It might seem curious that Trump’s acolytes are not falling away in droves, but they are hanging with him due to their dream that he will, in no particular order: bring about the much-anticipated biblical apocalypse, make America white and Christian, and destroy other nations’ economies to preserve American jobs and create a population of billionaires.
Although Trump’s appeal to far too many Americans is founded in racism and religion, many of his stupid contingent flocked to him because he promised to be a tough guy and eviscerate any foreign nation, particularly China, he claims have stolen American jobs. And in China’s case, the “job theft” according to Trump is the product of cheating on trade and manipulating their own currency.
Like most of Trump’s lies about saving American jobs, those same Trump followers in various business sectors and industries were likely stunned to hear their “America first” hero pledge to save a struggling manufacturer, and thousands of precious jobs, in the same nation Trump declared is in a “life-and-death” trade war with America. And he pledged to save Chinese jobs and a Chinese manufacturer within 72 hours of China committing half-a-billion dollars for a Trump project.
According to Trump’s lie, his intent to save Chinese jobs at struggling telecom giant ZTE is borne of a sincere regard for Chinese workers and the foreign nation’s struggling manufacturing firm. The Chinese phone manufacturer is allegedly struggling due to American sanctions for violating a previous agreement it had made in good faith with America. Yes, it is true; there is raging hypocrisy that Trump’s America is levying sanctions on a foreign company for doing what Trump does at nearly the same rate he lies – violating agreements.
In April, the Commerce Department put a seven-year ban on U.S. companies selling goods and services to ZTE in response to revelations the company was shipping materials to Iran and North Korea after agreeing not to indulge any country America deems unworthy; or any country where Trump or his “business empire” cannot make money for Trump. On top of that, the Commerce Department claimed ZTE lied about how it “punished the employees” responsible for conducting business with the two aforementioned countries when the reality was that “ZTE paid full bonuses to the employees for engaging in the illegal conduct.”
As it turns out, Trump is no more concerned about saving Chinese jobs at ZTE than he was saving jobs at the Carrier plant in Indiana, agriculture jobs across America, steel manufacturing plant jobs, or the countless small businesses being decimated because Trump backs out of and violates trade agreements with the rest of the world. Remember, the only concern dirty Don Trump harbors is how he can use the office he should not be holding to enrich Donald J. Trump and the Donald J. Trump business “empire;” the one he still unilaterally controls lock, stock, and barrel.
Over at Slate there is a nifty and highly informative article highlighting the rapidly increasing number of foreign nations “paying” Donald Trump for influence in his phony “America first” administration. Ben Mathis-Lilly noted that buying influence with Trump is a very lucrative, and very easy way of “doing business” and earning favors; but only if doing business is profitable to Trump. It is noteworthy that if any Democrat operated like Trump, they would have been summarily impeached the day after their inauguration. Trump, his underlings, and his family were selling influence even before his poorly attended inauguration, and more than one foreign nation is “attempting to bribe” Trump, but not through direct payments that can be traced. Instead, it is through various types of “investments” that benefit no-one in America but Donald J. Trump by way of the “business empire” he still unilaterally controls and profits from.
In the ZTE matter, and regardless what the pathological liar Trump says, it is almost certain that Trump’s “concern” over saving Chinese jobs, or crusading to save the “struggling” foreign company is really repaying the Chinese government for investing in his businesses.
The Chinese government is using “entities controlled by the Chinese government” to “contribute” a whopping $500 million to an “Indonesian development project that includes ‘several’ Trump-branded properties.” As Mathis-Lilly stated, China is one of a long list of “powerful foreign groups and individuals” buying influence with Trump as head of the executive department by giving money or favors to his “chintzy real-estate company and/or sketchy pals.”
Trump is only working to help a Chinese company because China forked over $500 million for a theme park “featuring Trump Organization-branded hotels and a golf course.” It is no coincidence that Trump announced he would lift sanctions on ZTE and heroically save Chinese jobs mere days after China officially finalized its half-a-billion dollar investment of which Trump will personally benefit from; because the crook still unilaterally controls and profits from his Trump Organization “empire.”
That “business empire” Trump still profits from is receiving “enhancements” for favors from several countries including Qatar, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, India, China and of course his most favorite nation, Russia. It is true that all of the “attempts to buy influence,” what normal people call “bribes,” are not flowing directly to Trump alone, they are also going to other corrupt Americans in Trump’s inner circle. There are strict rules, or at least strict ethics standards, relating to politicians personally profiting off of the office, but because Republicans control all three branches of government, they do not apply to a Republican crook living in the White House. If Trump was a Democrat, or if congressional Republicans were not as filthy dirty as Trump, the C-list celebrity would have been evicted from the White House with extreme prejudice by mid-March of 2017.
The aspect of this White House pay-to-play policy that really boggles the mind is that there are no mass protests or even mild outrage from Trump’s supporters. The only plausible explanation is that the racists and religious zealots supporting Trump will accept any lie, or betrayal, or any form of corruption from their “America first” hero with the proviso that he continues the crusade to make America “Aryan” (white) and hand evangelicals the theocracy they envision. If that was not the case, they would call for Trump’s lynching for rushing to save foreign jobs because a foreign nation invested a half-a-billion dollars for a project that will benefit the corrupt Republican living in a place he has no right ever visiting.