“Trump’s company is literally selling access to the president’s son overseas." Trump Jr. heads to India, mixing business and policy https://t.co/XQvOEaulEZ @anniegowen pic.twitter.com/5PQdqpjSJi
— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) February 19, 2018
Lest we overlook, in the crush of events, the Trump family’s ongoing attempt to sell out the country for their own two-bit schemes…
The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is making what has been dubbed an unofficial visit to India to promote his family’s real estate projects. But he’s also planning to deliver a foreign policy speech on Indo-Pacific relations at an event with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi…
During the visit, the 40-year-old Trump Jr., executive vice president of the Trump Organization, will take a break from his private promotional tour to give an address on “Reshaping Indo-Pacific Ties: The New Era of Cooperation” at a global business summit on Friday evening, co-sponsored by the Economic Times newspaper. Modi will also speak at the summit…
“Trump’s company is literally selling access to the president’s son overseas,” said Jordan Libowitz, the communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which is frequently critical of the first family. “For many people wanting to impact American policy in the region, the cost of a condo is a small price to pay to lobby one of the people closest to the president, far away from watchful eyes.”
Critics have often complained of the high cost of Secret Service agents accompanying the Trump children on private business trips, straining the agency’s budget. The Trump Organization’s spokesman did not return requests for comment…
Later this week, Trump Jr. will travel to Mumbai to open the demo unit at the golden-facade Trump Tower being built by the family development firm of Mangal Prabhat Lodha, a state legislator in Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. That relationship has also sparked concern about potential conflicts of interest. As with most of its foreign deals, the Trump family licenses its name to the projects, collecting hefty royalty fees but avoiding risky investments.
“Part of the deal was that Trump would come and do promotions every couple of years,” said an employee of the Lodha Group, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media…
“Ideally we’d have preferred Ivanka,” he said, referring to the president’s elder daughter, who is now an adviser to her father. “She has a better public image. But it makes sense for Donald Trump Junior to do it.”
The Atlantic, “The Ethics of Donald Trump Jr’s Indian Adventure”:
… “When these sons go around all over the world talking about, one, Trump business deals and, two, … apparently giving speeches on some United States government foreign policy, they are strongly suggesting a linkage between the two,” Richard Painter, President George W. Bush’s chief ethics lawyer who is a professor of law at the University of Minnesota, told me. “Somebody, somewhere is going to cross the line into suggesting a quid pro quo.”…
There are numerous Trump projects in India. There are buildings with the Trump name in Pune, a city of about 3 million people near Mumbai. Other projects are underway in Kolkota; Gurgaon, a suburb of New Delhi; and Mumbai. Prices for the luxury apartments range from $780,000 to $1.6 million. Properties are routinely sold for those amounts in India’s largest cities.
What all these projects have in common is that they are licensing agreements—not Trump construction projects. The Trump Organization’s Indian business partners use the Trump name in exchange for licensing fees. The Trump units reportedly sell at a 30 percent premium over the market rate.
“It’s all about status symbols,” Pankaj Bansal, the director of the real-estate firm M3M India, told CNN last month. “People want to be able to say: ‘Come, let’s go have a drink at the Trump Tower.’ That’s what we’re trying to tap into.”…
“If at dinner, he’s going to talk about United States government policy, that suggests a linkage between United States government official action and people buying condominiums [who] have an opportunity to influence United States government,” Painter said.
Trump Jr. was asked about this during his trip. He told CNBC-TV18 that the criticism the Trump Organization was profiting from the presidency was “nonsense.” “It’s sort of a shame,” he said. “Because we put on all these impositions on ourselves and essentially got no credit for actually doing that. … for doing the right thing.” Trump resigned leadership of the Trump Organization upon becoming president, and among other steps, the company announced that it won’t enter any new deals overseas while he is in office. Additionally, it said, domestic projects will be undertaken only after internal ethics approval. But Painter pointed out that the president himself “has a serious financial conflict of interest with his official duties.”….
