The Trump business corruption is getting really stinky
I heard yesterday that the lovely Ivanka Trump, whose fashion empire is crumbling in the U.S. because consumers are demanding stores stop selling her schmattas, just scored a huge deal in the People’s Republic of China. The Chinese government approved three new trademarks for her “the same day she and husband Jared Kushner sat next to Chinese President Xi Jinping and wife Peng Liyuan…at a Mar-a-Lago state dinner.”
I would have loved being a fly on the wall overhearing that conversation.
The news came just days after Ivanka tweeted,
Ivanka Trump
(@IvankaTrump)
“Thank you Prime Minister Erdogan for joining us yesterday to celebrate the launch of #TrumpTowers Istanbul!”
Honestly, the corruption and nepotism of this regime are stunning. Has America really turned into a banana republic, where the ruling family siphons millions from the public treasury, while the paterfamilias builds a cult of personality?
Apparently so.
Speaking of personality cults, here’s your giggle of the day, and it comes from—where else?—the Wall Street Journal. A right wing writer, Rod Pennington, wrote a pro-Trump op-ed in which he refers, not facetiously, to “President Trump’s mystique.”
How’s that again? When I think of “mystique” I think of glamorous Hollywood stars like Greta Garbo, not politicians. But closely related to “mystique” is the more male “charisma,” and certain U.S. Presidents certainly have possessed it: JFK, Reagan, Barack Obama. But Donald Trump? Do you think Trump has that “it” factor? More like the “yuck” factor. Really, it’s so laughable to see Republicans try to build this guy up, even as everything around him is falling apart.
Who is this “Rod Pennington,” anyway? He’s insulted Hillary Clinton for her “age, weight, thyroid problem, fainting spells and frequent coughing fits,” fake smears that put him squarely in the Alex Jones-Donald Trump camp of people who deliberately lied about Hillary’s health. Of Trump, Pennington tried to normalize the liar by saying, “You’re not worried about all the nonsense Trump says since you’ve never seen a politician keep a single campaign promise in your entire adult life.”
Really? I could write a thousand words on recent Presidents who kept their campaign promises (one example: Obamacare), as opposed to this one, who hasn’t kept a single promise and appears not likely to. In Pennington’s manipulative, utterly cynical way, credulous low-information voters are persuaded by propagandists like him that Trump’s insanity is just like other presidents’.
And now, for the latest example of what is giving Trump and his surrogates headaches, late yesterday the news broke that the FBI is using the dossier—yes, that dossier, the one with the sex stuff in it. Apparently they’re taking it seriously enough to have brought it to the FISA Court to get permission for a wiretap on someone close to Trump, probably Carter Page.
How long will it take for Trump’s remaining supporters to just get really, really tired of this nonsense? The lies, the corruption, the ignorance, the shady business dealings, the refusal to release his taxes, the pussy groping videotapes, the incompetence, the attention-diverting bombing, the sad, increasingly bizarre tweets–it’s all piling up into a huge slagheap of baloney. Being a Trumpist has to be deflating for all those rust belters who counted on him.
The Trumpets don’t seem to care what he does or what high-level job he gives to Ivanka and her husband who have no foreign affairs experience whatsoever. I try to distance myself from it somewhat and support causes I still believe in like Planned Parenthood. I miss the classiness the Obamas brought to the White House.
Hey, Steve, why don’t you write a White House for Dummies book and send it to Trump. His seat-of-the-pants style doesn’t seem to be working!!!
Dear Mary, thanks for the comment! I’d send Trump my White House for Dummies book, but I don’t think he’ll be living there long enough to read it.