Trump’s Plan in Syria Comes Complete With a Glaring Conflict of Interest
Meanwhile, the president's response on Twitter provides further evidence, in very succinct fashion, that he is completely insane.
World Leaders Meet For NATO Summit In Brussels
Sean Gallup / Getty Images
By Jack Holmes
Oct 7, 2019
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a293858...amp;src=nl
Donald Trump—the man we've seen fit to give enormous power to shape world events the consequences of which will reverberate through the duration of our mortal lives—has few admirable qualities. One is his at least rhetorical aversion to Endless War, and his impulse to extricate the United States from conflicts in which no one can tell us what victory even looks like. However, it is more than offset by other features of his psyche, not least his militant incuriosity about the world and his impulsive decision-making process.
All of the above were on show with his decision to abandon our Kurdish allies in northern Syria and allow the area to be invaded—and likely dominated—by Turkey.
Trump made the seemingly snap decision overnight after a call with Turkey's authoritarian strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan Sunday. This has even earned pushback from reliable Trump toads like Lindsey Graham and Fox & Friend Brian Kilmeade. Already, the president's former special envoy on ISIS has released a scorching assessment of the decision, which completely contradicts all policy planning by Trump's own military and diplomatic corps.
But while Brett McGurk's assessment of Trump holds water ("He makes impulsive decisions with no knowledge or deliberation. He sends military personnel into harm’s way with no backing. He blusters and then leaves our allies exposed when adversaries call his bluff."
, there's another factor worth considering.
"I have a little conflict of interest 'cause I have a major, major building in Istanbul," Trump said in December 2015. "It's a tremendously successful job. It's called Trump Towers—two towers, instead of one, not the usual one, it’s two."
The way to neutralize this conflict of interest, of course, would have been for the president to fully divest from his private business holdings when he took public office and pledged to represent the interests of the American people. That was the way to assuage concerns about the sprawling web of foreign business interests that he still maintains, which hangs like a dark cloud over every decision he makes with respect to American foreign policy.
Did he shield Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman from consequences for the murder of American-resident journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year because he thought the alliance with Saudi Arabia was too valuable to jeopardize, the same way past American presidents have excused Saudi atrocities? Or was it because the Saudis are putting money in his pocket?
The same questions apply here. Did he sign onto Erdogan's plan on the phone call because he's an easy mark? Or because he wants to join the league of autocrats who are not accountable to anyone within their borders, free to run their crony-capitalist kleptocracies? Or because he wants to protect a specific business interest in the Turkish capital that he's already admitted presents a conflict? Did Erdogan convince him that this was good policy for the United States, or did he convince him that it would be good for his wallet?
Trump Towers Rise Above Istanbul
Are the Trump Towers in Istanbul impacting Trump’s decision on Turkey’s intervention in Syria?
Meanwhile, the president has responded to today's blowback on the Tweet Machine. It provides further evidence, in very succinct fashion, that he is completely insane.
As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!). They must, with Europe and others, watch over......the captured ISIS fighters and families. The U.S. has done far more than anyone could have ever expected, including the capture of 100% of the ISIS Caliphate. It is time now for others in the region, some of great wealth, to protect their own territory. THE USA IS GREAT!
How much longer can we go on like this—you know, with a President of the United States you'd cross the street to avoid?
Anyway, the Istanbul property is just the conflict we know about. The AP broke open a new facet of the Ukraine fiasco this fine Monday, and it's enough to make you wonder what Trump and his cronies are doing under the table all over the world—including in Turkey. Energy Secretary and Star Who Was Danced With Rick Perry has largely managed to avoid getting pulled into the rank corruption of the administration he serves, but those days are over.
As Rudy Giuliani was pushing Ukrainian officials last spring to investigate one of Donald Trump’s main political rivals, a group of individuals with ties to the president and his personal lawyer were also active in the former Soviet republic. Their aims were profit, not politics. This circle of businessmen and Republican donors touted connections to Giuliani and Trump while trying to install new management at the top of Ukraine’s massive state gas company. Their plan was to then steer lucrative contracts to companies controlled by Trump allies, according to two people with knowledge of their plans...
