Trump's submission to foreign leaders' orders: Tote Board

Politics & Elections
1

Of course this tote board won’t really get going until Trump takes office. But already we’re seeing an explicit example of how Trump’s obedience to orders given him by foreign leaders will be manifested (in the Turkey situation).

Equally of course, Trump won’t frame his submission to orders as submission–he’ll say that whatever he’s doing (on orders) is All His Own Idea. But he will be obedient all the same.

In the case of Turkey: The Turkish leader, Erdogan, has a political enemy who’s been living in the USA for several years. Erdogan would like to get his hands on this enemy. But the US Government has been saying ‘no, we won’t give him to you’ consistently for, again, years. (The enemy is a Turkish cleric named Fethullah Gulen who’s been living in the US for seventeen years; he got a green card in 2001.)

So Erdogan realized that Trump has MONEY at risk in Turkey–namely, he’s been getting and hopes to continue to get huge fees from a company run by a family called Dogan (for use of the Trump name on “twin towers” in Istanbul).

Lo and behold, Erdogan arrested an executive of this company on, er, trumped-up charges. And:

The Newsweek story details additional opportunities that world leaders will have to give Trump orders—'do as I say or you will be out $$$$$$$$$$$!’ And Trump will do as they say:

The Philippines:

Duterte orders Trump to praise him and support him against the condemnation of the rest of the world; Trump complies. After all, Trump’s money is at stake!
Taiwan:

On December 3, Trump made headlines by taking a phone call from Taiwan’s President–in defiance of decades of US precedent both about dealing with Taiwan and about what role presidents-elect are supposed to take in interfering with US foreign policy (none).

Did the leader of Taiwan order Trump to ‘recognize us, or you won’t be able to build your hotel here?’–we don’t yet know. But it’s perfectly possible.

Then we come to the most obvious of leaders-Trump-will-obey:

Russia’s Putin:

Though Trump probably has convinced himself that Putin thinks he’s wonderful and brilliant–and Trump is desperate for Putin’s approval–the more likely stimulus that will ensure his obedience to Putin is, again, money.

As Trump’s son admitted some years ago:

And it’s been speculated that Russian banks may have underwritten loans to Trump after US banks no longer would do so:

http://www.dailynewsbin.com/opinion/deeply-in-debt-to-russians-donald-trump-may-only-be-running-for-president-to-avoid-bankruptcy/25398/

The Bloomberg citation mentioned above: Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Trump has financial concerns in dozens of countries. The leaders of any and all of them will be able to give Trump orders.

Trump will pretend that he’s doing exactly as he wants to do–but he’ll be following orders. After all, his money will be at stake.

2

Oddly enough, the author of that piece is filing charges against a person for a physical assault that occurred last night… on Twitter.

Eichenwald is epileptic. A person, knowing this (as they said) responded with a graphic known to cause epilepsy.

It worked and Kurt had an… episode? Attack?

So Kurt is bringing criminal charges and is subpoenaing (is that a word?) Twitter to release their name.

3

I hadn’t heard about that (thanks). It would appear that Eichenwald’s work has really touched a nerve in Trumpland.

They are using everything in their arsenal, including not only the anonymous trolls attempting physical harm via epileptic-attack graphic, but also Trump-like attacks on his professionalism (by the not-particularly-respectable Tucker Carlson).

4

Not to worry. Trump’s Secretary of State has years of government experience, and is not beholden to any other country on earth. I’m sure that we can all be very confident that America’s interests will be well looked after.

ha ha ha ha ha! You are correct of course. The international policy of the United States of America can now be boiled down to one simple statement:

“Will this make Donald Trump more money?”

5

One would assume he will be anxious to match–and exceed!–Putin’s record on looting his own nation. Estimates of Putin’s takings range as high as $200 billion.

(Interesting suggestion from a Bloomberg columnist, that Obama should reveal Putin’s wealth as payback for the election-hacking: Bloomberg - Are you a robot? )

6

The president shouldn’t do what rich foreigners tell him, he should do what rich Americans tell him.

7

N/m, the joke didn’t flow like I thought it would…

8

I wonder if Erdogan, Duterte, etc. face pressure in their own countries to be more ethical than the scenarios of the OP suggest. It would be unethical for Trump to cave to financial pressure from Erdogan and extradite Gulen, but wouldn’t it also be unethical for Erdogan to apply that kind of pressure? Would it violate any Turkish laws for him to do so, or would Turkish voters punish him for doing so? Not that I want to rely on Turkey to keep the U.S. president honest, but it’s not purely an American issue, either.

