Over the course of the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump often vowed that if elected he would “drain the swamp” and eliminate the conflicts of interest between big money donors and Washington politicians. Here his is in October:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_Tr-_5PoLY
Trump also railed against Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation for accepting donations from Saudi Arabia, and yet it turns out that Trump was doing business in Saudi Arabia in a YUGE way during his run for the White House.
The Washington Post is reporting that the President-elect registered eight new companies during this year’s presidential campaign that those companies “appear tied to a potential hotel project in Saudi Arabia.”
After doing further investigation, the Post also found Trump started companies that “range from sprawling, luxury real estate complexes to one-man holding companies and branding deals in Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Panama, and other countries, including some where the United States maintains sensitive diplomatic ties.” And yet this man will be in control of American foreign policy.
The various conflicts of interest faced by the new President are too numerous to detail. He has promised that he will let his children run his company while he serves in office, but that isn’t the same as actually setting up a legitimate blind trust where he would not have any idea how his assets are being managed or how his decisions might affect the bottom line.
All of this is concerning, but it may also be hopeful for Democrats. If Trump does indeed make decisions on American foreign policy based on the impact those choices have on his investments, then he will have just given Congress the proof needed to draw up articles of impeachment.
Trump has created his own private swamp, and he’s the biggest alligator in that swamp. Let’s see how eager he is to drain that one.
Featured Image Via Flickr available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License
