Trump Is Making Deals With Russia to Ensure That His Family and Cronies Profit Big After the Ukraine War Ends
The president is supposed to set U.S. foreign policy according to our national interests. But Donald Trump has been setting it according to his own personal financial interests, selling out Ukraine in exchange for being set up as a pet oligarch by Vladimir Putin.
The Wall Street Journal has a big exposé, but it’s behind a paywall, so see a summary at The Daily Beast:
Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are negotiating with Russian officials to ensure U.S. businesses—and Trump’s friends—are in position to make a killing once the war ends, according to an exhaustive Wall Street Journal report published Friday. …
Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, has been dangling lucrative Russia-U.S. ventures, such as exploiting Arctic mineral resources and teaming up with SpaceX on a joint mission to Mars.
Money from such projects would flow to Trump’s friends and megadonors. Gentry Beach, founder of investment firm America First Global , a college friend of Donald Trump Jr. and Donald Trump campaign donor, is in talks to acquire a stake in a Russian Arctic gas project if it is released from sanctions, according to The Journal.
Trump megadonor Stephen P. Lynch has been working with Trump Jr. to purchase the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which provides vital gas to Europe from Russia.
By coordinating with the U.S. on profitable business ventures, Russia believes it could become an economic powerhouse in Europe while driving a wedge between the United States and its traditional European allies.
For a long time, the central idea of Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy has been the assumption that all Western politicians are corrupt and can be bought. With the Trump administration, he is finding a lot of validation for that idea.
The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.
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