Come to think about it, last time I can remember this level of blatant nepotistic influence-peddling was during the first Bush presidency, when runt of the litter son Neil was cruising around Asia, collecting ‘consulting fees’ with bonus ‘room service’ visits (“… The women, he said, simply knocked on the door of his hotel room, entered and had sex with him. He said he did not know if they were prostitutes because they never asked for money and he did not pay them…”) But that was a simpler age, and those naughty details didn’t come out until years later, when Neil’s longsuffering wife took him to divorce court. News moves more swiftly these days — and the Trump boys are even dumber than the young Bushes. So, silver lining, by this weekend there could be diverting infotainment stories about Donny Jr’s favorite kinks…
Vox is straightforward — “Donald Trump Jr.’s tour through India is staggeringly corrupt”:
… Trump Jr.’s visit to India not only suggests that the Trump Organization wants to lean into its investments in India — it almost seems designed to invite corrupt behavior.
Experts say Junior is selling access to himself — and by proxy, to the president of the US — in exchange for buying his products. He knows that if a member of the Indian elite wants a chance to advocate for a policy that they’d like to see enacted, buying Trump property is a simple way to do it…
Unlike his sister Ivanka, Trump Jr. is not a formal member of the White House. He’s technically just a businessman running the Trump Organization on behalf of his father.But by delivering a foreign policy speech, Trump Jr. is signaling to Indians that he’s in their country as a businessman and as a surrogate for the US government. If any wealthy Indians were on the fence about whether it was worth buying a condo just to talk to Trump Jr. about, say, trade policy, the fact that he’s delivering that speech should make it seem worthwhile. Trump Jr. is sending a clear signal that he wants to talk policy.
And since he is deliberately blurring the lines between his role as a businessman and as the son of the president, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to conclude that President Trump’s foreign policy could be for sale to the highest bidder…
Experts say the Trump brand is thriving in India in part because Trump himself appeals to large swaths of the population, both for his politics and for his perceived business acumen.
“[Trump is] popular on the right, especially among supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the current ruling party in India, who admire his Islamophobic rhetoric and blunt nationalism,” Aditya Dasgupta, a scholar of Indian politics and economics at the University of California Merced, told me…
Niranjan Sahoo, a senior fellow with the Observer Research Foundation, a think tank in New Delhi, told me the Trump Organization is also reaping the benefits of taking a gamble on India’s market. He said that many other foreign companies have stayed away from India’s real estate market due to concerns about corruption and bureaucracy…
Cringeworthy stuff from Don Jr. https://t.co/uT09s4isFN
— Sam Stein (@samstein) February 20, 2018
Hard to find a more blatant conflict of interest than @DonaldJTrumpJr flying around the world to sell condos. Apparently he's also exporting racism and stupidity. https://t.co/obWmTefzYO
— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) February 20, 2018
Jerzy Russian
Christ, what an asshole!
Cheryl Rofer
Ivanka is not to be outdone.
PhoenixRising
Am I the only American who remembers the scandal of Billy Beer?
They made him sell the got dam peanut farm.
Villago Delenda Est
Well, yes, he’s exporting racism and stupidity. Those are two things the Trump Crime Family has as surfeit of.
Villago Delenda Est
@PhoenixRising: Two scandals: Billy selling beer, and the beer itself, which sucked big time.
Cheryl Rofer
I saw a suggestion on Twitter today that Congress nationalize the Trump businesses. Of course, this Paul Ryan / Mitch McConnell Congress won’t do that. But something to think about.
Cheryl Rofer
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
but, but… Bill Clinton raised money for charity! Both sides!
efgoldman
@PhoenixRising:
And was it Shernan Adams who got fired in the Eisenhower administration for accepting a vicuna coat?
Yes I’m that old.
Villago Delenda Est
@Cheryl Rofer: OK, what is wrong with Will? Misspelled “delegation” in first sentence, fixed in second sentence? No spell check in Atlanta?
