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CRITICAL REVIEW OF 100 DAYS OF NEPOTISM,

IGNORING ETHICS AND MAKING THE TRUMPS
RICHER BY PAUL BLUMENTHAL

Donald John Trump, or widely known as Donald Trump, is the 45 th

President of the United States. His competition with his only rival in the election,
Hillary Clinton, was so viral and got billions people attracted about the issue.
Donald Trump won the election and was inaugurated on January, 20th 2017 in
White House, marking the commencement of the four-year term of Donald Trump
as the President of the United States. His term of serving as the President of the
United States entered the 100th day on Saturday, April 29th 2017. How the
government was held, what have happened through all this time, what does United
States become, are all told through the eye of Paul Blumenthal.
Paul Blumenthal in his article 100 Days of Nepotism, Ignoring Ethics and
Making The Trumps Richer, as published in Huffington Post in April, 29 th 2017
at 5:46 a.m. eastern time, makes four main points. Blumenthal stated that Donald
Trump has left a trail of broken promises and unaccomplished goals in his first
100 days in office; he broke ethical norms as he used his status as a president to
his personal benefit, commiting nepotistic practices, and lashed out his rival,
Hillary Clinton; he convinced reader to believe an expert in ethics and campaign
funding that Donald Trump is the worst president in modern times in terms of
issues involving ethics, conflicts of interest, protecting the integrity of the
presidency and the government; Donald Trump brought pollitical and nations
matter to be discussed in Mar-a-lago, one of his resort in Palm Beach, Florida; he
brought the opinion of an expert in government corruption which is also approved
by the former of the U.S. diplomats to countries with high rates of corruption that
foreign countries are happy to put money in the presidents pocket; the children of

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Donald Trump still try to enrich the Trumps by expanding the business. While I
agree with some of Blumenthal opinions about Trumps sins in his 100 days of
serving as the President of United States, I also personally disagree with some of
his statements.
I also can tell that the way he delivers some of his opinions is not very
good. They would have been more concerned seriously if he put more significant
proofs from reliable and trustworthy source to his opinions. Meanwhile, his word
arrangement clearly tells that he has a very deep loathe of the current President of
United States which refers that he tends to be Hillarys supporters, the opponent of
the serving president Donald Trump that might be quite weird for neutral readers
who do not take any sides.
Blumenthal starts his article by claiming that President Donald Trump has
left a trail of broken promises and unaccomplished goals in his first one hundred
days. This offensive statement is somewhat too early to be declared. However,
Donald Trump only served for 100 days which is only 6.8 percent of his term and
the United States still has more than 4 years ahead with him, unless things
happen within that period. Blumenthal might have declared that because of what
he has witnessed during that time, but it might have been better to say this in a
good way to remind him of what he has promised in case he forgot and needs to
be reminded.
Next, the author declared that Donald Trump broke with decades of ethical
norms when he announced on January 11th that he would not divest from his
multibillion-dollar international business. Later, Trumps decision to install his
daughter and his son-in-law Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner to be the senior
White House advisers shows how the nepotistic practices are done in the
superpower country. In my opinion, Blumenthals statement is irresistibly true.
For me, it is a must that a stakeholder of an organization should put his/ her
personal business outside his/ her organization matter. That is called being a
professional.
Blumenthal also discussed a little about Hillary Clinton. He said that
Trumps subversion of the presidency to serve his interests came after he
campaigned on a decidedly anti-corruption and called Hillary Clinton the most

