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Trump and MBS Saudi

One Thousand And One Nights Of Trump Grift

For generations, American foreign policy in the Middle East has been crafted with willful ignorance by people who see the region through the lens of Israel and oil. From the CIA coup in Iran in the 1950s to Cheney and Rumsfeld’s Iraq war folly – arguably the event that destabilized the entire planet by creating tens of millions of refugees, leading to rising fascism in Europe and the U.S – our history in the region is one of murder, mayhem, fecklessness and greed. Major and deadly decisions are routinely made without any appreciation of the history or understanding of the many, heterogeneous communities that live there. Ay-rabs, Eye-rack. In the 1990s, a purge of the “Arabists” in the State Department was even underway. It took 9/11 for the DOD and State to bring back a few Arabic speakers.

However, in the last few weeks, it’s started to become clear that the U.S. is taking a strange new tack.

During Trump One, the grift was mostly on in Ukraine and Russia. Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Rudy Giuliani reeking of duty-free cologne in first-class seats out of Eastern European airports, hauling suitcases of oligarchy pelf. Now, Trump Two has located far greater pots of gold. The Mother of all Piles, the trillions of dollars controlled by a tiny clan of Gulf oil potentates – wealth, which, it must be said, our gas addiction created.

Ever since Mohammed bin Salman, the millennial de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, had his henchmen chop off a Washington Post writer’s fingers and then murder him within earshot of Turkish audio surveillance, it has been clear that the men who control trillion-dollar sovereign wealth funds can do whatever the hell they want to any man, woman, child, or beast on planet Earth.

This week, Trump is being feted by that very finger chopper. He is very much in his element, sipping Diet Cokes under “tank size chandeliers” and parking himself on gilded chairs to talk business with the leaders of the three major Gulf oil fiefdoms. In Trump Twos’s pay-to-play, even Israel is out in the cold. Miriam Adelson’s $100 million campaign donation, reportedly handed over to make sure Trump would not object to Israel seizing the West Bank? Sorry, chump change! Trump blew past Jerusalem on his way to sword dances with the sheiks -- causing intense but veiled terror among the Israeli leaders accustomed to carte blanche in the halls of American power.

In the last few weeks, Don Junior has been on a business tour around Europe, and Eric has also preened around the Middle East. The boys are riding on the U.S. Presidency, raking in tens of millions for the family business with hotel projects and condos in Dubai, Jeddah, and Qatar, where one project’s motto is “Challenge Everything Stop at Nothing.” The bros are not the first presidential relatives to cash in on Dad’s position, but they are the first to openly rake in money that directly benefits the Man in the White House.

Besides the projects, they are road-testing Dad’s meme coin and the family crypto bank, World Liberty Financial. WLF, created just weeks before the election, is an untraceable intake valve for influence buying. And WLF is now humming away, having reportedly sucked in $2 billion from the emirs of Abu Dhabi and the crypto firm Binance, which has been linked to money laundering for terrorism and sex traffickers. Few MAGAs understand what WLF does, and neither do most elected officials, who have been asleep at the wheel while the now even less regulated crypto industry runs amok.

The speed with which the Trump family is enriching itself in Trump Two is dizzying. At this point, metaphors, like satire, are increasingly out of reach for your poor Freakshow scribe. A swarming of termites, hogs at the trough, Coney Island hot dog eating contest? “Virtually every detail of Mr. Witkoff’s announcement, made during a conference panel with Mr. Trump’s second-eldest son, contained a conflict of interest,” wrote the New York Times reporter dispatched to cover Zach Witkoff’s and Eric Trump’s press conference in Dubai. “There’s nothing like it,” said Douglas Brinkley, historian and author of books about U.S. presidents, of the Trump Two family financial windfalls.

And that was before the Qatari royal family offered Trump a Boeing 747-8 refitted as a flying palace, a gift that, according to the President, only a “stupid” person would turn down. In the Middle East, gifting is a common form of corruption known as baksheesh. Most U.S. ethics experts consider it illegal.

