Old Times
It’s just like “old times”, at least old times four years ago. Back then these essays were called Trump World, all about the 45th Presidency. From those earliest entries on Trump World, I wrote about the influence of other nations on Donald Trump. If we’d only known. “Russian intelligence” made their first appearance in Drip, Drip, Drip and Drip, Drip, Drip – Part Deux. That was early March of 2017, barely six weeks after the Inauguration.
So here we are, six months into the Biden Presidency. The President did a CNN Town Hall last night, speaking from Cincinnati. Biden was everything we thought he’d be: a little halting, but folksy and plain spoken. He described the first time they played Hail to the Chief for him. He turned around to look for the President. But he also came clearly prepared and able to articulate on the issues; from the COVID resurgence to current inflation, US stature in the world to Senate negotiations for the infrastructure plan.
Cabinet Meeting
He held his first full cabinet meeting this week in the actual Cabinet Room of the White House. In past months a bigger room was used as part of the COVID protocols. And they looked “packed in” this time, with the President shoulder to shoulder with Secretary of State Blinken to his right and Secretary of Defense Austin to his left. Those advisors didn’t pay “obeisance” to the President, there wasn’t a round of “how great you are” like the Trump Cabinet. And that was only one of the big differences between the Biden Presidency and his predecessor.
Highest Bidder
We now know that many in the Trump Presidency were sold to the highest bidder. At least three of those closest advisors to the President were directly on the payroll of another nation. They were “on the take”: receiving big bucks to influence the President of the United States to benefit their employer. At least three had another “master” besides the “Eagle flying” on their paychecks.
We know that Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort was corrupted by debt to the Russians. We know that Trump’s National Security Advisor General Flynn was on the continuing payroll of the Turkish Government. And this week we learned that his close friend, advisor and the Chairman of his Inaugural committee Tom Barrack was on the payroll of the United Arab Emirates, to the tune of over a billion dollars.
A Billion
A billion dollars: what kind of influence does that buy? I remember when I was managing a Cincinnati City Council campaign, the candidate and I had long discussions about accepting a $10,000 contribution. It was a big chunk of change for us, and we were concerned how much influence we were “selling” to the contributor. That was .0001% of a billion. For a billion dollars, they get what they want.
And we may never know how much influence others had over Jared Kushner and Don Junior, keeping the constant flow of money going needed to refinance their disparate real estate holdings. We do know that Kushner’s 666 Fifth Avenue building was refinanced with $1.1 Billion from Qatar, a ninety-nine year lease with the entire cost paid up-front.
Policy Bought
Russia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and of course Saudi Arabia: all these nations seemed to have a “sweet spot” in the Trump Administration. And of course Israel, with a direct personal connection from Netanyahu to Kushner. The Israeli Prime Minister was like an uncle to Jared. And financially, Israel had a “legal” money line. The late billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson, a financial force in both American and Israeli politics, made sure the Trump campaign was well financed. At least that was “legal” cash.
But from Russia poisoning their former citizens throughout the world and hacking into American politics, to Saudi’s bloody execution of Jamal Khashoggi, to the strange blockade of Qatar quickly removed (just before the 666 deal was settled), to Israelis shooting Palestinians across the border: how much was America’s reaction and policies determined by how many of the Trump Administration palms were greased? We may never know the answer for sure. But we do know this. The former President of the United States was surrounded by those bought by other nations to influence him.
And he was a President most easily influenced.
