National Bank Of Trump?

Alex Pareene of The New Republic has an article up about the most popular governor in the USA, corrupt Republican Larry Hogan, who has made millions more than has anyone ever has while serving as  governor of Maryland.  While he "has advanced highway and road construction projects that directly boosted the value of land owned by his" real estate brokerage firm

The normalization of this sort of personal self-dealing has turned out to be one of the most successful political projects of our age; it has happened right under our noses. With Hogan, we can see clearly how the scheme works. But no one can credibly explain how Mitch McConnell’s wealth keeps increasing, or why Andrew Cuomo shut down the Moreland Commission, or why Bob Menendez is still a senator, or why Democrats in Congress are only pretending to seek Trump’s tax returns while doggedly refusing to investigate his personal finances and business dealings.

The day before that article was published, Fox News televised Laura Ingraham's interview with Donald Trump, in which the President gave Democrats new cause to investigate his personal finances and business dealings.  Remarkably- but given this gangster's track record, not unbelievably- Trump stated (seen beginning at 13:23 of the video below)

I said to Saudi Arabia. We have a very good relationship with Saudi Arabia. I said "listen, you're a very rich country. You want more troops, I'm going to send them to you. But you've got to pay us." They're paying us. They've already deposited one billion dollars in the bank. We are going to help them but these rich countries have to pay for it. South Korea gave us 500 million dollars. I said "you gotta help us along."

At best, Trump simply has made yet something else up out of whole cloth, his very fertile imagination. At second best, he is offering American soldiers as mercenaries and lifting up a "for sale, American foreign policy" sign.

However, he may be doing something a little different. We have learned that the President conflates the country with himself.  He is the USA; the USA is Donald Trump; Donald Trump is Jesus Christ. 

And so when this President says "they're paying us," it's foolhardy to assume that he means that the USA or any of its subdivisions has been paid.  He may be referring to Deutsche Bank or Professional Bank, the Coral Gables, Florida-based bank to which the President shifted some of his brokerage holdings when Deutsche Bank was asked for Trump financial records.

Riyadh (and Seoul) may be paying Donald Trump personally, albeit probably not directly with a bag of cash in some dark alley.  He already has been impressively successful in monetizing his presidency, yet is open to new and varied ways to profit from the American people or foreign nations.

If this is the case, Trump has accepted a bribe. If he did so on behalf of the US Treasury- if by "us" he means the federal government- it bears a striking resemblance to the bribe/extortion deal he tried to swing with Ukraine.

President Trump has been impeached for that (as well as for obstruction of Congress).   It seems that one political party would want to investigate whether he has done a similar thing by bribing, or extorting money from, a radical Islamist state supporting terrorism and murdering tens of thousands of Yemenis.  Or it would if Pareene is wrong and it actually is interested in the personal finances and business dealings, likely impeachable, of this President.

Share |