Billboard Advertising Trump Tower Manila Features Ivanka Trump as President Invites Philippines Dictator to White House

Violation of Law? Possibly. Violation of Trust? Absolutely. Violation of Human Decency? Inarguably.

Ivanka Trump is the face of the newest Trump Tower, a 57-story complex in Manila, the Philippines. Now that the First Daughter is officially an Assistant to the President, her promoting a private enterprise is receiving backlash, and may be a violation of law. But it gets worse. Even though the Trump Organization does not own the building – they are making millions from licensing their name – President Donald Trump on Saturday called the President of the Philippines, and invited him to the White House. President Rodrigo Duterte is a dictator who has reportedly called himself a one man “death squad,” and is allegedly responsible for thousands of deaths. An invitation to the White House is being seen as a tacit endorsement of human rights abuses and extrajudicial killing.

The combination of a Trump family member who works in the White House promoting a Trump branded product while President Trump hobnobs with that country’s murderous tyrant is too much for many, especially human rights organizations and activists, who are outraged.

But if that level of apparent corruption isn’t enough, add this to the mix.

President Duterte just “appointed the chairman of the company developing the tower, Jose E. B. Antonio, as an envoy to Washington for trade, investment and economic affairs,” The New York Times reports.

There’s no way for the White House to put a positive spin on this level of corruption and the President thumbing his nose at the American people and the world.

Duterte, in addition to having bragged about killing his own people, last year caused an international incident when he called President Barack Obama a a crude homophobic slur and the “son of a whore.” 

“If you are doing an illegal activity in my city, if you are a criminal or part of a syndicate that preys on the innocent people of the city, for as long as I am the mayor, you are a legitimate target of assassination,” he said in 2009. That same 2014 article reported, “The mayor has long been linked to the so-called Davao Death Squad, a vigilante outfit responsible for the execution of drug traffickers, petty criminals, gang members and other lawless elements. More than 700 people went missing between 2005 and 2008, presumed killed by the squad.

TIME magazine last summer reported on Duterte:

“All of you who are into drugs, you sons of bitches, I will really kill you,” he said before his election, in April. A month later, when he was President-elect, Duterte offered medals and cash rewards for citizens that shot dealers dead.

“Do your duty, and if in the process you kill 1,000 persons because you were doing your duty, I will protect you,” he told police officers on July 1, the day after his inauguration. He was speaking at a ceremony installing dela Rosa, his loyal henchman, as the nation’s top cop.

“If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful,” he was quoted as saying to another crowd that day.

This is the man President Trump invited into the White House, in what is described as a “warm” conversation.

Image by Peter Brack via Twitter 
Hat tip: Peter Alexander