But the effort to install a friendlier management team at the helm of the gas company, Naftogaz, would soon be taken up with Ukraine’s new president by U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, whose slate of candidates included a fellow Texan who is one of Perry’s past political donors.
It’s unclear if Perry’s attempts to replace board members at Naftogaz were coordinated with the Giuliani allies pushing for a similar outcome, and no one has alleged that there is criminal activity in any of these efforts. And it’s unclear what role, if any, Giuliani had in helping his clients push to get gas sales agreements with the state-owned company.
But the affair shows how those with ties to Trump and his administration were pursuing business deals in Ukraine that went far beyond advancing the president’s personal political interests. It also raises questions about whether Trump allies were mixing business and politics just as Republicans were calling for a probe of Biden and his son Hunter, who served five years on the board of another Ukrainian energy company, Burisma.
That last paragraph is a searing burn by wire-service standards. This level of hypocrisy was unheard of until this administration swept into town, at which point it became commonplace—not least when a bunch of Trump staffers used private email for government business after El Jefe spent an entire campaign screaming that Hillary Clinton was unfit for office on the basis she committed that same mortal sin. Ivanka was one of them, and had the unbelievable gall to suggest she wasn't aware it was a problem. Speaking of Ivanka...
Thank you Prime Minister Erdogan for joining us yesterday to celebrate the launch of #TrumpTowers Istanbul!
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) April 20, 2012
If this Ukraine muckery isn't criminal, as the AP suggests, then we need some new laws. What it does point to, at the very least, is the kind of relentless corruption you can expect from any Trumpian endeavor.
This is the case first of all because the president is a crook, but also because, as a result of his obvious lack of fitness for the job, he struggles to attract anyone with both competence and ethics. Usually, they lack both.
The whole operation only keeps chugging along because of the towering shamelessness of everyone involved. They're too dumb to know when they're beat, or they simply deny reality itself. It's the rest of us who have to live with the consequences.
Meanwhile, the president's response on Twitter provides further evidence, in very succinct fashion, that he is completely insane.
World Leaders Meet For NATO Summit In Brussels
Sean Gallup / Getty Images
By Jack Holmes
Oct 7, 2019
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a293858...amp;src=nl
Donald Trump—the man we've seen fit to give enormous power to shape world events the consequences of which will reverberate through the duration of our mortal lives—has few admirable qualities. One is his at least rhetorical aversion to Endless War, and his impulse to extricate the United States from conflicts in which no one can tell us what victory even looks like. However, it is more than offset by other features of his psyche, not least his militant incuriosity about the world and his impulsive decision-making process.
All of the above were on show with his decision to abandon our Kurdish allies in northern Syria and allow the area to be invaded—and likely dominated—by Turkey.
Trump made the seemingly snap decision overnight after a call with Turkey's authoritarian strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan Sunday. This has even earned pushback from reliable Trump toads like Lindsey Graham and Fox & Friend Brian Kilmeade. Already, the president's former special envoy on ISIS has released a scorching assessment of the decision, which completely contradicts all policy planning by Trump's own military and diplomatic corps.
But while Brett McGurk's assessment of Trump holds water ("He makes impulsive decisions with no knowledge or deliberation. He sends military personnel into harm’s way with no backing. He blusters and then leaves our allies exposed when adversaries call his bluff."
, there's another factor worth considering. "I have a little conflict of interest 'cause I have a major, major building in Istanbul," Trump said in December 2015. "It's a tremendously successful job. It's called Trump Towers—two towers, instead of one, not the usual one, it’s two."
The way to neutralize this conflict of interest, of course, would have been for the president to fully divest from his private business holdings when he took public office and pledged to represent the interests of the American people. That was the way to assuage concerns about the sprawling web of foreign business interests that he still maintains, which hangs like a dark cloud over every decision he makes with respect to American foreign policy.