I’m not sure how that give Russia leverage over Trump. They threaten to call in the loan, Trump refuses, then what? If Trump’s assets in Russia exceed his debts there, that’s something, but I have to wonder how Putin would go about confiscating a Trump hotel in Moscow.

“If you owe the bank $100 that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.”

9

The leverage would be Trump’s ego - they threaten to expose him as a non-billionaire. Now, he’s declared bankruptcy before, so it may not bother him, but that would be the stick.

10

So, how can the Russians take over Trump Moscow? With troops. Is this a trick question?

The “owe the bank” quote is derived from the expectations of a modern capitalist society, which is different from the expectations of a modern autocratic society. JP Morgan Chase does not have an army at its disposal. Putin’s bank does.

11

Right, but I doubt Trump owns Trump Moscow, (if that even exists or would exist in the future). He typically licenses his name. So, typical of his business methods, he would be out maybe a million per year in licensing fees if Trump Moscow folded, but the hotel owners would be shafted of the capital and the rest of the profits.

12

Point I’m making is the quote about “owning the bank” doesn’t apply when the bank has the Russian Army at its disposal.

13

If he can be held hostage financially (or if he is held hostage financially), then he’s compromised and can’t act independently as President.

Wouldn’t the 25th Amendment, Section Four apply…?

14

What I’m trying to say is that Russia’s reach specifically to Trump’s assets only reaches as far as Russia itself can reach, and Trump would be foolish to have assets within Russia. Which is not to say that Russia would not threaten action against America or the West because Trump owes him money, it’s just that it would not directly lead to asset seizure from him like you seem to be suggesting.

15

Yes, but I wonder if the Russian Army is so totally at Putin’s disposal that they can just confiscate property on his say so. And what would the Russian government do with the hotel once it had it?

What I was really getting at, though, was the net balance. Suppose Trump owes $10 million to a Russian bank, and Trump Hotel Moscow is worth $5 million. Trump is the one with the leverage. It’s more likely he’d provoke an international incident, watch the Russian Army take possession of the hotel, and now he has an excuse to keep the $10 million.

None of which should ever, ever, ever happen. The mere fact that we can envision scenarios in which a U.S. president could act this way is exactly why he should divest.

16

Only to the extent that Congress is willing to enforce it.

And this is a GOP congress eager for all the wealth that will flow into their own personal bank accounts–to a slight extent directly but mostly indirectly–from the privatizing they are planning to do (Medicare, Social Security, public education, etc).

IF they believe that Mike Pence will sign off on everything, then they may start impeachment proceedings on January 21. But if they think they can get more cooperation from Trump (mainly because Trump is so willing to make deals that benefit him), they will conveniently forget about the “unfit to discharge the powers and duties of his office” clause, not to mention the Emoluments clause.

17

Many nations that call themselves democracies are actually fairly authoritarian regimes, with little or no free press, and elections that wouldn’t pass any sort of test of being free or fair.

Turkey gets categorized that way fairly often. From November of this year:

We definitely cannot count on considerations of ethics as held by other nations, keeping Trump from being extorted, blackmailed, and given orders by the leaders of those nations.

The leverage can come in many forms. Flows of cash that have been coming to Trump directly from Russia (in various deals made over the years) can be stopped. Additionally, Russia has leverage over many other nations due to deals they have with them (over oil, sale of arms, etc.) and could stop deals Trump might have with those nations from paying off for Trump.

As Folacin suggested, another avenue Putin will have for enforcing Trump’s obedience is the potential humiliation Trump would suffer if Putin made public the amount of Trump’s ‘net worth’ that is actually subject to loans-being-called-in by Trump’s Russian creditors.

Another potential for humiliating Trump–and thereby ensuring his obedience–may exist in the form of videos that Trump would do anything to keep from being made public.

For example: Trump has a well-known penchant for walking in on half-dressed beauty pageant contestants:

How unlikely is it that if Trump did this during one of his Moscow visits (say, to the 2013 Miss Universe contest), there might be video of him swanning around backstage with the women, certain that they are enthralled by him…and then, after he leaves, the women laugh at him…?

If such footage existed, Trump would do anything—anything, to keep it from becoming public.

He’d give Putin Alaska back. Hell, he’d give him the US Navy.

18

The US has already lost the cyber war with Russia. We’re powerless to stop them due to the moron’s failure to believe his BFF Putin was behind the attacks.

See Van Jones’ the ‘Cyber war is real war’ on CNN. He pretty well covers it. We’ve all been warned, we’re all aware of the problem, and of course, Trump will do nothing at all about it least he looses a chance to build a golf course in Moscow.

19

I can’t tell if you’re serious. Do you really believe we can do nothing to Russia? That we “lost the cyber war”?

20

Not so much as lost as surrendered without a fight.