Donald Trump gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar
Everyone knows that Donald Trump wanted to remain in the presidency because of the power. He wanted desperately to turn our country into an autocracy with him as supreme leader. What is frightening is that so many Republicans wanted (and still do want) to go along with it. They want all the power and control over all the money. Money is very important to Trump. For years he has claimed to be a billionaire, but that claim is questionable. When you think of how he fleeced the taxpayers by staying at his own properties and overcharging his secret service detail, his most important reason to stay in office came to light: Money. Trump was busily propping up his failed businesses with money he was able to milk from the tax coffers. This fleecing apparently went farther than we thought.
Salon recently reported that Trump’s Scottish golf resorts benefitted from Covid aid to the tune of $4 million. Once again, Trump was able to skirt the law—in this case, the emoluments clause—by turning over control of the company running the resorts to his children. As Salon reported, however, he continued to own his financial interest in all his companies. How is that legal? If he owns a financial interest, then he benefitted from foreign government payments. This is such a crock. These properties qualified for aid because they allegedly lost $8.9 million in 2020. Now, we all know how much Trump plays with numbers surrounding his properties. That is why he is in trouble in New York right now. They likely fudged those payments to get that money.
According to the paperwork filed by the resorts, the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union caused the problems associated with his resorts, even though Trump supported the withdrawal, because it “disrupted supply chains.” So did Covid; why not blame it too while they were at it? Oh, but they did, claiming that the British government’s lockdown cost them business. At the same time, Eric Trump claimed in the filing that they required aid to “retain as many jobs as possible,” even though they let go 273 employees. Interestingly, the resorts have never made money, even before Covid, and are just two more in a long line of failed businesses owned by the Trump Organization. Salon also reported that Trump allegedly paid $60 million cash for Turnberry while he defaulted on a $640 million loan from Deutsche Bank, for which he sued the bank because he could not pay. Sounds interesting, right? Just more underhanded dealings by this American crime family.
The Avaaz Foundation, which is a U.S. based human rights watchdog group, asked the Scottish government to investigate money laundering in the Turnberry acquisition because these dealings just did not look right, and Scotland’s top prosecutor will ultimately decide whether to pursue criminal charges. Whether that happens remains to be seen. Either way you look at it, things certainly seem suspect with events at Trump’s Scottish resorts, but for Trump, this is just another average day.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years