America's #1
Political Crime Family Rolling in the Green Stuff
Introduction: Very
enlightening and troubling story at the same time.
In China, as well as most other Asian
nations, “princelings” are privileged relatives of high-level government
officials. “Princelings” benefit from nepotism and cronyism, using their family
ties to conduct business and accumulate wealth. They also serve as conduits for
currying favor with their official relations (and in most of those societies, it is relatively accepted as the “norm”).
Now President Trump has given us the ultimate Chinese import: American princelings. They are his
sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law
Jared Kushner. Each of those persons engages in business activities and trades
on their relationship with the president to pursue business deals and
accumulate wealth. Donald Jr. and Eric run President Trump work hard worldwide on
a variety of business enterprises, although the president still owns and
profits from his businesses.
Noteworthy: Trump is the first president in
modern times to refuse to divest ownership of holdings that were bound to cause
conflicts of interest and create the impression of trading U.S. policy for
personal financial gain.
Past presidents unlike Trump have been bound by that clause
but not most likely to abuse it multiple times therefore to be in blatant violation of the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause (Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 — legal review from Cornell Law) which prohibits the president from
receiving financial benefits from other governments without the consent of
Congress, and in order to prevent corrupting influence from abroad.
Historical
Note: The Emoluments
Clause of the U.S. Constitution has never been litigated before the USSC – maybe now is high time.
When the Trump sons tour the world developing business
opportunities, they do so in the long shadow of the president. Every
prospective partner knows they are dealing with the president’s sons, and this
creates unique opportunities for foreign interests and governments to curry
favor and buy influence with the president.
A recent example: In a move that even stunned Trump’s
own advisers, and reversed the government’s previous position, Trump tweeted on
May 13 that he wanted to help China’s telecom giant ZTE avoid
going out of business. ZTE’s problems stemmed from violating American sanctions
and a subsequent settlement of criminal and civil charges for those violations.
Note: Trump’s twitter post about ZTE: “Too many jobs in China lost.
Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!” He said he and Chinese
President Xi Jinping were working together on a solution for ZTE.
ZTE practices led to a ban on U.S companies exporting to ZTE,
which prevented it from receiving American technology — the ban Trump
undermined banned that.
But, lo and behold, it now has emerged that on May 11, two
days before the presidential tweet, a Chinese state-owned construction company
announced that it would make a loan of $500 million to Indonesian developers to
help finance construction of a “Trump branded name Theme Park.”
The Trump Organization, operated by the princeling sons, is a
partner in the theme park venture that reportedly will include a Trump-branded
hotel and golf course. Because Trump still owns his businesses, he is the
beneficiary of all of this. Now, today there are reports that Trump has reached
a final deal with ZTE.
Impact: Those events raise at least the
appearance of a corrupt bargain between China and Trump.
The public has no way of knowing whether U.S. policy was sold
in return for advancing a major Trump business venture in Indonesia for that
theme park or not.
The questions only intensified when observers reported that
China walked away from the latest round of trade negotiations with far more
than they gave up. This pattern raises serious questions about Trump violating
the Emoluments Clause (linked above).
My 2 Cents: Don’t know about you but this “art
of the con or deal (take your pick)” has smelled from day-one. For anyone who
believes it does not help or benefit Trump Empire, Inc., well just let say: You
are nuts and blind to this man and his ways.
A lot more may be revealed by this family – the #1
crime family in America today – at least in government.
Thanks for stopping by – as the movie line said and
still applies today in “All the President’s Men” – FOLLOW
THE MONEY.
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