MIke in NC
My wife loves to cruise antique shops and consignment stores, and over the years we’ve run into six packs of Billy Beer at a number of places. No idea if it actually has collector value.
Cheryl Rofer
Sorry to hit and run, y’all, but I’m going to bed.
The kids are okay.
M. Bouffant
Ah, Hinduism, yet another great religion that’s given the world thuggee, & little else.
M. Bouffant
@efgoldman: Yep, Sherman Adams.Remember Billie Sol Estes & L.B.J.?
Corner Stone
@M. Bouffant: Now we’re getting somewhere.
rikyrah
AL,
Your post title tickled me ??
efgoldman
@M. Bouffant:
These days Adams and Estes wouldn’t even qualify as mini-scandals
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@M. Bouffant: well, Hinduism has given the world yoga, too, although they probably didn’t intend that one.
SFAW
Speaking of $27 grifters:
This may have already been noted on another thread, but:
New article in Politico — “Bernie blames Hillary for allowing Russian interference”
As Cole said: “shut the fuck up old man”
MomSense
@Jerzy Russian:
Evergreen ? comment for every post about the trump family and administration.
Major Major Major Major
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: And of course Buddhism has the same wellspring. Also bhang, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Jager
My old man was a car dealer, everybody I met thought I could get them a “deal” on a car. My old man never even gave me a deal on a car.
PhoenixRising
@efgoldman: Is a vicuña an animal? a plant fiber?…you know what, forget it, I’m scared to search for it in case I trigger rule 34. Will ask my mom about Ike-era scandals.
Major Major Major Major
@PhoenixRising: It would appear to be a wild South American camelid.
SFAW
@PhoenixRising:
Considering you (correctly) added a tilde to “vicuna,” I’m guessing you already did some searching.
Fair Economist
(to the tune of “I can do anything better than you”)
Junior: I can do corruption better than you can! I can do corruption better that you!
Jared: No you can’t!
Junior: Yes I can!
Jared: No you can’t!
Junior: Yes I can! Yes I can!
Captain C
@Villago Delenda Est: My high school Latin teacher said that Billy Beer tasted like it was brewed through a horse.
Doug R
@M. Bouffant:
No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Lyrebird
@Cheryl Rofer:
The kids ARE okay… the ones that made it through okay that is…
Some proud deplorable creep tweeted something like, “what would you do to your child if he/she humiliated a US Senator on the teevee” Sorry I don’t know how to embed a tweet. The replies are awesome, including:
M. Bouffant
@Captain C: All beer comes out of the same horse.
Steve in the ATL
What up, fellow west coasters and the odd east coast insomniac—have I missed any excitement today?
Corner Stone
@Steve in the ATL: “How do you do, fellow kids?”
Anne Laurie
@Steve in the ATL: If it matters, I can’t reach you through the addy on your comments… so if you want me to post anything else about meet-ups, in STL or otherwise, send me a message at annelaurie (dot) bj (at) gmail (dot) com, okay?
Major Major Major Major
@Steve in the ATL: I got to play with some fun data structures.
Steve in the ATL
@Anne Laurie: thank you! I sent you a message earlier through the “contact a front pager” link. Why did I have to enter my SSN and bank account info?
Steve in the ATL
@Corner Stone: (turns baseball cap around and sits backward on chair) “let’s rap!”
Steve in the ATL
@Major Major Major Major: is that like playing with Legos?
SFAW
@Steve in Janesville:
Fixed your nym/nom
Steve in the ATL
@SFAW: lol. That had to have been one of the most embarrassing photo shoots ever!
Major Major Major Major
@Steve in the ATL: Let’s go with Lego Technic.
@Steve in the ATL: It’s up there.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
How stupid are these people?