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corrupt person ever to seek the presidency. I actually do not too go along with
this paragraph. I mean, it is true when that we talk about Trump, Clinton is also
mentioned, and it happened the other way, but unfortunately, Clintons slight
appearance in Blumenthals article leave impression that he was not a neutral
writer.
Then, Blumenthal cites the statements of Fred Wertheimer, an expert in
ethics and campaign funding, that Donald Trump is the worst president in modern
times in terms of issues involving ethics, conflicts of interest, protecting the
integrity of the presidency and the government as the president maintains a
worldwide business that licenses his name for fees but at the same time, hes
serving as president which open the door to corruption and influence buying. For
me, I can say that the way Blumenthal delivers the message inside through the
opinion of an expert is a brilliant idea. It is literally persuading and influencing so
that the readers mindset may be interfere with Wertheimers opinion.
Unfortunately, Blumenthal has mentioned president branding in the early
paragraphs which is explained further by Wertheimer. This repetition distracts me
a bit and I am sure that any repetition would not be good.
Next, the author tried to gain more proofs that Trump try to enrich himself
by bringing pollitical and nations matter to be discussed in Mar-a-lago, one of
Trumps resort in Palm Beach, Florida, when he met Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The resort doubled its initial
membership fees from $100,000 to $200,000 days after Trump assumed the
presidency. Blumenthal also said that Trump has visited a Trump-owned property
on 31 of his first 100 days in office. As a neutral reader, I think I would absolutely
ask, from where does he know all this matter? Are all that written there true?
Could I just believe what were there? His statements for me leave many enigmatic
questions and that is not pretty good. He could just add the reliable source of the
written cases. Blumenthal also made miswritten of the title of Shinzo Abe who is
not Japanese President but Japanese Prime Minister.
Using the persperctive of an expert seems to be Blumenthals power to
convince the readers. He cites Sarah Chayes, an expert in government corruption,
that it is no surprise that foreign governments with high rates of corruption are

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happy to put money in the presidents pocket by renting the presidents hotel,
because they recognize the arrangement. Again, Blumenthal cites the former U.S.
diplomats to countries with high rates of corruption and nepotism, Joseph C.
Wilson IV, ambassador to Gabon and Sao Tome Principe from 1992 to 1995, who
agree with Chayes. Again, I think that his methods to lead the readers mind by
using the opinion of experts is smart.
Later, Blumenthal one more time discussed about Ivanka Trump and Jared
Kushner about being the top White House aid and Chinese President Xi Jinping in
Mar-a-Lago. And I must say one more time that repeating any sentences in an
article is distracting. Then, it once more left questions about the authenticity
Blumenthal has written and he should put trustworthy source that he said in Mar-
a-Lago with Chinas Xi, the Chinese government approved five new trademarks
of Ivanka Trumps company.
The author ends his opinion by telling about Trumps children effort to
expand their business in the region where their father still has high eligibility. And
they still go abroad to check on the familys deals over their promise to halt any
new foreign deals.
I think, Blumenthal long statements about the nepotism, igonoring ethics,
and making Trumps richer is quite reasonable. He had collected many proofs but
still needed reliable source with them. Actually we have already seen how the
Donald Trump was too badly a businessman with incridible assets who is now
serving as the President of the Superpower Country, United States. He was truly
not separate personal matter and nations matter and it has never been done before
while the scale here is huge. However, there are still about 1360 days ahead. We
will never know what is going to happen.

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 100 DAYS OF NEPOTISM, IGNORING ETHICS AND MAKING THE
TRUMPS RICHER
By Paul Blumenthal

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump has left a trail of broken

promises and unaccomplished goals in his first 100 days in office. Yet Trump has
changed the White House in one major way: He has used the pomp and prestige of
the presidency to serve his own bottom line.

When Trump announced on Jan. 11 that he would not divest from his
multibillion-dollar international business, he broke with decades of ethical norms.
Dollars flowing into his business during his time in the White House will accrue
to his personal benefit. More than that, the Trump brand has gotten a permanent
makeover thanks to the intangible assets the Office of the President of the United
States bestows.

In his first 100 days, Trump has routinely advertised the link between the
presidency and his brand. He has stated that ethics and conflict-of-interest laws
and constitutional provisions do not apply to him. He has embraced the nepotistic
practices more typically seen in pseudo-democracies and dictatorships by
installing Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump as senior White House advisers.

This casual attitude about ethics has trickled down in his administration.
His aides promoted his familys business on television, U.S. embassies promoted
his properties on government websites and his unpaid advisers have advocated for
their self-interest. This is not even to mention his disgraced former national
security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, lying about payments from
foreign governments and meetings with foreign diplomats.

Trumps subversion of the presidency to serve his interests came after he

campaigned on a decidedly anti-corruption message to drain the swamp and
called his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton the most corrupt person ever to
seek the presidency.

