Insane Amount Of Gorgeous Cherries
• Al Capone’s Brother May Have Invented Date Labels For Milk

States With The Fastest Growing Economies

This article was originally published on 24/7 Wall St. 

The U.S. economy grew 2.4% in 2015. This is the most the economy has grown in more than five years, and is a slight improvement on 2014’s 2.2% growth.

The economies of all but two states grew in 2015, some substantially more than others, and for a variety of reasons. California and Oregon each grew by 4.1%, more than any other state. Alaska and North Dakota contracted, while several states saw increases of less than 0.5%.

The professional and business services industry, the information industry, and the real estate, rental and leasing industry contributed most prominently to the nation’s growth last year.

Click here to see the states with the fastest growing economies.

Click here to see the states with the slowest growing economies.

In an interview with 24/7 Wall St., Clifford Woodruff, an economist with the Bureau of Economic Analysis, explained that the biggest drain on state economies last year was the mining sector. Indeed, the mining sectors of 34 states declined last year, including declines of at least 10% in 20 of these. He went on to say that the national decline in oil prices has likely contributed to this drop in the sector.

The impact of a suddenly weak energy industry was most apparent in North Dakota. The state had been one of the fastest growing in the country, both in terms of population and GDP over the past few years, as the development of the Bakken shale oil formation led to a substantial boom. The state had the largest economic growth of any state in four of the five years through 2014, including a 21.7% increase in 2012. In 2015, the state economy contracted by 2.1%, more than any other state.

On the whole, populations grew substantially more in the states with the fastest-growing economies, and stagnated or declined in the worst performers. Population growth exceeded 0.4% in only one of the 10 states with the weakest economies in 2015. All of the 10 states with the strongest economies surpassed the national population growth rate of 0.8%.

Woodruff explained that population growth does not necessarily lead to GDP growth, as states can import goods from other states or countries without producing more goods locally. He added, however, that it makes sense that the two figures usually move in step. “Obviously, the more people that there are, the more products, the more food, the more houses they’re going to need.”

Based on figures published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed 2015 real GDP growth rates in all 50 states. The real gross domestic product measurement accounts for the effects of inflation on growth. GDP figures published by the BEA for 2015 are preliminary and subject to annual revision. Real GDP figures for past years have already been revised. Population data are from the U.S. Census Bureau and reflect estimated growth between 2014 and 2015. We also used data on poverty from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). Both 2014 and 2015 unemployment rates are annual averages and are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

These are the states with the fastest (and slowest) growing economies.

10. North Carolina
>2015 GDP growth: 2.7%
> 2015 GDP: $442.5 billion (9th largest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.0% (14th highest)
> 2015 unemployment: 5.7% (17th highest)

North Carolina’s economy grew at a 2.7% pace in 2015, the 10th fastest growing state economy. This was an improvement from 2014, when the state’s economy grew by 2.1%, which was 21st in the country that year. This economic growth pushed the state from the 10th largest economy in the country to the ninth, replacing Georgia. The finance, insurance, and real estate as well as the professional and business services industries contributed significantly to the state’s economic growth — expanding by 3.5% and 6.3%, respectively, in 2015. The state’s professional industry has recorded a 4% or higher growth rate in five of the past six years.

9. Nevada
>2015 GDP growth: 2.8%
> 2015 GDP: $126.2 billion (18th smallest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.9% (3rd highest)
> 2015 unemployment: 6.7% (2nd highest)

Nevada’s economy grew at a 2.8% pace in 2015, slightly faster than the national 2.4% growth rate. Growth was largely driven by the 7.4% expansion of the finance, insurance and real estate industry, the largest in the state by economic output. The mining industry, which contracted by 13.8%, was one of the biggest drags on the state’s economy. Like all states with rapid economic growth, the number of people who call Nevada home is going up. The state’s population increased by 53,000 in 2015, a 1.9% increase.

Despite relatively rapid economic expansion, Nevada’s economy remains relatively weak. The state’s 6.7% 2015 unemployment rate is the highest in the country and far higher than the 5.3% nationwide rate.