The gilded plane, though, seems to have woke the gag reflex of some leading MAGAs: Ben Shapiro, Loomer, and a few Republican Senators are making disgusted noises, and the commentariat from

Jennifer Rubin to Rick Wilson predicts that this gift could be the grift that breaks the camel’s back. But will it?

Could it be that a nearly half-billion dollar offering from an Arab potentate is what it takes to cure the so-far incurable Obama Derangement Syndrome, the racist Brown people are coming to get my stuff mind-virus behind the MAGA fever that turns Trump into a hallucination of white Jesus? There seems to be something about the plane, more than the crypto grift and Trump sons raking it in under their dad’s name, that might even get some action from a third branch of government in Washington.

But, so far, no hint of outrage ruffles the alabaster brow of the nation’s top law enforcement official, Attorney General Pam Bondi. In Trumpworld, there’s no PR stain that a blonde with a conspicuous crucifix can’t wash away.

Pam was a Tallahassee nobody when she first tangled with Trump, taking a $25,000 donation that she personally solicited in 2013 and then backing off a Trump University civil fraud case her office had filed.

Bondi went on to bigger fry. Besides representing Trump in his first impeachment, and eventually parroting the election Big Lie repeatedly in the media, she signed on as a lobbyist for Qatar with the Trump-connected Ballard firm, pulling down $115,000 a month. That job was public knowledge months ago, but it didn’t bother Republican Senators as they rubber stamped her along with one after another of the wackos, conspiracy theorists, and extremist flotsam and jetsam Trump nominated in nose-thumbing gestures to his civil society enemies. Now, though, it’s treated like big news. Hmmm…

Nina Burleigh is a a journalist, author, documentary producer and adjunct professor at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She has written eight books including her recently published novel, Zero Visibility Possible.

Reprinted with permission from COURIER's American Freakshow.

Sadly, Trump Tariffs Mean No Roses For Many Moms

Sadly, Trump Tariffs Mean No Roses For Many Moms

May is usually the best month for florists, Mother's Day being a big reason. But Donald Trump's tariff war is raining pain on their bestselling season.

Pierson's Flower Shop and Greenhouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, expects customers to dial back on purchases because of higher prices forced by tariffs.

"We ship a lot from Europe, we ship a lot from down south, South America," shop owner Al Pierson told KCRG, a local television station. "Everything's being affected."

It's not like mass rose production can be brought to the U.S. Nearly 80 percent of cut flowers sold here must be imported. That's because the U.S. lacks the weather patterns to support a year-round flower industry of significant size.

Colombia and Ecuador do. The high-altitude Andes Mountain range, with a year-round temperate climate, provides ideal growing conditions. The Andean Trade Preference Act of 1991 set off a South American boom in flower exports. (And wouldn't we prefer that those farmers grow roses rather than the coca plants used to make cocaine?)

Before then, fresh roses were more of a luxury product. Consider that in 1989, a dozen long-stemmed roses in a vase were priced between $118 and $170 in today's dollars. Last May, they averaged $90, and roses sold for a lot less at many supermarkets, though they were not long-stemmed and a vase wasn't included.

Thanks to this trade, ordinary Americans have also enjoyed tropical houseplants. Hawaii is the only state sitting squarely within the tropics.

At his recent gathering in Omaha, investment wizard Warren Buffett opined against the trade war for weakening the economy and, not unrelated, creating a world that likes us less.

"We should be looking to trade with the rest of the world," Buffett told the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, "and we should do what we do best, and they should do what they do best."

The Scottish economist Adam Smith voiced that idea almost 250 years ago. Father of classical free-market theory, Smith wrote:

"By means of glasses, hotbeds, and hot walls, very good grapes can be raised in Scotland. ... Would it be a reasonable law to prohibit the importation of all foreign wines, merely to encourage the making of claret and burgundy in Scotland?"

Trump's broad and brainless tariffs — made more toxic by his and J.D. Vance's vulgar insults against other countries — have turned our trading partners against the products that we do best. Canada and other countries, for example, are boycotting the wines that California, Oregon and Washington are especially suited to making.

