ssu wrote:Draining the swamp continues...
Consider the countries we know are making payments to Trump companies through state-owned entities, payments that affect Trump’s wealth: China and the United Arab Emirates, both at the heart of regions critical to U.S. foreign policy. Then consider the longer list of countries in a position to benefit him because of business relationships Trump has, including India, Indonesia, Turkey, the Philippines, Great Britain and Vietnam. This is just a beginning sketch of what we know so far; Russia, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan reportedly may also be involved with Trump businesses. The benefits come from a range of relationships: The Qatari state airline pays rent at the Trump Tower in New York; entities in Britain, Bulgaria, Brazil, Indonesia and Vietnam reportedly make licensing payments for the rights to produce local versions of “The Apprentice,” Trump’s reality TV show; his developments in India require governmental permitting, which under the law would be a forbidden benefit.
Each of these countries, and possibly more, now has a direct mechanism to attempt to influence the president.
Trump’s lawyers made a strange concession in a news conference recently, announcing that Trump would donate all profits from foreign government payments to Trump hotels to the U.S. Treasury. The suggestion was that the donation mooted the problem. But another unspoken implication was that there is something troubling about foreign-derived profits. The donation does nothing to address the Constitutional violation, which occurs at the moment of accepting the benefit, even if Trump’s hotel loses money on the transaction. It merely means that some of his constitutional violations will be followed by a payment of penance. Moreover, profits from the hotels represent only a part of the foreign benefits that are flowing to him — none of his office towers, condo or apartment sales, licensing agreements or loans on other properties are covered at all.
Meh, nobody in congress has the balls to try to take Trump down by those means, even if the Democrats controlled both houses, they wouldn't have the votes to remove Trump from office, and they know there would be a wicked backlash from the electorate for such a cravenly partisan attempt to do an end run around the electoral college and they would get annihilated for it in the very next election.
Just more TDS, much ado about nothing that is. All this screeching about "but, but Trump is corrupt" is pointless, all politicians are considered to be corrupt, so it's a wash, and liberal politicians are the same spineless poltroons they have always been, they will cower in the face of the demagogic strong man when it comes right down to it, every single time.
The absolute worst Trump will get, at the end of all this breathless ass faggotry, is the ol' Clintonian slap on the wrist, lying to investigators, censure, moving on.
At the end of the day, none of Trump's hysterical opponents has any credibility with the electorate, the media least of all, and they certainly don't have a base which is anywhere close to being as large and loyal as Trump's, the only thing that can stop Trump, is the electoral college, otherwise he's gonna skate, laughing all the way.