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 Fred Wertheimer, an expert in ethics and campaign funding, helped pass
and institute the regime of ethics and campaign finance laws and norms that
Trump now barely acknowledges as applying to him. From his work at the
nonprofit Common Cause in the 1970s to his current role as head of Democracy
21, Wertheimer has seen and fought against many forms of Washington
corruption, including Watergate, the campaign finance abuses of the 1990s, Jack
Abramoffs corrupt lobbying and the Supreme Courts 2010 Citizens United
decision.
President Trump is the worst president we have had in modern times in
terms of issues involving ethics, conflicts of interest, protecting the integrity of the
presidency and the government, Wertheimer told HuffPost.
Wertheimer explains the situation like this: The president maintains a
worldwide business that licenses his name for fees. At the same time, hes serving
as president. His family members, his daughter, his son-in-law maintain their
business operations. This is what happens in countries all over the world where
leaders use their office to enrich themselves and open the door to corruption and
influence buying.
Trumps family business specializes in one thing: brand management.
Trump says hes a dealmaker, but his true skills lie in advertising and marketing.
He has licensed his name to more than 50 real estate properties around the world,
earning him tens of millions of dollars in revenue. And he has already turned the
presidency into a marketing tool for his for-profit interests.
Everything he owns has increased value not as a result of him but as a
result of the presidency, and they have said so, Wertheimer said. His brand is no
longer Donald Trump. His brand is President Donald Trump.
Eric Trump, who now runs the Trump Organization with his brother
Donald Trump, Jr., told the New York Times in March, I think our brand is the
hottest it has ever been.
As he did on the NBC reality TV show The Apprentice, Trump makes
sure his properties are advertised to his supporters and cable news viewers on a
regular basis, permanently imbuing his business with the presidential brand.

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 Trump has visited a Trump-owned property on 31 of his first 100 days in
office and on some days hes visited more than one. The press reports on each
visit, essentially advertising the property to the public as the federal government
pays money directly to the property to rent space, rooms and even golf carts. The
State Department and at least three U.S. embassies even advertised one of his
properties online in April when a blog post about Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort was
shared on government websites and on their social media accounts.

He has spent seven of his first 14 weekends as president at his Mar-a-Lago

resort in Palm Beach, Florida, using the resort to conduct official presidential
business. He hosted an open-air situation room when he consulted with Japanese
President Shinzo Abe on how to respond to a North Korean missile test launch on
the resorts wide-open outdoor patio.

On another Mar-a-Lago weekend, this time when Chinese President Xi

Jinping was visiting, Trump made the decision to fire 59 Tomahawk missiles at an
air base in Syria.

Trumps visits make his for-profit resort a permanent part of presidential

history, which wouldnt matter except that hes the one who benefits financially.

The presidential visits to Mar-a-Lago also afford members unprecedented

access to the president for a fee. (The resort doubled its initial membership
fees from $100,000 to $200,000 days after Trump assumed the presidency.)
Members can also bring guests hoping to get the presidents ear.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) who was a bitter rival of Trumps during the
GOP primaries helped facilitate a meeting between Trump and lvaro Uribe
and Andrs Pastrana, two former conservative presidents of Colombia, at Mar-a-
Lago earlier this month, where they lobbied Trump to oppose the peace deal
between the current Colombian government and the countrys left-wing FARC
rebels. The two former presidents were able to secure a private meeting with
him at Mar-a-Lago when a member reportedly brought them in as guests.

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 Trump has also visited the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.,
twice since his inauguration to dine on his favorite well-done steak with ketchup
at the hotels BLT Steak restaurant

The hotel is the perfect symbol of how Trump has intertwined his personal
business interests with the operations of the U.S. government. The federal
government actually owns the historic building the hotel occupies, which means
Trump is both the landlord and the tenant at a property that is actively generating
profits for his family. Trumps lease with the General Services Administration
technically prohibits elected officials from taking part in it but now that Trump
heads the executive branch, the agency has decided that provision doesnt apply to
him.

Hotel management has already taken advantage of Trumps presidential

glow to pitch foreign governments on staying there. Less than 10 days after
Trump won the election, his D.C. hotel hosted a gathering for about 100 foreign
diplomats and tried to convince them to book rooms there when they stayed in
Washington.

