If Trump Wins ‘The Foreign Policy of the United States of America Could Well Be for Sale’
Newsweek Wednesday published an extensively researched exposé detailing some of the ties Donald Trump’s company, The Trump Organization has around the world. Trump has made clear if he is elected president he will not place his company in a blind trust, and that his children will continue to run it. Newsweek calls Trump’s company, “a sprawling business empire that has spread a secretive financial web across the world,” and warns if he and his family do not entirely divorce themselves permanently from The Trump Organization, he will be “the most conflicted president in American history, one whose business interests will constantly jeopardize the security of the United States.”
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Tuesday night reported on the Newsweek story (video above).
“A close examination by Newsweek of the Trump Organization,” the magazine writes, “including confidential interviews with business executives and some of its international partners, reveals an enterprise with deep ties to global financiers, foreign politicians and even criminals, although there is no evidence the Trump Organization has engaged in any illegal activities. It also reveals a web of contractual entanglements that could not be just canceled. If Trump moves into the White House and his family continues to receive any benefit from the company, during or even after his presidency, almost every foreign policy decision he makes will raise serious conflicts of interest and ethical quagmires.”
The magazine also notes the extreme opportunity for bribery.
“Any government wanting to seek future influence with President Trump could do so by arranging for a partnership with the Trump Organization, feeding money directly to the family or simply stashing it away inside the company for their use once Trump is out of the White House.”
If Trump becomes president, Newsweek concludes, “and his company is not immediately shut down or forever severed from the Trump family, the foreign policy of the United States of America could well be for sale.”