 

8. Washington
>2015 GDP growth: 2.9%
> 2015 GDP: $397.3 billion (14th largest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.5% (7th largest increase)
> 2015 unemployment: 5.7% (17th highest)

Washington’s economy grew at a 2.9% pace last year, surpassing the 2.4% national growth rate. One of the biggest contributions to the state’s economy came from its retail sector, which expanded by 9.4%. According to the National Retail Federation, a retail trade association, the retail industry is Washington’s largest private sector employer, directly supporting about one in every five jobs in the state. Other major contributions to Washington’s economic growth came from its information sector and its finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing industries.

7. Florida
>2015 GDP growth: 3.1%
> 2015 GDP: $789.8 billion (4th largest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.8% (4th largest increase)
> 2015 unemployment: 5.4% (22nd highest)

Florida is one of just seven states where GDP grew by at least 3% in 2015. The Sunshine State’s GDP, which remains the fourth largest in the country, increased to approximately $790 billion. Population tends to increase more rapidly in states with more robust economic growth, and Florida is no exception. The state’s population increased by 1.8% in 2015, the fourth largest growth in the country.

6. Utah
>2015 GDP growth: 3.3%
> 2015 GDP: $131.2 billion (19th smallest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.7% (6th largest increase)
> 2015 unemployment: 3.5% (5th lowest)

Utah’s economy grew at a 3.3% pace in 2015, faster than all but five other states. One of the largest contributions to the state’s GDP came from its finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing sector, which expanded by 4.5% over the year. Nationwide, the sector expanded by a much slower 1.8%.

Utah’s rapid economic growth may have helped maintain low unemployment in the state. Just 3.5% of Utah’s workforce is unemployed, much less than the 5.3% national 2015 unemployment rate.

5. Montana
>2015 GDP growth: 3.5%
> 2015 GDP: $41.1 billion (4th smallest)
> 1-yr. population change: 0.9% (15th largest increase)
> 2015 unemployment: 4.1% (11th lowest)

Montana’s economy expanded from $39.7 billion in 2014 to $41.1 billion in 2015, a 3.5% growth rate. Over roughly the same time period, the state’s jobless rate dropped from 4.7% to 4.1%. Economic growth was largely spurred by expansion in many of the state’s largest industries, including manufacturing, which grew at a rapid 12.5% pace. The mining industry was the biggest drag on the economy, contracting by 6.1%. 

4. Colorado
>2015 GDP growth: 3.6%
> 2015 GDP: $288.8 billion (18th largest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.9% (2nd largest increase)
> 2015 unemployment: 3.9% (10th lowest)

Colorado’s economy grew at a robust rate for the second straight year. The state’s GDP growth rate of 4.1% in 2014 was third in the country. In 2015, Colorado’s 3.6% GDP growth rate was fourth largest. While there are exceptions, larger economic expansions tend to coincide with greater population growth. Each new resident will consume more goods and generate more economic output. Not surprisingly, Colorado’s population grew by nearly 2% in 2015, second fastest in the country and well above the national population growth rate of 0.8%.

The state’s finance, insurance, and real estate industry as well as its professional sector contributed substantially to Colorado’s economic growth, expanding by 4.6% and 5.0%, respectively.

 

3. Texas
>2015 GDP growth: 3.8%
> 2015 GDP: $1.48 trillion (2nd largest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.8% (5th largest increase)
> 2015 unemployment: 4.5% (18th lowest)

The Texas economy grew by 3.8% in 2015, faster than any state other than Oregon and California. Texas has nearly one-third of the nation’s crude oil reserves, and its economy is heavily dependent on the price of oil. As oil prices have fallen in recent years, the economies of many of the most oil-dependent counties in the state also suffered. While the statewide unemployment rate fell from 5.1% in 2014 to 4.5% in 2015, the jobless rate in many of the state’s top oil-producing counties increased. Still, economic growth in the state was led by the mining sector, which grew at a rapid 12.4% pace. By comparison, the U.S. mining sector as a whole grew at a 5.1% pace in the same period and actually declined in most states.

