The Trump Kleptocracy

In July of 2016, at a campaign rally in sunny Florida, Donald Trump said the following:

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing…I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” (Parker & Sanger, 2016)

Essentially, Donald Trump asked Russia to intercede in the U.S. presidential election on his behalf. 

 Fast forward to December 9^th, 2016 and the following headline:

Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House

Dropped into the news cycle late yesterday evening, the Post article says:

“The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter.” (Entous, Nakashima, & Miller, 2016). It is becoming increasingly clear that, if not a willing accomplice in this effort, Trump was, at the very least, a “useful idiot” in Russian efforts to throw the election to him. But this latter seems unlikely given the information revealed thus far.

The CIA briefed Senators, Republican and Democrat last September in a bid by President Obama to build bi-partisan support for a response to this unprecedented meddling in U.S. politics. Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY), had other thoughts on the matter. McConnell, apparently “raised doubts about the underlying intelligence”, going on to view any efforts by the Obama administration to confront Russia on the issue would be “an act of partisan politics” (Entous et al., 2016). It’s worth noting that Trump has tapped Mitch McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, for Secretary of Transportation (Peters & Haberman, 2016). Can you say “Quid pro quo…Clarice”?

Speaking of “quid pro quo”, key Trump appointees to his administration baced the Trump campaign and the GOP to the tune of nearly $12 million (Gold & Narayanswamy, 2016). The list is as follows:

·       Education secretary: Betsy DeVos, $1.8 million (contributed by the DeVos family)

·       Deputy Commerce secretary: Todd Ricketts, $1.3 million (contributed by his parents)

·       Treasury secretary: Steven Mnuchin, $425,000

·       Labor secretary: Andrew Puzder, $332,000

·       Commerce secretary: Wilbur Ross, $200,000

·       Small Business Administration: Linda McMahon, $7.5 million

(Gold & Narayanswamy, 2016)

The take-away here is that Trump is rewarding those contributed to his campaign and/or have demonstrated the moral bankruptcy necessary to enable Trump’s narcissistic tendencies by telling him only what he wants to hear.

With Trump already using his prospective office to benefit his and his children’s corporate interests; the appointment of big money donors and sycophants to his administration, and possible collusion with Russian intelligence assets in the Russian disinformation campaign that aided in his election, the Trump kleptocracy is well underway.

References

Entous, A., Nakashima, E., & Miller, G. (2016, December 9). Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-orders-review-of-russian-hacking-during-presidential-campaign/2016/12/09/31d6b300-be2a-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?utm_term=.42720d204928

Gold, M., & Narayanswamy, A. (2016, December 9). Six donors that Trump appointed gave almost $12 million with their families to back his campaign and the party. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/12/09/the-six-donors-trump-appointed-to-his-administration-gave-almost-12-million-with-their-families-to-his-campaign-and-the-party/?tid=sm_fb&utm_term=.fdde9cf80f41

Parker, A., & Sanger, D. E. (2016, July 27). Donald Trump Calls on Russia to Find Hillary Clinton’s Missing Emails. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/us/politics/donald-trump-russia-clinton-emails.html?_r=0

Peters, J. W., & Haberman, M. (2016, November 29). Trump Picks Elaine Chao for Transportation Secretary. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/us/politics/elaine-chao-transportation-trump.html

"Butt-Hurt"...? Not even close.

The Urban Dictionary defines “butt-hurt” as: “An inappropriately strong negative emotional response from a perceived personal insult.”

The right-wing trolls that voted for a septuagenarian degenerate real estate mogul use “butt-hurt” to describe the dismay, fear and anger over Trump’s, yet to be confirmed, election to the office of President of the United States. Those of us with a measure of common sense and decency, as well as a sense of history are not “butt-hurt”. 

People are not experiencing “An inappropriately strong negative emotional response from a perceived personal insult”. People are experiencing fear of their families being torn apart; fear of psychological and physical violence; fear that the last 60 years of social progress will be wiped out. There is also dismay and outrage at the prospect of a man so eminently unqualified in terms of training and temperament is about ready to squat in the Oval Office, surrounded and supported by racists, anti-Semites, Islamophobes, misogynists, religious extremists, homophobes and yes-men.

The trollish, arrogant, ignorant troglodytes that celebrate Trump as though he were the Second Coming of Christ, are using the term “butt-hurt” to diminish the outrage, anger and fear of millions of Americans over the consequences of this travesty of an election. An election which the old pervert that is their hero and savior lost, by 2.2 million and still counting, the popular vote. 

No, you great effing trolls…This is NOT “butt-hurt”. It is the outrage of every Hispanic and Muslim he has insulted; every woman he, and men like him, have assaulted. It is the fear of women who may find it impossible to secure birth control, never mind a safe, legal abortion. It is the anger and uncertainty of the LGBT community about Mike Pence and his raging homophobia and the uncertainty of whether the recent, hard won rights to have their unions recognized, will vanish. It is genuine, and very real concern that Trump will use the office of President to pad his, and those of his cronies and sycophants, pockets at the expense of everyone who works for a living. There is the very real threat that Trump, and a GOP dominating both the House and Senate will gut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid like yesterday’s fish. 

No, this isn’t “butt-hurt”. It’s not “An inappropriately strong negative emotional response from a perceived personal insult.”. But every Trump-loving troll who says it, wishes it was.