I heard a funny (true) story along those lines many years ago, most of which I probably can’t relate unfortunately. However, it was so obvious to the storyteller and the audience that the beautiful ladies (and, when our hero turned them down, young men) showing up unannounced at the door were for blackmail purposes… it would have been an insult to everyone’s intelligence to even explain that. It’s like pausing during a story about a torrential downpour to explain that rain makes you wet.
I can tell you the punchline: He finally invited one of the ladies in, after putting a pillowcase over his head.
Redshift
OT, but I figure we could all use a little joy (and/or schadenfreude at wingnut helpless rage)
Obama paintings bring huge crowds, excitement to National Portrait Gallery
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve in the ATL: Don’t know, I was out taking pics of DTLA and old Victorian houses.
SFAW
@Steve in the ATL:
Well, at least you were in good shape. But how did you ever manage to zombify your eyes? Lots of practice? Or just a natural thing?
Major Major Major Major
Meanwhile in News You See In The Background At The Start Of The Movie, National Geographic: Sheep-Human Hybrids Made in Lab—Get the Facts
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major: WAKE UP SHEEPLE!
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: Oh, can we say ‘sheeple’ now?
ETA nice twitter emojis
Steve in the ATL
Hockey chicks!!!
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
US girls just won Hockey gold in sudden death overtime//shoot-out
unreal.
JCJ
O/T – USA!!!
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major: Told you I was stealing it. Changed my banner too, but not really anything exciting.
Mike J
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I think you mean WE girls. Learn some grammar, dude.
JCJ
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
That was so exciting. Now I have to get to bed so I can wake up in five hours. I’ll be dead tired, but worth it!
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.)
That bit about how the poors in India were better because they’re so upbeat, and presumably entrepreneurial, unlike the lazy asshole losers elsewhere, kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Honduras has poverty that stacks up against anything India can throw at it, and most of the people make the best of it. They live their lives, they do the best they can, and I’ll stack Hondurans’ work ethic against anybody else’s in the world. They’re always looking to find some kind of edge, a way to break free from poverty.
A lot of them never do, since the hand they drew at birth was so bad there wasn’t any way to make much headway without some kind of miracle. And miracles have a way of drawing toward those who least need them.
He’s kissing Indian’s asses because he wants something from them, not because he gives a shit about how hard the poor work. That’s just local scenery to give the setting a little more earthiness and authenticity. But he doesn’t care about them. The poors. They can’t help him, so he doesn’t want anything to do with the losers.
This whole family makes the Bushes look like missionaries who spend their whole lives living in the poorest places in the world, teaching children in grass huts for food and a room.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: I remember you complimenting them… :)
ETA: Well, you’ll have to let me know if anybody ever asks.
Mnemosyne
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.):
I had my doubts about them at the time, but W’s daughters seem to have turned out to be reasonably normal. I think Barbara is even a Democrat.
Trump’s kids are just as fucked up as he is.
SiubhanDuinne
@Villago Delenda Est:
Will Ripley is an award-winning correspondent for CNN, based at the network’s Tokyo bureau.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major: You made me check, I said, “Emojis appropriated.”
I think they look like they should be on the back of Eric von Zipper’s jacket.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: Ohh, I think I misread it as ‘appreciated’.
Demon rats 2018!
smike
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.): I’m from Tx. and I didn’t think that anything could be more of an embarrassment to this country than W on the world stage. It is up to us to save this country, but I don’t know if we can. The venality of the trump clan is staggering and we are still in the ‘looks kinda bad’ stage?
NotMax
Can imagine it now.
“Where’s the beef?”
Dolt Jr. in India
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@JCJ:
NotMax
Can imagine it now, part the deux.
“What’s that? Your say (snort, snigger) your company manufactures (tears of laughter now streaming down face) Tatas?”
– Dolt Jr. in India
NotMax
To paraphrase the classic hockey comment, sounds above as if folks were watching NBC’s Olympics coverage and a sport broke out.
