ICYMI, news came out this weekend that Trump had some financial interests he did not disclose while Presidenting, including one with a company with connections to North Korea.
From The Guardian:
Donald Trump failed to disclose a $19.8m loan from a company with historical ties to North Korea, while he was the US president, according to a new report.
Documents obtained by the New York attorney general, and reported by Forbes, on Sunday indicate a previously unreported loan owed by Trump to Daewoo, the South Korean conglomerate.
Daewoo was the only South Korean company allowed to operate a business in North Koreaduring the mid-1990s.
…According to documents reviewed by Forbes, the $19.8m balance remained the same from 2011 to 2016. Five months into Trump’s presidency, the balance dropped to $4.3m, according to paperwork that showcased Trump’s finances as of 30 June 2017.
Soon after, “Daewoo was bought out of its position on July 5, 2017,” the documents said, without disclosing who satisfied the debt.
There may be no chargeable crime here, just incompetence — but a non-Republican would be expected to answer for such a potential conflict of interest. So many questions still to be answered…
One more thing to keep in mind when House Republicans start up with the Hunter Biden sh*tshow they have planned.
I wonder if Merrick Garland has anyone looking at going after Trump using the RICO Act.
UPDATE: Some commenters are dismissing this story as a nothing burger, and to be fair there’s nothing obviously criminal about this one particular deal. But it has to be considered in the larger Trump/GOP context.
Potential conflicts of interest like this are something candidates are expected to reveal. This loan was in place all through Trump’s 2016 run for the White House, and into the first few months of his presidency. The provocative actions of North Korea with missiles and nuclear weapons development predate Trump’s run; therefore any potential conflicts of interest regarding North Korea should have been a matter of concern.
Trump’s behavior with North Korea was a contradictory mix of bluster and adulation. Given that Trump is is a narcissist easily flattered by people he sees as ‘strong’ leaders, the prospect that he also had possible financial incentives influencing his actions adds yet another layer to the situation.
But let’s step back and look at the larger picture.
At the time of Trump’s run for the White House in 2016, his business empire was on increasingly shaky ground financially. He’d had some notable bankruptcies and U.S. banks had cut him off. (He’s still having problems.) The revelation by one of his sons, Eric, that they got all the money they need from Russia should have been a big red flag. (No pun intended — but enjoy it if you like.)
Revelations that even during the 2016 campaign that Trump was looking to build a Trump Tower in Moscow — given the ‘right’ financial incentives and millions in loans, which show that Trump was never going to avoid conflicts of interest with money on the line.
There have been reports that Trump never expected to win in 2016, and was surprised/shocked when he did. With that scenario in mind, it would not be a surprise that Trump had all kinds of questionable deals going — and why would he give them up if he didn’t expect them to matter?
Frankly, there’s been recurring speculation that Trump only ran for President in 2016 because he saw it as a way to take in millions of dollars with no real accountability for where it all ended up. Nobody really cares what happens to the losing side’s money.
(And if this sounds familiar, maybe because that same idea was the basic plot for a movie and broadway show. It even has a connection with Nazis — funny how that works.)
What we do know is that after being installed in the White House, Trump overlooked no opportunity to fill the pockets of him and his family, whether it was overcharging the government to put him up at his own golf clubs or packing his kids along on overseas trips while they cut deals for themselves. And let us not forget the Trump Hotel in DC that was a favorite for all the foreign nationals and countries looking to send money Trump’s way.
(And the GOP is not thrilled with the way Trump keeps sucking up money he’s supposedly collecting to get Republicans elected.)
So why does this North Korea story matter, when it’s not likely to lead to any consequences for Trump? It’s one more thing to remember in the face of what’s to come.
House Republicans are promising a rolling shit show of hearings that will ‘prove’ Hunter Biden is — among other things — at the center of all kinds of corrupt deals with foreign governments (Ukraine! China!) that has funneled millions/billions to President Joe Biden in his rush to sell out America.
Two top House Republicans — Rep. James Comer and Rep. Jim Jordan — who are expected to chair the House Oversight and Judiciary committees next year are planning to lay out the evidence they say they have gathered from whistleblowers that show President Biden's son, Hunter, engaged in influence peddling and his father, potentially while serving as vice president, may have benefitted financially.
In a press conference on Thursday, Comer accused the Biden family of defrauding the United States, tax evasion, violating several laws and money laundering, among other accusations.
"The president's participation in enriching his family is, in a word, abuse of the highest order," Comer said. "I want to be clear: This is an investigation of Joe Biden, and that's where our focus will be next Congress."
Without the defense mechanism of projection, Republicans would have have to spend all their time answering for their own misdeeds. This is how they plan to change the subject away from the epic corruption of Trump and the GOP — with plenty of help from the ‘both sides’ media.
Shamelessness is their superpower.