Yesterday, Donald Trump attacked the New York Times, reneged on an agreement to be interviewed by them, then gave in and had an interview with the New York Times, tweeted about potentially hiring Dr. Ben Carson to be Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. All of this was meant to distract you from a massive corruption scandal that broke in the New York Times and London Guardian. While we’re worrying about tweets, neo-nazis, and appointments, we’re ignoring the fact that Trump has already abused his power to benefit himself, and has likely already violated Article 1 Section 9 Clause 8 of the United States Constitution.
Former George W. Bush speech writer David Frum said it best when he tweeted:
The New York Times reported at Trump’s first meeting with a foreign government official, his meeting with Nigel Farage Member of European Parliament, he brought up wind farms. Trump had sued the government of Scotland to block a wind farm that he felt reduced the value of his golf course; according to the Times, he sued all the way to the UK Supreme Court and lost. The Times described his meeting with MEP Farage as follows:
When President-elect Donald J. Trump met with the British politician Nigel Farage in recent days, he encouraged Mr. Farage and his entourage to oppose the kind of offshore wind farms that Mr. Trump believes will mar the pristine view from one of his two Scottish golf courses, according to one person present.
The meeting, held shortly after the presidential election, raises new questions about Mr. Trump’s willingness to use the power of the presidency to advance his business interests. Mr. Trump has long opposed a wind farm planned near his course in Aberdeenshire, and he previously fought unsuccessfully all the way to Britain’s highest court to block it.
Trump’s initial response to the story was to deny that the conversation took place. But when the Times noted that they had a participant in the meeting speaking on the record that it happened, Trump’s spokesperson suddenly became “unavailable.”
Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump’s transition office, at first disputed that Mr. Trump had raised the subject of wind farms with Mr. Farage, suggesting that participants in the conversation “denied this took place.” However, when pressed with the fact that one of the meeting’s attendees, Mr. Wigmore, had described the conversation in detail, she declined repeated requests to comment.
It turns out that this, even though it likely violated the US Constitution, was just spring training for the corruption of President-elect Donald Trump. La Nacion, the New York Times of Argentina, reported that when Argentine President Mauricio Macri called Trump to congratulate him on his election, that Trump brought up a stalled $150 million project he had in Buenos Ares and asked for help getting stalled permits moving. The story was picked up by Talking Points Memo and briefly had traction. Then Trump and Macri issued denials, which the US “press” reported as gospel.
The London Guardian, however, decided to do some real reporting. First, they found that the original sources for La Nacion’s report were members of President Macri’s Staff:
Local media reports have alleged that Trump asked Macri for help over a stalled construction permit for a 35-storey project called Trump Office in downtown Buenos Aires. A source told the Guardian that the information came from Macri’s staff.
Further, the Guardian quoted President Macri himself as stating that he talked to Ivanka Trump, who has been left in charge of Trump’s business interest as the CEO of the see-through trust that Trump has established, during his phone call with Trump.
But despite such setbacks, the relationship remains close enough that President Macri spoke with Ivanka Trump during last Monday’s phone conversation. “In the call, I also talked with his daughter,” Macri told the Japanese newspaper the Asahi Shimbun. “I have known her since her infant days.”
Yesterday, while we were tweeting about Trump’s feud with the New York Times, Talking Points Memo reported that the call itself was brokered by Trumps Argentinian business partner.
However, the Argentine press also reported that Macri was able to get through to the President-elect in the first place because Trump's partner in the Buenos Aires project facilitated their connection. That detail was surfaced last night by Susan Simpson, a lawyer who specializes in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and went on a tweetstormabout the Trump project in the capital.
Trump himself, in his interview with the New York Times, did not deny that he raised wind farms with Nigel Farage, a Member of European Parliament.
Further, Trump bragged that being elected President made his failing hotel in Washington DC very valuable. I wonder if the increased value has anything to do with the presentation (read shakedown) that foreign diplomats just had to sit through regarding the “benefits” of staying at Trump’s DC Hotel:
Finally, Trump, like Richard Nixon before him, claimed that President’s are above the law:
After working so hard and being so disappointed, I binge watched the West Wing. There is a great scene in an episode where Toby and Josh are arguing over how to counter President Bartlett’s opponent. Josh says to Toby, “You want to beat him; I want to win, that’s the difference.”
Trump’s MO is to say ridiculous stuff that outrages his opponents and critics. By doing so, we don’t notice that he is being totally corrupt. Or that Trump gave a speech in Ukraine during the campaign and his foundation magically received a $150,000 donation from a Ukrainian billionaire. Or that Trump’s foundation admitted in a filing to the IRS that it violated the IRS’ ban on self-dealing (read: embezzlement). Or that Trump himself personally signed previous forms certifying that the foundation did not engage in self-dealing, which means that Trump himself may have committed perjury.
To win, we need to ignore the distractions that Donald Trump tries to create and relentlessly focus on his lack of ethics and attempts to use the powers of the Presidency for personal gain. This behavior by Trump betrays the rural Americans who elected him and permanently damages our country’s standing in the world and its economy. Further, it violates Article 1 Section 9 Clause 8 of the Constitution which reads:
No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
We can win by focusing on Trump’s corruption and extra-constitutional actions or we can tweet about how offensive neo-Nazis are. Trump wants us to do the latter.
And I think it’s worth closing with David Frum’s tweet.