Partners With Trump

"It’s official," writes Mike Huckabee on his Facebook page

one of the top sheiks of the United Arab Emirates is more rational, objective about US immigration policy and less susceptible to groundlessly accusing President Trump of a “Muslim ban” than the Democratic Party and the federal judge they shopped for.

The former governor links to an article in the Conservative Tribune, in which we read

The United Arab Emirates, one of the most influential Arab states, has come out in support of President Donald Trump’s temporary ban on immigration from seven nations with terrorism problems.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the foreign minister of the UAE, called Trump’s executive order a “sovereign decision,” and said he was convinced the move was not “directed against a particular religion,” Sky News reported.

“This is a temporary ban and it will be revised in three months, so it is important that we put into consideration this point,” he said Wednesday during a news conference in Abu Dhabi.

He also voiced some tentative support for President Trump’s decision to establish “safe zones” in war-torn Syria.

“If the aim behind these areas is humanitarian and temporary and under an international umbrella, I think this is a basis we can work on,” the sheikh said.

“But I think that it is still early to decide what our final stance toward these zones is before we hear from the new U.S. administration the ideas and develop that further.”

The writer believes "The United Arab Emirates is one of America’s top partners in the Middle East, and positioning itself in favor of the temporary freeze on immigration could be a preemptive way of negotiating with the Trump administration."

Or it could be a way of aligning itself with the business interests of Donald Trump. TIME explains

Trump has a tangle of business interests in the UAE. His first venture in the country was a branding deal in 2005 to build a hotel with Nakheel, a developer backed by Dubai’s royal family. The project was canceled in 2008 following a corruption and bribery probe into two Nakheel executives. In 2013, Trump struck a branding deal with Damac Properties Dubai Co., to build luxury villas and a golf course. Damac is also building another Trump-branded course designed by Tiger Woods. In December 2015, local groups called for a boycott of those properties in response to Trump’s proposed Muslim ban. (Damac briefly removed Trump’s image and name from its properties, but reinstated them two days later.) The Trump International Golf Club in Dubai is set to open early this year. On New Year’s Eve, during a celebration at his Florida estate Mar-a-Lago, Trump gave a speech to hundreds of paying guests that praised Damac executive Hussain Sajwani and his family. “The most beautiful people from Dubai are here tonight,” Trump gushed. 

There is an old (not very funny) joke in real estate, Donald Trump's business. "What are the three determinants of land value?" it roghly goes. The answer:  "location, location, location." Trump's business is, was, and will remain real estate. And the three most important factors in his decision-making as President of the United States are personal:  profit, profit, and profit.








                                                                                                                                                 




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