It happens in 3rd World countries all the time. A leader runs the presidency like a mafia don: enriching himself, his family, and his cronies. Punishing his enemies and using the power of the office for self-enrichment. This isn’t supposed to happen in America. Three weeks into his presidency, Donald Trump is already setting off a wave of alarm bells.
President Donald Trump is known for shattering political precedent, but experts say the White House's war on Nordstrom for dropping his daughter's clothing line is ordinary behavior.
Just not in America.
"This is so common in so many parts of the world that perhaps we shouldn't be surprised it eventually happened here," said Matthew Stephenson, a Harvard law professor who studies international corruption. "I'm hoping we find a way to nip it in the bud before it gets out of control."
Let’s hope it can be. American Presidents are expected to conduct themselves in the most ethical way possible, holding themselves to the highest standards.
"Over and over again, you see this pattern of populist leaders, often democratically elected, who use the power of office to enrich themselves, their families and their cronies," Stephenson said.
In that context, Stephenson said the White House's recent behavior was "extraordinarily and depressingly familiar."
Aides like Kellyanne Conway (and the unfolding Michael Flynn-Russia story) are also stepping over the line in the use of the power of the presidency.
Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway got a strong bipartisan rebuke on Thursday for promoting Ivanka Trump's clothing brand in a TV interview.
But ethics experts say the broader conflict between the White House and Nordstrom is more worrisome, raising questions about whether the United States is entering a new environment in which presidents use government to steer money to their inner circles.
Trump and his family's vast holdings and his refusal to fully sever ties with his business have long prompted warnings from legal experts that his administration will be plagued by conflicts of interest.
Those fears reached new heights this week as Trump and his aides repeatedly attacked Nordstrom over its decision to remove Ivanka Trump's clothing brand from its stores. Ivanka Trump's husband, Jared Kushner, is also an adviser to the president.
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A U.S. president bullying a company for personal reasons is a line I can’t recall an American president ever crossing.
Lowering the American presidency to the level of a mafia family organization that punishes enemies for sake of their own interests should be cause for hearings in Congress and throngs of people, regardless of party, voicing loud and continuous opposition and ringing the phones on Capitol Hill until congressional aides ears swell up and their bosses do their jobs.
- Rep Jason Chaffetz, does your Oversight Committee take anything seriously besides emails and other meaningless witch hunts against the opposition? Inquiring minds want to know.