Did he shield Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman from consequences for the murder of American-resident journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year because he thought the alliance with Saudi Arabia was too valuable to jeopardize, the same way past American presidents have excused Saudi atrocities? Or was it because the Saudis are putting money in his pocket?
The same questions apply here. Did he sign onto Erdogan's plan on the phone call because he's an easy mark? Or because he wants to join the league of autocrats who are not accountable to anyone within their borders, free to run their crony-capitalist kleptocracies? Or because he wants to protect a specific business interest in the Turkish capital that he's already admitted presents a conflict? Did Erdogan convince him that this was good policy for the United States, or did he convince him that it would be good for his wallet?
Trump Towers Rise Above Istanbul
Are the Trump Towers in Istanbul impacting Trump’s decision on Turkey’s intervention in Syria?
Meanwhile, the president has responded to today's blowback on the Tweet Machine. It provides further evidence, in very succinct fashion, that he is completely insane.
As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!). They must, with Europe and others, watch over......the captured ISIS fighters and families. The U.S. has done far more than anyone could have ever expected, including the capture of 100% of the ISIS Caliphate. It is time now for others in the region, some of great wealth, to protect their own territory. THE USA IS GREAT!
How much longer can we go on like this—you know, with a President of the United States you'd cross the street to avoid?
Anyway, the Istanbul property is just the conflict we know about. The AP broke open a new facet of the Ukraine fiasco this fine Monday, and it's enough to make you wonder what Trump and his cronies are doing under the table all over the world—including in Turkey. Energy Secretary and Star Who Was Danced With Rick Perry has largely managed to avoid getting pulled into the rank corruption of the administration he serves, but those days are over.
As Rudy Giuliani was pushing Ukrainian officials last spring to investigate one of Donald Trump’s main political rivals, a group of individuals with ties to the president and his personal lawyer were also active in the former Soviet republic. Their aims were profit, not politics. This circle of businessmen and Republican donors touted connections to Giuliani and Trump while trying to install new management at the top of Ukraine’s massive state gas company. Their plan was to then steer lucrative contracts to companies controlled by Trump allies, according to two people with knowledge of their plans...
But the effort to install a friendlier management team at the helm of the gas company, Naftogaz, would soon be taken up with Ukraine’s new president by U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, whose slate of candidates included a fellow Texan who is one of Perry’s past political donors.
It’s unclear if Perry’s attempts to replace board members at Naftogaz were coordinated with the Giuliani allies pushing for a similar outcome, and no one has alleged that there is criminal activity in any of these efforts. And it’s unclear what role, if any, Giuliani had in helping his clients push to get gas sales agreements with the state-owned company.
But the affair shows how those with ties to Trump and his administration were pursuing business deals in Ukraine that went far beyond advancing the president’s personal political interests. It also raises questions about whether Trump allies were mixing business and politics just as Republicans were calling for a probe of Biden and his son Hunter, who served five years on the board of another Ukrainian energy company, Burisma.
That last paragraph is a searing burn by wire-service standards. This level of hypocrisy was unheard of until this administration swept into town, at which point it became commonplace—not least when a bunch of Trump staffers used private email for government business after El Jefe spent an entire campaign screaming that Hillary Clinton was unfit for office on the basis she committed that same mortal sin. Ivanka was one of them, and had the unbelievable gall to suggest she wasn't aware it was a problem. Speaking of Ivanka...
Thank you Prime Minister Erdogan for joining us yesterday to celebrate the launch of #TrumpTowers Istanbul!
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) April 20, 2012
If this Ukraine muckery isn't criminal, as the AP suggests, then we need some new laws. What it does point to, at the very least, is the kind of relentless corruption you can expect from any Trumpian endeavor.
This is the case first of all because the president is a crook, but also because, as a result of his obvious lack of fitness for the job, he struggles to attract anyone with both competence and ethics. Usually, they lack both.
The whole operation only keeps chugging along because of the towering shamelessness of everyone involved. They're too dumb to know when they're beat, or they simply deny reality itself. It's the rest of us who have to live with the consequences.
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