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Trump’s business empire raises concerns about foreign influence
Wash Post via Philly.com ^ | 11/21/2016 | Drew Harwell and Anu Narayanswamy

Posted on 11/21/2016 11:01:01 AM PST by dirtboy

Turkey is a nation in crisis, scarred by government crackdowns following a failed coup attempt and on a potential collision course with the West. It is also home to a valuable revenue stream for the president-elect's business empire: Trump Towers Istanbul.

Donald Trump's company has been paid up to $10 million by the tower's developers since 2014 to affix the Trump name atop the luxury complex, whose owner, one of Turkey's biggest oil and media conglomerates, has become an influential megaphone for the country's increasingly repressive regime.

That, ethics advisers said, forces the Trump complex into an unprecedented nexus: as both a potential channel for dealmakers seeking to curry favor with the Trump White House and a potential target for attacks or security risks overseas.

The president-elect's Turkey deal marks a harrowing vulnerability that even Trump has deemed "a little conflict of interest": A private moneymaker that could open him to foreign influence and tilt his decision-making as America's executive in chief.

(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: trumpforeignpolicy; trumptransition; turkey
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To: DoodleDawg

Um, that’s not how this sort of stuff works.

He really needs to get this out of the way as an issue.

(E.g., stop including Ivanka on calls with heads of state in countries where the family has business—if Ivanka is going to continue to co-lead that business.)


21 posted on 11/22/2016 5:19:57 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: dirtboy

Where was the concern about overseas sales of Heinz ketchup the last four years of Kerry’s SOS tour?


22 posted on 11/22/2016 5:20:28 AM PST by xzins
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To: DannyTN

But that doesn’t make it right.

He can’t drain the swamp if his “not-so blind trust” is floating in it.

The simple fact is that many foreign states will find ways to do business with his company, because they do look for any way possible to curry favor. That’s just what they’ll do.

So it is up to the Trumps to do what they can to at least remove any appearance of playing into that dynamic. Having his kids both run the country and in on meetings and calls with heads of state where they are doing, or trying to do, business is counterproductive to Making America Great Again.


23 posted on 11/22/2016 5:23:44 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

It’s not just money—it can be approval for big towers, such as in Argentina. And he just had Ivanka on a call with the head of state for Argentina.


24 posted on 11/22/2016 5:25:02 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: Lazamataz

The trouble is that he is appointing his children—who he’s also involving in his foreign meetings.

Simply needs to stop all that.


25 posted on 11/22/2016 5:25:56 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: 9YearLurker
He really needs to get this out of the way as an issue.

Yes, well legally nothing forces a President Trump from doing so. I agree that not doing so will leave him open to conflict of interest claims and his children open to charges that they used inside information from the administration to increase their own wealth. But Trump seems adamant that this is how it's going to be so he will just have to deal with it. He is not going to take his family business away from his kids and give it to outsiders to run.

26 posted on 11/22/2016 5:31:44 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: 9YearLurker

There is no way it can be removed as an issue. There is no way it will be removed as an issue. The business hating left will never let it go regardless of what he does.

He resigned and the Kids took over. That’s the end of it


27 posted on 11/22/2016 5:35:30 AM PST by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... Does America still have lots of safe closet? No)
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To: bert

Not while he has his kids in on official calls with foreign heads of state.

He just has to take those obvious conflicts out of his presidency or he’s giving his opposition a big, big cudgel.


28 posted on 11/22/2016 5:45:21 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: DoodleDawg

No—he’s got to get them out of his state business—or he will be open to legitimate corruption charges.


29 posted on 11/22/2016 5:46:46 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: 9YearLurker
No—he’s got to get them out of his state business—or he will be open to legitimate corruption charges.

I am not disagreeing but I'm also not at all convinced that he would do that.

30 posted on 11/22/2016 6:03:00 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: DoodleDawg

He can of course have them as informal advisors, but if they’re running his business they shouldn’t be on state calls or in state meetings with him.

That seems pretty obvious and fundamental.


31 posted on 11/22/2016 7:34:26 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: dirtboy
NOW the media gets concerned about foreign conflicts of interest. ** snork **

Hilarious actually.

32 posted on 11/22/2016 7:36:40 AM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: 9YearLurker; DoodleDawg
It’s not just money—it can be approval for big towers, such as in Argentina. And he just had Ivanka on a call with the head of state for Argentina.
Of course, major prospective commercial dealings with foreign governments should not be on the table.

But Trump deserves latitude in how he unwinds his commercial dealings abroad. No question that he does have to do it - but, after all, he could not know before the day after Election Day that he would have any need to unwind anything at all.

The Constitution provides for such a case, by giving Congress authority (and inherently, responsibility to the voters) to waive the prohibition. For, I would argue, specific cases, and not a blanket approval of a pig in a poke.


33 posted on 11/22/2016 11:18:05 AM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion ('Liberalism' is a conspiracy against the public by wire-service journalism.)
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