The U.S. heartland has long been a powerhouse in growing and exporting soybeans, corn, wheat, pork and dairy products. And most of those exports have gone to Mexico, Canada, China and other Asian countries. But Trump's tariff crusade is ruining those relationships, sending U.S. farmers into crisis mode.

His 145 percent tariff on Chinese goods prompted China to retaliate with a 125 percent levy on American products. Thus, in one week last month, China cut its soybean orders by more than 97 percent. China has just done its biggest cancellation of pork products since the COVID-19 pandemic.

And for all the beefing over imports from Mexico, it's important to note that Mexico last year displaced China as the biggest foreign market for American farm exports.

Tariffs have caused bridal boutiques to raise gown prices by up to 30 percent, according to industry experts. Tariff-caused inflation now has brides downgrading from roses to cheaper carnations.

As for Mother's Day roses, many more mothers will this year be doing without.

"I'm planning on a recession, so I've cut my ordering, I'm cutting everything," florist Pierson said.

So are a lot of businesses across the United States. And for no good reason.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

We May No Longer Be Safe In Our Own Country

We May No Longer Be Safe In Our Own Country

In a couple of months, I am planning a business trip to Europe. I don't scare easy, but despite the fact that I'm an American citizen and have committed no crime, I am worried about what might happen when I attempt to come home.

Will Customs and Border Patrol agents pull me from the customs line as they did to Amir Makled? He's an American citizen, too, a lawyer born and raised in Detroit who was returning from a vacation in the Dominican Republic. But he happens to represent a pro-Palestinian student protester.

CBP detained Makled and demanded access to his phone. CBP can demand to examine your phone or laptop under authority to search for child pornography, drug smuggling, human smuggling and other suspected crimes. Last month, a French scientist was denied entry into the United States because border guards searched his phone and found texts critical of Trump.

The European Commission has just announced that it is issuing burner phones to officials traveling to the United States, a measure usually restricted to countries like China or Russia.

"Well," you may say, "that's a nuisance, not a true threat." That's probably right, not because they respect the Constitution or basic decency, but because if they're going to start arresting Trump critics, they have bigger fish to fry.

And yet, consider that Trump is now openly speculating on sending "home grown," U.S.-citizen criminals to the Salvadoran gulag. At his Oval Office meeting with strongman Nayib Bukele, while beaming at Bukele's refusal to return the wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Trump mused about expanding El Salvador's prisons to include American citizens, saying that some of our criminals are just as bad as immigrants and that "I'm all for it."

There are too many layers of outrage here to unpack, but let's just note that even agreeing to send accused (not convicted) illegal aliens to Salvadoran custody violates basic rights. By one estimate, 90% of those deported to El Salvador had no criminal records. Prisoners are held in inhumane conditions, stacked on metal bunks with no bedding 23 1/2 hours per day, subject to torture and summary executions.

Let's also take note of Trump's expansive concept of criminality. Last week, Trump targeted two former officials from his first term, Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor.

Krebs, as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, committed the unpardonable sin of affirming that there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election. In a flagrantly Orwellian order, Trump declared that Krebs "falsely and baselessly denied that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen."

He then directed the attorney general and other officials to scour the record to see if they can find instances of misconduct. This not only violates the semi-sacred separation between the White House and the Justice Department; it is reminiscent of Joseph Stalin's hatchetman Lavrentiy Beria's dictum: "Show me the man and I will find the crime."

Trump's order on Miles Taylor — who as chief of staff of the Department of Homeland Security penned the "anonymous" New York Times piece in the first Trump administration, went even further, accusing Taylor of sowing "chaos and distrust in government" and closing with an accusation of treason.

The prosecutorial power of the state is vast. Even without a conviction, a criminal investigation can upend a person's life and potentially bankrupt them with legal costs. In the Anglo-American tradition, the danger of overweening state power is cabined in many ways: the requirement of a grand jury, the presumption of innocence, the right to trial by jury, the ban on star chambers and many other protections. But these all rest ultimately on the public's sense of what's right.

