By Stephen D Foster
Jr ·
It
turns out that Donald Trump was abusing his power when he accused Qatar of
supporting terrorism and allowed sanctions against them.
Jared Kushner did not gain his position by getting confirmed
by the Senate. He got his cushy White House job because he is married to
Trump’s daughter Ivanka.
And
he has been using his position in an effort to do business, and is using
Trump’s power as president to retaliate against those who refuse to do business
with him.
Just before Trump went on a tirade
against Qatar, Kushner tried to get a loan from one of the richest men in the
small country, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani.
Kushner asked for a $500 million loan from al-Thani because he
needs to come up with $1.3 billion in the next two years before the
interest-only mortgage is due on his family’s 666 Fifth Avenue building in Manhattan.
The
only stipulation to getting the loan was that Kushner had to come up with some
co-funding for the project.
Of
course, Kushner failed to live up to his end of the deal, so al-Thani wisely
walked away rather than risk that much money on someone who makes promises he
can’t keep.
And because al-Thani rejected Kushner’s request, Donald Trump
retaliated against Qatar by accusing the Gulf nation of being too close to Iran
and gave Saudi Arabia the green light to cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and block
transports there.
Trump’s Tweet:
During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar - look!
Trump
would repeat his claims against Qatar at the White House Rose Garden.
It
turns out that Russian hackers were responsible for making up statements by
Qatari officials to make it look like they support Iran.
But
Trump refuses to stop punishing Qatar just because they refused to give money
to Jared Kushner.
This
is what abuse of power looks like.
This
is exactly why Trump should have been forced to cut all ties with his
businesses, and why anyone who works in the White House should do the same to
avoid these kinds of conflicts of interest.