By Robert Reich
A dark cloud of
illegitimacy hangs over the pending presidency of Donald Trump. Consider:
1. The CIA has concluded that Russia intervened in the election
in order to help Trump become president. The secret CIA assessment
found that Russian operatives covertly interfered in the election campaign in
an attempt to ensure the Republican candidate’s victory.
2. Trump has close business ties to Russian oligarchs, friends
of Putin, who have financed his projects and, presumably, also
lent billions of dollars to Trump’s enterprises – which may explain why Trump
won’t disclose his tax returns, which would show evidence of these deals.
3. Several of
Trump’s key campaign aides have close ties to Putin –
including his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort. Manafort was a longtime
consultant to Viktor Yanukovich, the Russian-backed president of Ukraine who
was overthrown in 2014 and who has done multi-million-dollar business deals with Russian oligarchs.
Between 2007 and 2012, Manafort received some $12.7 million in cash payments
from a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. Trump’s foreign policy advisor,
Michael Flynn, flew to Moscow last year to attend a
gala banquet celebrating Russia Today, the Kremlin’s propaganda channel, and
was seated at the head table near Putin.
5. Trump has
picked for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, who is also close to Putin. In 2013, Putin awarded Tillerson
the Order of Friendship, one of the highest honors Russia
gives to foreign citizens.
Tillerson came up through the ranks at Exxon by
managing the company’s Russia account.
After becoming CEO, Exxon bet billions
on Russia’s vast oil resources through a partnership with Russian oil giant Rosneft, owned partly by the
Kremlin. Putin himself attended the 2011 signing ceremony for the deal. Russia
has already indicated it would welcome Tillerson being named America’s top
diplomat.
6. Trump was
defeated in the actual voting by a startling—and still growing—2,676,670 votes.
Clinton’s popular vote victory margin is now 2 percent, thus handing Trump the
largest defeat suffered by a candidate elevated to the presidency by the
Electoral College in modern history.
The dark cloud of
illegitimacy continues to grow darker.
Before the Electors
submit their ballots for president on Monday, Trump must release his tax
returns and the CIA must make public its report on Russia’s intervention in the
U.S. elections in support of Trump.
ROBERT B. REICH is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at
the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center
for Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton
administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective
cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fourteen books,
including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of
Nations," and "Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent,
"Saving Capitalism." He is also a founding editor of the American
Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary,
INEQUALITY FOR ALL.