Dem
52
Ties
2
GOP
46
It is unbelievable how everyone in Donald Trump's orbit is obsessed with money, regardless of how unethically they have to behave in order to obtain it. It is considerably more believable, if disappointing, how hypocritical the Trumps (and their enablers) can be, and have been, in pointing the finger at the alleged corruption of others (e.g., Hunter Biden) while doing things that are orders of magnitude more skeezy.
Two different stories of this sort broke yesterday, and we can't quite decide which one is worse. To start, Donald Trump Jr. married his new wife, Bettina Anderson, in a lavish affair held in the Bahamas. The tradition, of course, is that the bride's parents pay for the wedding. That said, if the groom's father is a billionaire sitting on a bunch of ill-gotten crypto gains, maybe he should be paying. Or there's the modern approach, where the married couple pay for the wedding themselves, and don't behave like the marriage is some sort of business arrangement between their two families.
ProPublica has discovered that Trump Jr. chose "none of the above." Although the First Son reportedly has a net worth north of $300 million, he decided to let a "friend" pick up most of the expenses, like the rent on the private island where the wedding was held, the cost of the private planes used to ferry people to the island, the fireworks show that came after "I do," and the five-layer cake that was airlifted in from Florida. That "friend" is Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch who is very close with Russian president-for-life Vladimir Putin.
Nobody who is willing to speak to the media knows exactly why Kremlev decided to be so generous. However, ProPublica did manage to find evidence suggesting that he and Trump Jr. have not known each other for very long—they are not, for example, college buddies, or longtime business partners. What it amounts to is that either the son of Trump is already a Russian asset, or he will be in the future. And he might know it, or he might not know it, although he certainly should know it. Russian oligarchs have much in common with the mafia, and one of those commonalities is that they do not do favors without expecting something return. Certainly, it is mind-boggling that Putin has been able to insinuate his tentacles so deeply into the Trump family and into the White House, and with nobody saying so much as "boo!"
At this point, readers might be saying, "Wait. You couldn't decide what was worse? How could something be worse than that?" In answer, we give you one Jared Kushner, who is both First Son-in-Law and also the Trump administration's all-purpose ambassador/diplomat/negotiator. As it turns out, according to a lengthy profile published yesterday in The New Yorker, young Jared has most certainly been putting the "dollar" in dollar diplomacy.
Kushner's only success as a diplomat, such as it is, is the Abraham Accords. However, that agreement largely just served to formalize a state of affairs that already de facto existed. And, in any case, it was during Trump v1.0. During Trump v2.0, Kushner and his negotiating partner Steve Witkoff have been an absolute disaster. Most obviously, they have made about as much progress toward making peace with Iran as we have. They have also failed to make headway in Ukraine.
However, in the process of failing spectacularly as a diplomat, Kushner has nonetheless done a heckuva job of lining his pockets. Effectively, the deal is that if a country wants a seat at the table while the fate of Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, the Middle East, etc. is discussed, they need to "invest" generously in Affinity Partners, which is Kushner's asset-management firm. Over the last year, he has "secured" another $5 billion in capital from various Middle Eastern nations. This despite the fact that he charges exorbitant rates for his so-called services, while not actually finding outlets for most of the investors' money.
The folks who run various Middle Eastern nations do not have a problem with pay-to-play, as such, since greasing peoples' palms is something of a tradition in that part of the world. However, when they do pay, they expect to get something in return. Thus far, the money they've given to Kushner has produced little, either in terms of profit, or in terms of geopolitics. So, they are not happy, to say the least.
The Democrats ostensibly intend to hammer on corruption as a big part of their midterm pitch. And, if they do, the First Son and the First Son-in-Law will be excellent cudgels for them to yield. Meanwhile, should the blue team get control of at least one chamber, Kushner figures to be right at the top of the "to do" list when it comes to investigations (Trump Jr. too, very possibly). And while their father-in-law/father is significantly shielded from consequences for his actions—due to SCOTUS making him a king, but also because he might not live long enough to face charges—Kushner and Trump Jr. are not so fortunate. So, it's well within the realm of possibility that one or both of them will eventually face the music. Of course, in Kushner's case, going to prison for white-collar crimes is a family tradition. (Z)