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TRUMPS CLAIM

Trump while campaigning in 2016 promised to “drain the swamp.”  I guess you can say he replaced the swamp and turned it into a cesspool.  The NYTimes article “The Swamp That Trump Built” indicated that Trump had not fulfilled this campaign promise.  I disagree, his actions seem more like a criminal enterprise and not a political swamp, thereby earning it the new moniker of “cesspool” as swamp does not come close to the stench of this White House.

The article has multiple authors and goes into finite derail of the grifting going on within the Trump resorts and hotels.  The cesspool is unlike any in modern politics.  The article states…”once Mr. Trump was in the White House, his family business discovered a new revenue stream: people who wanted something from the president.”

An investigation found…”over 200 companies, special-interest groups and foreign government that patronized Mr. Trump’s properties while reaping benefits from him and his administration.  Nearly a quarter of those previously have not been reported.  Just 60 customers with interest at stake before the administration brought his family business nearly $12 million during the first 2 years of his presidency, the Times found.  Almost all saw their interest advanced in some fashion, by Mr. Trump or his government.”

The NYTimes was able to look at his tax filings and determined the revenue streams and looked into the sources of revenues reported.  They found new examples of individuals patronizing his resorts.  The primary resorts were Mar-a-Lago, Doral, and the Trump Washington hotel, the Times found a pattern.  He promised he would not talk to his sons and would not talk business and would divest himself in the 2016 campaign.  Promise not kept.  Trump’s sons would go over the guest lists when Trump was there and determined who they were and what they were about and report to their father. 

The patrons got access to the powers of government and the NYTimes found a pattern of benefits from the president. These benefits varied from access to funding, policy changes, appointments, access to the president to influence policy, laws proposed, bills signed, they also got the tax cuts they wanted.  In the end it became a parasitic symbiotic relationship with a pattern of transactionalism the likes of which is previously unknown in modern history.

Trump’s actions illustrate how the United States has an inherent weakness in the system when someone does not follow precedents and bends rules.  This makes the system vulnerable to corruption.  A system that has been operating for hundreds of years on trust, tradition, honesty and integrity.  We are venerable to political corruption as a result of this unwarranted trust. 

For example taxes, no president should be able to shield his/her financial records for the obvious conflict of interest concerns for someone that is as corrupt as the Donald.  This privacy concern is overshadowed by the need to know any conflicts of interest and national security implications.   The president should make and influence policy to benefit all the people not just the Trump organization. 

Trump did not totally divest himself from his organization and is constantly in touch with his sons on the operation of the enterprise.  This action created a massive loophole and set a very unwise precedent.  The Trump family business should have fully divested in a blind trust such that neither he nor his family would be running the organization while Donald was in office.  Because of the nature of Trump’s enterprises they all require attention of a con man.  His income is mostly derived from his name and brand licensing on buildings owned by others.  It has been reported his golf resorts all were bleeding cash. 

Trump’s son Erik made a habit of consulting Donald on any major transaction. For example on the sale of the scandal ridden SoHo hotel there were multiple calls involving that particular sale.  Trump was constantly checking in as to how Mar-a-Lago was doing.  This is a president checking on dollars and cents and had pledged to be fully divested spending time and energy on himself and not the American public.  Donald has replaced  the slogan “Make America First.” With “Donald First everyone else is on their own” 

Our system of government is not self-correcting. None of these norms are present in the current administration and as a result these norms should be codified in the future.