Back to the airport example. Let's assume that someone in the Trump administration decides to harass me. They could say that I had spread the "false and baseless" claim that the 2020 election was not stolen and therefore sowed "chaos and distrust in government." Or they could allege that I have terrorist ties, as they said about Rumeysa Ozturk, the Turkish grad student who was hustled off the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts. What then?

Republican members of Congress, if asked about my detention, would say that "We have to trust the president's instincts." The Wall Street Journal editorial page would say that this is not ideal because just think of what Democrats might do with this power. And the right-wing media would dredge up every critical word I've ever written about Trump to show that, after all, I had it coming.

Would I be able to consult a lawyer? Fortunately, I'm married to one. But I wouldn't be able to count on legal advice from many of the big firms who are doffing their caps to the president.

I love to travel, but I love to return home even more. The sight of the Stars and Stripes at the airport never fails to move me as I proudly line up in the American passport holders lane. The flag meant home — but it also meant decency and ironclad adherence to the law.

Meant.

Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the "Beg to Differ" podcast. Her new book, Hard Right: The GOP's Drift Toward Extremism, is available now.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Why Is Trump Pressing Romania To Release Accused Trafficker Andrew Tate?

Why Is Trump Pressing Romania To Release Accused Trafficker Andrew Tate?

Despite his repeated claims that he is in favor of “law and order,” Donald Trump’s administration is pressuring the Romanian government to roll back travel restrictions on right-wing influencer Andrew Tate, who has been accused of rape and human trafficking.

Tate is currently under house arrest following his 2023 arrest. Tate and his brother, Tristan, along with two other figures, have been accused of luring women to their home, forcing the women into debt, and pressuring them into filming pornographic scenes that were then shared online. They deny the charges.

The men are also facing similar charges in the United Kingdom.

The women who have made the allegations against Tate have spoken out against Trump’s efforts. Matthew Jury, the lawyer representing the four alleged victims, told the BBC they are “absolutely bewildered why the Trump administration has decided to interfere in this way.”

Tate is a self-described misogynist who sells instructional videos instructing men how to pick up women and has advised men to physically assault women who cheat and to force them into sex. He is one of the most prominent figures in the right-wing “manosphere” of content producers popular among conservative audiences.

He is also a Trump supporter. After the 2024 election, Tate praised Trump as a “hero” who “single handedly kept two evil war mongering she witches out of office [sic],” referring to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Following his arrest, Tate has become a right-wing cause célèbre. Donald Trump Jr. has described Romania’s legal action against Tate as “absolute insanity,” while Trump financier Elon Musk has praised Tate for his long-shot campaign to run for British prime minister.

During his 2024 campaign, Trump pandered to the misogynist manosphere with multiple interviews and appearances on the podcasts and other streaming shows that make up that world. Those appearances were seen as key to Trump’s improved performance with young men in the election compared to the results in 2016 and 2020.

Trump and figures in his administration like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have also extolled the virtues of misogynist, right-wing faux masculinity for years—a sentiment embodied by Tate.

Advocating for Tate, even with the distasteful rhetoric the influencer has used and the seriousness of the charges against him, is a way for Trump to show the manosphere and its audience that he is on their side and advocating for them. Many of these men share the world view that decades of fights for sexual equality are suppressing their rights and are yearning for a return to a misogynist system where women’s views and roles are minimized.

Furthermore, Trump himself is an admitted serial assaulter of women. He has bragged about groping women, been accused of sexual assault, and has surrounded himself with other men that have been the subject of similar accusations.

In Trump’s view, Tate is a fellow traveler. Advocating for the misogynist also feeds into the false narratives promoted by Trump, Musk, and other conservative figures that international governments are in on a conspiracy to suppress “traditional” (misogynist) values.

When Trump rails against “woke” mindsets and pushes to purge it from the U.S. government by rolling back civil rights protections, that also applies to global governments. In their distorted view, Romania’s government is being too “woke” by restricting the movement of an accused sex trafficker.

Trump is not tough on crime, as the freed perpetrators of January 6 can attest. But now that also applies to alleged crime in other countries, as long as the cause of fake masculinity can be advanced.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

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