Anne Laurie
@Steve in the ATL: Got your message, thanks! (But not your bank info, darn google… )
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@NotMax:
Betty Cracker
As a native Floridian, I don’t really get hockey, but his was pretty cool:
Kathleen
@efgoldman: Yup. And speaking of Rethuglicans and their coats, I’m old enough to remember Pat Nixon’s “Republican broad cloth coat”.
J R in WV
@Captain C:
My Grandma said of all beer, that it needed to be run through the horse once more. She was a Baptist, kind of. My uncle, her son, ran moonshine into town rather than go into the mines, before WW II, when he god a GREAT job as a turret gunner on a heavy bomber in the South Pacific.
A great opportunity to see parts of the world all burnt and shattered by combat. He never spoke of it, but after they were all dead I found his silver wings tarnished in Mom’s jewelry case, he had given them to his little sister. I gave them to his son, my cousin, who was born probably 20 or 25 years later on.
AnneWith
So I’m reposting this comment about Illinois politics because the thread downstream was thoroughly dead by the time I got to it:
Zinsky
But, but, but….HILLARY’S E-MAILS!!! Oh, the horror of Hillary’s private e-mail server! Even though no one in America has ever (EVER!) gone to jail over using a private e-mail server to receive government e-mails, we must make an exception with the former First Lady of the United States and send her to prison for the rest of her life!
Mel
@J R in WV: My grandfather was in the Navy, on a ship in the Pacific during WWII. Same with him – during most of his life after the war, he hardly ever talked about what he saw or experienced. Very late in his life, though, he would occasionally, unexpectedly, relate a small part of his feelings or his memories.
One day, we were talking about a friend of mine whose father had died suddenly. Out of the blue, my grandfather related the story of his and other ships taking heavy aircraft fire. He described seeing a Japanese plane get shot down and hit the ocean so close to his ship that he got a momentary distant blurry glimpse of the pilot’s face.
Grandpa said that every night for the rest of his life, he wondered if that pilot had had a wife and parents and a daughter or son at home, just like he did, and he felt a terrible conflict between his joy and relief at seeing the plane shot down before more US Navy lives were lost, and the horror of seeing the pilot’s face and the sudden realization that the pilot had probably been a guy who had had a life not unlike Grandpa’s until the war. Fall in love, get married, work all day looking forward to coming home to the people you love, celebrate birthdays and anniversaries and the arrival of a baby, worry and hope and dream with your spouse about the future…
schrodingers_cat
@M. Bouffant: Trump Jr is Hindu? I did not know that. The things one learns on this blog.
More seriously Thugee of the Victorian era was the Islamic terrorism of today. The British labelled anyone who opposed them/resisted them or their rule “thugs”. They were not all Hindu either. How dare people stand up against the benevolent white man just doing his Christian duty, amirite? Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was movie not history.
An academic take
by Stewart Gordon in case you are interested.
And a blog post
WaterGirl
@AnneWith:Not exactly sure which thread that was on, but I replied to your comment on the dead thread earlier this morning.
No Drought No More
“Money corrupts”. Apparently, even common sense. Here’s a guy looking at years in prison, and, incidentally, historical infamy, yet acting as if the presidential power to pardon is his get out of jail free card. It hasn’t occurred to Jr. he’s instead holding aces and eights, the subject at hand being treason and all…
CapnMubbers
@Kathleen: “respectable Republican cloth coat”; that adjective stuck in my mind all these years for the irony.
AnneWith
@WaterGirl:
Found it, thanks!
I’ve seen arguments on The Capitol Fax that maintain that even if the pension protection was removed from the state constitution, it wouldn’t help matters because the supremes would say that it wouldn’t apply to pensions already earned, & new hires have a different pension plan anyway. (Someday I expect our state supremes to file a ruling which says, “Read the last ruling, and read our lips: YOU HAVE TO PAY THE PENSION FUND BACK.”)
Tehanu
We never watch TV news but accidentally saw Donnie Jr. when we were waiting for the figure skating final. I’ve never seen anyone, including his old man, who deserves more to have his head spontaneously explode while talking.