According to various reports, Donald Trump has “quietly” inquired if his 3 adult children who are close personal advisers can be granted “Top Secret” security clearances. This he asks at the same time that he says he’s going to have the same three siblings run his 500 domestic and international businesses for him. Now how could anything go fraktastically wrong with that?
Well, how about when something they discover through those clearances, nationally or internationally might happen to make them a big boatload of cash? Like say the Dakota Access Pipeline through Standing Rock.
- Trump has personally invested between $500,000 and $1 million in Energy Transfer Partners — the very same company that’s constructing the pipeline.
- Trump has an additional $500,000 to $1 million holding in Phillips 66, which would have a 25 percent stake in the completed Dakota Access project.
- Energy Transfer Partners Chief Executive Kelcy Warren donated $103,000 toward Trump’s campaign and a further $66,800 to the Republican National Committee after he became the party nominee.
- Harold Hamm, a top Trump campaign advisor and leading candidate for energy secretary, is the CEO of Continental Resources, whose oil would be carried through the Dakota Access Pipeline.
- John Paulson, another campaign advisor, is heavily invested in the Bakken oil and gas industry. And that’s just the start for fossil fuel connections on Trump’s team
How many sweet sweet deals like this might TrumpCo benefit from now that Big Daddy Pepe is the Prez-elect? How much policy might the siblings subtly influence to put cash in their pockets once they have their shiny new clearances and Daddy’s ear? How much might they put their personal interests ahead of the needs of the nation?
Nobody knows.
But we might have one horrific example already as the Washington Post reports that the sudden ouster of former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers wasn’t because the Trumpster Team disagreed with his report on Benghazi which found the Obama Administraiton acted appropriately and didn’t mislead the public, it now appears to be largely retaliation by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner for Roger’s association with Chris Christie who had put Kushner’s father in prison.
A former U.S. official with ties to the Trump team described the ousters of Rogers and others as a “bloodletting of anybody that associated in any way on the transition with Christie,” and said that the departures were engineered by two Trump loyalists who have taken control of who will get national security posts in the administration: retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Rogers had no prior significant ties to Christie but had been recruited to join the Trump team as an adviser by the former New Jersey governor. At least three other Christie associates were also pushed aside, former officials said, apparently in retaliation for Christie’s role as a U.S. prosecutor in sending Kushner’s father to prison.
Kushner was prosecuted by Christie and sentenced to two years in prison for tax evasion, campaign finance violations and witness tampering, ultimately serving one year before being released and his son apparently harbors a grudge so deep he shoved out Rogers — a former FBI agent who was fairly experienced with national security matters who barely even knew Christie — right out the door.
They can’t even get the proper paperwork signed in a timely manner so their entire transition effort is stalled. And the reason why is a shocker. First Christie as former head of the transition effort had already negotiated and signed the required MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between in outgoing and incoming administrations, but since his being kicked out as head of the transition the Trumpsters decided they needed to renegotiate the deal because they ran into one teeny tiny little sticking point.
This:
Trump has the largest business empire of any man ever elected president, and much of it currently is in the hands of his children Ivanka, Don Jr., and Eric. Trump also depended on his kids during the campaign, and that trio, along with son-in-law Jared Kushner, have all been named to the 16-person transition executive committee.
The potential problem? According to the terms of the 2008 MOU, transition team members are required to sign a statement that “he or she has no financial interest or imputed financial interest that would be directly and predictably affected by a particular matter to which the information is pertinent.” And the federal government has a lot of information that could be “pertinent” to Trump’s business empire.
Yeah, do they ever.
It’s only been a week and already we can see how things get done in Trumpland. This is the preverbial gang that can’t shoot straight.
Personal petty squabbles and vendettas are already ramming the rudders of the Trump ship-of-state and since Trump refuses to divest himself of his companies or put them in an actual blind trust as just about every other person in the Federal Government is required to do — it won’t be long until there’s some real money on the table with his companies massive foreign investments and debt and he and his kids have to make an “Executive Decision” on what to do.
I’m sure they show more grace, integrity, self control and “Put America First” once the rubber meets the road, right?
Right?