2. California
>2015 GDP growth: 4.1%
> 2015 GDP: $2.21 trillion (the largest)
> 1-yr. population change: 0.9% (16th largest increase)
> 2015 unemployment: 6.2% (7th highest)

California’s $2.2 trillion GDP is the largest in the country. Its 4.1% economic expansion in 2015 was also the fastest in the U.S., tied only with Oregon. Growth was driven primarily by the professional and business services industry as well as the information industry, which grew by 7.0% and 10.3%, respectively.

The size of the state’s economy may not be surprising — with 39.1 million residents, California is also the most populous state in the country. As it is, there are not enough jobs in the state to accommodate the workforce. California’s 2015 unemployment rate of 6.2% is nearly a full percentage point higher than the national jobless rate of 5.3%.

1. Oregon
>2015 GDP growth: 4.1%
> 2015 GDP: $199.4 billion (25th largest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.5% (9th largest increase)
> 2015 unemployment: 5.7% (17th highest)

Oregon’s GDP expanded by 4.1%, at the same pace as its neighbor to the south. State economic output increased from $191.6 billion in 2014 to $199.4 billion in 2015. Despite rapid economic growth, unemployment in Oregon remains higher than it is nationwide. The state’s 5.7% jobless rate is nearly half a percentage point higher than the national 5.3% unemployment rate.

Manufacturing, Oregon’s largest industry, had among the greatest impacts on the state economic growth in 2015, expanding by 5.7%. Manufacturing is likely to have a continued positive effect on the economy. In May 2016, the state legislature pledged $7.5 million for a manufacturing innovation center to train the next generation of industry workers.

Uber Brings Gridlocked Sao Paulo Commuters Another Option: Helicopter Rides

For commuters who imagine soaring above Sao Paulo's notorious traffic jams, ride-hailing app Uber is offering to make that daydream a reality, starting at around $20.

Brazil's biggest city on Monday became the first in the world where Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] offers on-demand chopper rides between airports, hotels and convention centers.

With more than 400 aircraft and nearly as many helipads, Sao Paulo has a helicopter fleet that rivals those of New York and Tokyo, but commuting by air remains an option mostly for millionaires.

Uber aims to change that with a month-long pilot program.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

A passenger checks Uber on his cell phone as he waits for a helicopter he requested through the application, at a hotel in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Tuesday, June 14, 2016.

Promotional prices through Thursday start at 66 reais ($19) per seat for a lift from Helicentro Morumbi, in one of Sao Paulo's richest neighborhoods, to the Blue Tree hotel across the river. The distance is nearly four miles (6 km), as the chopper flies.

A ride from the Blue Tree Faria Lima onward to Guarulhos International Airport costs 271 reais during the promotion. A car can take one to three hours to make that trip, depending on traffic.

Uber media representatives declined to say how much prices would rise after Thursday or how many helicopters would be made available by the three companies operating the flights. Uber aims to get as much as five times the flight time out of each helicopter compared to standard use, according to a spokeswoman.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

A helicopter carrying a passenger who booked his trip using Uber flies over Sao Paulo, Brazil, Tuesday, June 14, 2016.

The Sao Paulo pilot program, connecting four airports and five other helipads, is Uber's biggest step yet in a partnership with Airbus Group, announced in January.

Uber experimented in recent years with helicopter rides to the Coachella and Bonnaroo music festivals from nearby U.S. airports that cost as much as $3,000 to book a full helicopter and door-to-door SUV rides.

Spanish rival Cabify, which launched its Sao Paulo car service on Monday, is also in talks with three flight providers and plans to offer helicopter rides in the city by the end of the year, as it already does in Mexico City.

Walgreens Is Walking Out On Scandal-Struck Theranos

Things just got much worse for Theranos.

On Sunday, pharmacy giant Walgreens abandoned the embattled blood-testing startup accused of failing to deliver accurate results with its tests. The move came roughly nine months after The Wall Street Journal exposed major problems with the company's technology, which claimed to be able to run more than 240 blood tests using just a drop of blood. 

"We have carefully considered our relationship with Theranos and believe it is in our customers' best interests to terminate our partnership," Brad Fluegel, Walgreens' senior vice president and chief health care commercial market development officer, said in a statement. 

The announcement strikes yet another major blow against Theranos, the 13-year-old startup that once boasted former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George P. Schultz as board members.

