Trump Reality Show Today - Part II

After having spent the last few weeks desperately trying to find any kind of conflict of interest with Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, it appears that the media may have been looking in the wrong place all along. A Newsweek expose reveals the enormous conflicts of interest Donald Trump will have as President due to the wide range of business dealing of the Trump Organization throughout the world. The article describes Trump as being the "most conflicted President ever" if he were to win. The basic international effort of the Trump Organization is to lease the Trump "brand" to buildings being built around the world for a significant licensing fee. The business rarely puts any money into actual project - it merely licenses the Trump name. The Trump Organization has interests in South Korea, India, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, China, Brazil, Bulgaria, Argentina, Canada, France, and Germany. And that is not even a complete list. In many of these countries, the Trump organization has linked up with shady business partners, some of whom have even been convicted of crimes. In South Korea, the parent company of Trump's partner, Daewoo Group, collapsed in a $43 billion accounting fraud. Trump's partner in a building in India may have obtained the land for the building illegally. A partner in Turkey has been charged in a fuel smuggling scheme and a board member was outed as a tax evader in the Panama Papers. In Azerbaijan, Trump's partner is the son of the transportation minister who American diplomatic traffic leaked by WikiLeaks in 2010 considered a money-launderer for the Iranian military. The Trump Organization has even partnered with Muhammar Qaddafi of Libya back in 2008. Trump even offered to lease his estate in Westchester County, New York to Qaddafi in 2009. The plan was eventually scrapped because of local protests but, in typical Trump fashion, he apparently kept Qaddafi's money.

While the media have been calling for all the Clinton family to cut ties with the Clinton Foundation, or even just shut it down, we haven't heard a peep from the press about how Trump should insulate himself from the conflicts of interest that the Trump Organization presents. And, as the article, illustrates, it will be virtually impossible for Trump or the Trump family to separate themselves from the business in any reasonable way. Besides, Trump already knows the business interests and partners he has around the world. That knowledge can not just be ignored or erased. But it would at least be interesting if the press could simply ask Trump about these potential conflicts of interest and how he would deal with them.

One final note, it appears that Trump did not disclose a number of these foreign interests in the financial disclosure forms filed with the Federal Election Commission. Is this just another "oversight" or was Trump trying to hide these interests. Perhaps the media could look into that as well.

Unfortunately, the media's focus on the Clinton Foundation has already laid the groundwork for the old saw of "both sides are corrupt" when it comes to the revelations of these Trump conflicts of interests. But, as the Newsweek article points out, the Clintons receive nothing for their work in the Clinton Foundation. They are volunteers and every dime that comes into the Clinton Foundation is accounted for and transparent through their required charitable filings. On the other hand, Donald Trump and all his family receive significant incomes from the Trump Organization and the sources of the money that flows into the Organization are also opaque. The two can not even be compared. Please read the whole article because it really gives you an idea of who Donald Trump will do business with and what kind of man he really is.