Quote:
Originally Posted by burdell
Yeah, let's pat Donny on the back for throwing our allies the Kurds under the bus while we continue to waste taxpayer $$$ in Afghanistan where there's nothing to accomplish that couldn't have been accomplished in the last 17 years.
Any word on when we'll see a new Trump Hotel in Istanbul?  |
There's already a Trump Towers (yes, that's right - towers, plural) in Istanbul.
But let's hear it from the horse's mouth:
"In a December 2015 interview with the right-wing news outlet Breitbart, then-candidate Trump responded to a question about Turkey’s reliability in the fight against ISIS by saying he had a “little conflict of interest,” speaking of the Trump Towers in Istanbul. It’s unclear exactly how much money Trump and his companies get from those twin structures, which include an office tower and a residential building complete with wine cellar. Financial disclosures suggest he’s pulled in between $3.2 million and $17 million from the arrangement with site developer Aydin Dogan since he first launched his presidential campaign, according to a report in Mother Jones."
This article, from Fast Company (
https://www.fastcompany.com/90414334...syria-surprise), goes on to explain:
"Critics also pointed to a tweet from 2012 where Ivanka Trump thanked Turkish prime minister Recep Erdoğan for helping to “celebrate the launch” of the towers.
[...]
Amid the criticism, Trump tweeted that “if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!).”
I think that clears things up a bit. At least we can count on Trump and his great and unmatched wisdom.
All this information is available in the public domain, but some more context from NBC News (
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...ght-n1064011):
"In the summer of 2016, Erdogan called for the removal of the Trump name from the buildings after Trump called for a ban on individuals from certain Muslim countries traveling to the United States.
Then, in November 2016, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, soon to be Trump's first national security adviser, wrote an op-ed favorable to Erdogan, who has consolidated his power and locked up thousands of people after a failed 2016 military coup, including many who had nothing to do with it.
Flynn, who was paid $530,000 for consulting work in Turkey prior to the 2016 election, violated U.S. law in not registering with the U.S. government for the work until almost a month after he was fired as Trump’s national security adviser in February 2017.
Trump, at the time, said the U.S. shouldn’t criticize Erdogan for a crackdown that’s included taking over dozens of television and radio stations and arresting reporters, according to Human Rights Watch. He even told reporters he gave “great credit to him for turning it around."
“It’s exactly why you don’t want the president to be in business,” said David Cay Johnston, who wrote a book, “It’s Even Worse Than You Think,” that examines Trump’s foreign conflicts of interest. “You don’t know whose water he’s carrying, except in Donald’s case, it’s always his own water.”
This is all objectively very bad and very shady. It is more evidence of Trump directing foreign policy based on what he stands to win or lose. I don't see how Trump's supporters can't see how this is going to make things so much more difficult for the US to operate in the global economy under future presidents. This kind of blatant deal making on the part of the president has tainted the entire office of the presidency. This is exactly what Trump's critics predicted before he ever set foot in the White House and they were right.
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