Why wouldnt I stay at his hotel blocks from the White House, so I can
tell the new president, I love your new hotel! one diplomat explained to The
Washington Post. Isnt it rude to come to his city and say, I am staying at your
competitor?

Since then, the governments of Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Saudi

Arabia and Kuwait have booked rooms or hosted events at Trumps hotel. A
business group affiliated with the government of Turkey will host both Turkish
and American government officials at its annual conference at the Trump hotel in
May. (While Trump promised to hand over foreign profits from his hotel to the
U.S. Treasury, his company has not answered questions on how it will do so.)

Sarah Chayes, an expert in government corruption at the Carnegie

Endowment for International Peace, told HuffPost that it is no surprise that
foreign governments with high rates of corruption are happy to put money in the
presidents pocket. Thats because they recognize the arrangement.

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 What all his bombast and straight-talking hid is the fact that this is very
similar to the structure of governments Ive been looking at in places like
Azerbaijan, Honduras, Serbia, Nigeria, you name it, Chayes said.

Chayes isnt alone in her comparison. Former U.S. diplomats to countries

with high rates of corruption and nepotism agree.

I think that by the example theyre setting you can bet that is going to
filter down throughout American governance and throughout the global
commercial world, said Joseph C. Wilson IV, ambassador to Gabon and Sao
Tome Principe from 1992 to 1995.

The commercial enterprise Trump is most involved in high-end real

estate is already known around the world for infamous cases of corruption and
money laundering through shell companies. In 2015, the Department of Justice
launched a pilot program requiring real estate buyers to disclose their real
identities in a handful of major U.S. cities.

But that program did not apply to real estate purchases in Las Vegas,
where Milan Investments, a limited liability company with anonymous
owners, paid $3.1 million to buy 11 condos at the Trump International Las Vegas,
which Trump co-owns. Because of the hidden ownership, its impossible to know
if the sale was purely commercial.

Comparisons of the Trump administration to corrupt foreign regimes go

beyond the many opportunities for influence that his continued ownership of his
business creates. They also extend to the employment of his daughter Ivanka
Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner as top White House aides.

Both Ivanka Trump and Kushner maintain loose connections to their own
corporate enterprises. In fact, the day Ivanka Trump sat next to Chinas Xi and his
wife at a Mar-a-Lago dinner, the Chinese government approved five new
trademarks for her company. Her company continues to apply for trademark
protection around the world as sales of her brand soar thanks to her increased
publicity.

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 This is just like companies that hire the Chinese princelings as a way of
getting their permits agreed on, said Chayes, who blew the whistle on corruption
in Afghanistan and studies kleptocratic networks around the world.

The presidential brand even extends to Trumps adult sons, who have been
assigned to run the family business in his stead. Even though the Trump
Organization promised to halt any new foreign deals after Trump assumed office,
Donald Jr. and Eric Trump still travel overseas to check on the familys deals that
were already underway. When they travel, as they have to Canada and Dubai,
they show up with Secret Service in tow.

Not only is it costly for the taxpayers to send agents on international

business trips, but the visual of the presidents sons arriving with armed
government protection also serves the interests of the Trump business. When a
person shows up with a gigantic Secret Service contingent, that is a negotiating
benefit, Chayes said. That improves his negotiating position when hes
negotiating with weaker and smaller countries, which is every other country in the
world except China.

In the U.S., the Trump sons are trying to expand their hotel business. They
have so far had difficulty opening new hotels in cities where the president is
unpopular. The familys past cooperation with shady businessmen with unknown
foreign sources of investment also posed problems for the Trump sons plans to
brand a hotel in Dallas. Now theyre hoping to expand in regions of the
country where their father is still popular.

No one has ever tried to pull off what President Trump is attempting here,
which is to turn the way in which our democracy functions into the way corrupt
countries function to enrich their leaders, Wertheimer said. Its just never been
done, and the scale here is enormous.

But then again, were only 100 days in.

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Source:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-first-100-days-nepotism-
wealth_us_59039ce4e4b0bb2d086e6d4f , accessed on Sunday, April 30th, 2017
6:37:00 AM.

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