Ladies and gentlemen, behold, s*** the President said the during previous week (or way before last week, if it fits with this week’s story):
- “Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all available information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince [of Saudi Arabia] had knowledge of this tragic event – maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” 11/20/2018 Presidential Statement excusing the murder of American resident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. That’s right – a president, excusing a murder. Fifteen men from the Crown Prince’s entourage brought a bone saw into a consulate in Turkey. A guy went in and came out in pieces. The CIA concluded the Crown Prince ordered the murder because of course he did. Why lie about this?
- “I have nothing to do with Saudi – just so you understand, I don’t make deals with Saudi Arabia. I don’t have money from Saudi Arabia. I have nothing to do with Saudi Arabia.” 11/21/2018, the day after the President’s initial statement. Well, that’s reassuring.
- “Saudi Arabia, I get along with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.” 8/21/2015 campaign rally in Mobile, AL. This is the President not only admitting there is a business relationship, but that the relationship determines how he feels about them. We were warned. Here’s a report showing Trump registered eight companies with “Jeddah” in the company name just during the presidential campaign. Jeddah is the second largest city in Saudi Arabia. Here’s another showing the Crown Prince’s entourage spent a ton of money ($300k) during one stay at a Trump Hotel after his inauguration. Here’s a third showing this relationship goes back decades.
- “[President Trump] is going to voluntarily donate all profits from foreign government payments made to his hotels to the U.S. Treasury.” 1/11/2017 statement from Sheri Dillon, Attorney hired by Trump. This is how we were supposed to know Trump wasn’t getting paid by governments who would hack people up with a bone saw.
- “Trump Failing to Track Foreign Cash at His Hotels” 5/24/2017 NBC News headline. I’m cheating here, because the President didn’t come right out and say he was blowing off this pledge. But he is. This was supposed to be the main way we knew he was putting our interests ahead of his own, and it might have seemed like an obscure thing at the time, but now a man was butchered and Trump gave the butcherer a pass and we don’t know if the reason is that he’s getting paid or if he’s just insane.
Usually, this installment collects ten examples of S*** the President Says I’m a given week, which is easy because he talks a lot and is incoherent.
This week, though, we decided to forgo the normal format in favor of delivering one message: it appears the President of the United States may have used his personal finances to justify absolving a foreign leader’s murder of an American resident. It appears this way because the president freely admits this is the way he thinks about people that pay him, and admitted Saudi Arabians paid him a lot of money. There are numerous reports of the Saudi ruling family continuing to pay him by exorbitantly patronizing his businesses during his presidency, to what extent we cannot tell because he reneged on his promise to open his books to public scrutiny. His tax returns, likewise, were promised but never released. Donald Trump is the only presidential candidate since Richard Nixon not to release his tax returns.
This cannot stand. This is not upholding the duties of the highest office. President Trump’s decisions and finances need investigated not as a personal vendetta for the s*** he says, but rather because the s*** he says align perfectly with his actions – the actions of a likely criminal.
Idiotville 