Be nice to people. This changes the whole environment.
- Manlobbi
Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy❤
No. of Recommendations: 8
A deep story by Eric Lipton, David Yaffe-Bellany, Bradley Hope, Tripp Mickle, and Paul Mozur in the New York Times yesterday suggested that the Trump administration has engaged in an astonishingly corrupt deal in which two multibillion-dollar deals appear to be intertwined.
In May an investment firm run by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who controls the sovereign wealth of the United Arab Emirates, announced it would invest $2 billion in World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency start-up founded by the Trump family and by Steve Witkoff and his son Zach Witkoff. Steve Witkoff is Trump’s Middle East envoy. Two weeks later, the administration permitted the UAE to gain access to hundreds of thousands of the world’s scarcest and most advanced computer chips as part of a new deal to turn the UAE into an artificial intelligence powerhouse. G42, a technology company controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon, would receive many of the chips.
“While there is no evidence that one deal was explicitly offered in return for the other,” the reporters write, “the confluence of the two agreements is itself extraordinary.” “Put plainly, while the U.A.E. was negotiating with the White House to secure chips for G42, a G42 employee was helping the Witkoffs and the Trumps make money.”
—Heather Cox Richardson
No. of Recommendations: 2
Trump, the most corrupt POTUS ever. No contest.
And corruption kills democracy.
Nice job Trump voters.
No. of Recommendations: 6
That reporting on the crypto scheme is what precipitated Trump's $15B suit.
Steve
No. of Recommendations: 4
Trump lines his own pockets?
In other breaking news we have learned that the sun rose in the east this morning, and that the Pope is Catholic.
I don’t want to downplay the fine reporting by these journalists. We desperately need this kind of fact based deep dives. But it’s hardly shocking. The grifter is gonna grift, and he’s now got a great platform for running his grift.
—Peter
No. of Recommendations: 8
he’s now got a great platform for running his grift.
The president of the United States, now increasingly unrestrained by such petty concerns as “oversight”, or “checks and balances”, has increasing power to shovel money from intimidated corporations and foreign states/actors “looking for a deal” into his own pocket.
Perhaps that’s the reason his personal fortuned has doubled in the last nine months.
Or maybe he’s just a good businessman.
+++
And the domestic as well as foreign policies of this country are being implemented by people seeking what end?
Increasingly, the answer to that question does not seem to be the peace, prosperity and tranquility of the United States.
