Voices on every side of the aisle are speaking out against the corruption and general foolishness of the Trump Transition, and we as US citizens have plenty to be concerned about:
- Trump has indicated he will nominate retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis for Secretary of Defense. Mattis, however, has not been out of military service for the required seven years. He only retired four years ago, and will need Congress to waive that requirement in order to sit through confirmation hearings. This restriction was put in place (and only waived once, in 1950) to restrict control of the military to strictly civilians. This is to avoid the kind of military-backed governments that tend to be…bad. Trump can nominate any number of other persons, but choosing Mattis presents a challenge to established norms. If Mattis is paseed through, it will represent a significant moment of erosion of crucial norms that we as citizens should not tolerate.
- President-Elect Trump is refusing his intelligence briefings, but according to spokesperson Kellyanne Conway, is “availing himself of the information as provided to him from a number of sources.”
- These intelligence briefings are important, especially considering that he made a phone call to Taiwan today, something a US President has not done since 1979. This is part of US foreign policy and represents an insult to China. This could be part of a radical, fresh approach to diplomacy…but it’s not. Trump has been looking to expand his business into Taiwan, “considering constructing a series of luxury hotels and resorts in [Taoyuan] the northwest Taiwanese city.”
- Trump has not yet, and appears to have no intention of, severing himself from his business interests. All Presidents put their assets into a blind trust, to protect themselves from potential conflicts of interest. He and his team have been warned about this, but have not responded, except with Trump vague tweet about giving a speech on December 15 regarding his business holdings. As George W Bush’s ethics counsel, Richard Painter says, “The presidency is not a branding opportunity”
- He is already up to his hair in conflicts of interest, before he has even sworn the oath. There is his hotel in DC, where Bahrain plans to hold their national day celebration, and which has a federal lease explicitly stating that “No…elected official of the Government of the United States…shall be admitted to any share or part of this Lease, or to any benefit that may arise therefrom…”
- Trump also owes over $350 million to Deutsche Bank for this hotel. This is a problem because Deutsche Bank is currently negotiating a fine with the Justice Department “with regard to how they created and sold mortgage-backed securities before 2008.”
Some Trumpists, including Trump himself, have claimed that he just has too many business interests and they are too big, therefore it would be just too hard to do what is the bare minimum expectation of an incoming President. To that, I would say 1) No it isn’t and 2) If you want to be the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, you shold be ready, willing, and able to make some sacrifices. Mr Khan reminded us at the Democratic National Convention that Donald Trump has “sacrificed nothing,” and we need to remember his words going forward. Do not let Trump get away with a fleecing of the US government. Call your elected officials and ask them to speak out, or to put pressure on Trump’s people however they can.