Nearly two weeks after the Journal published its exposé, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said tiny vials Theranos used to collect patients' blood were not approved medical devices. In January, Walgreens suspended sending tests through Theranos' California laboratory, sparking a standoff between the two companies. According to a February report in the Financial Times, lawyers for Theranos believed there was "little legal basis for terminating the partnership." But the damage was already done. 

“They’ve been unhappy with the relationship and it’s really a question of working through the contractual and legal arrangements,” an unnamed person familiar with the matter told the FT of Walgreens' position. “They’re not interested in the Theranos deal.”

In March, federal regulators proposed banning Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes from the blood testing industry for two years. 

"Quality and safety are our top priorities and we are working closely with government officials to ensure that we not only comply with all federal regulations but exceed them," Brooke Buchanan, a Theranos spokeswoman, wrote in a statement on Sunday. "We are disappointed that Walgreens has chosen to terminate our relationship and remain fully committed to our mission to provide patients access to affordable health information and look forward to continuing to serve customers in Arizona and California through our independent retail locations."

It's unclear how much the deal was worth.

By backing out of the partnership, Walgreens puts Theranos' finances in further jeopardy. Two weeks ago, Forbes downgraded the company's value from $9 billion to $800 million. In doing so, the magazine -- whose lists evaluating the world's richest people and companies are considered the most definitive measure of wealth -- valued Holmes' net worth at about nothing. 

"At such a low valuation, Holmes' stake is essentially worth nothing," reporter Matthew Herper wrote in a report announcing the reassessment. "Theranos investors own preferred shares, which meanes they get paid back before Holmes, who owns common stock." 

Holmes was previously valued at about $4.5 billion. 

Microsoft Agrees To Acquire LinkedIn For $26.2 Billion

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> agreed to buy LinkedIn Corp <LNKD.N> for $26.2 billion in cash, the companies said in a statement on Monday.

The offer of $196 per share represents a premium of 49.5 percent to LinkedIn's Friday closing price.

"Today is a re-founding moment for LinkedIn," Reid Hoffman, chairman of LinkedIn's board, said in a statement.

Jeff Weiner will remain chief executive of LinkedIn, reporting to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

The deal is expected to close in 2016.

 

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Who Is Trump Hotels' Perfect Customer?

Donald Trump's name is on many, many hotels. 

Unlike some other Trump-branded real estate where the name is simply licensed, the Trump family has "intimate involvement" with the hotels, and guarantees "full implementation of the Trump brand standard," according to the Trump Hotels website.

What exactly is this Trump brand standard, and who is it appealing to?

The basic theory of luxury hotel website branding is that it should be aspirational. Most hotels have very few people in their photos, so that you can imagine yourself sprawled out on the plump pillows, or relaxing calmly by the empty pool.

At the Ace Hotel in New York City, popular with the young creative set, the camera focuses on a guitar sitting in an empty room, just begging you to imagine yourself rocking out on your stay. At the Ritz Carlton Waikiki, lavish rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the green Hawaiian ocean. Hilton's Paris La Defense hotel portrays a lone businessman checking in, surrounded by an empty lobby.

Trump hotels, though, they have people. The landing pages for Trump Hotel websites portray a rotating selection of images of people using the hotel facilities in some capacity. The photos often feature older men. They are white and very tan. It's not uncommon for those older men to be accompanied by thin young women, who are mostly also white. Everyone is having a great time and don't at all look dead inside. 

The Huffington Post contacted Trump Hotels for comment, but has yet to hear back.

Here are some examples of people enjoying Trump Hotels, courtesy of the Trump Hotels website:

 

"I love to explain things to you."

Trump Hotels

"Really, I love it."

Trump Hotels

"Are you sure that guy isn't following us?"

Trump Hotels

At the end of this story, one of them turns out to be a ghost.

Trump Hotels

Either she doesn't have internal organs or they were a little overzealous with the photoshop.

Trump Hotels

"Your ear is so much nicer than my first wife's."

Trump Hotels

"Have you ever read King Lear?"

Trump Hotels

What man doesn't want to watch a woman (his daughter, probably) think about the food she isn't eating?

Trump Hotels

Literally, this black person is bathing a white person.

Trump Hotels

"Paint me like one of your flamingos."

Trump Hotels

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.