Target
the Trump family businesses
By Samuel Warde
Scott Gilmore has
an extensive resume working as a diplomat having served as
a political officer for Global Affairs Canada, for the United Nations’ Office
of the National Security Advisor, and as the Deputy Director for Asia for
Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who entertained
President Trump with pomp, circumstance, and backslaps could not prevent him
from abandoning the Paris Agreement. Germany’s persuasive Chancellor Angela
Merkel could not stop him from undermining NATO. And our own government’s
exhaustive diplomatic campaign has failed to protect us from the punishing
steel tariffs announced today [May 31, 2018] in Washington.
For Canada and the western allies, diplomatic
success in the era of Trump has only meant delaying the inevitable. Eventually, with the
inexplicable exception of Russia, Trump punches everyone in the nose.
And just how does that work? Continuing,
Gilmore explained:
As I’ve pointed out before, the President can be successfully engaged, and countries like
Ukraine, China, and Qatar have demonstrated this. When they want something from
the United States, they skip the State Department, and even the White House staff.
Instead of approaching their problem state-to-state, they go state-to-man.
These countries
focus on what Trump wants on a personal level – to enrich his family. So
Beijing granted Ivanka trademarks, Qatar invested in one of Jared’s office
towers, and Ukraine, with Slavic candor, simply wired half a million dollars to
the President’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
For the most part, the western allies understand
that if we want the U.S. to do something we must negotiate with the man
himself. What we [Canada] have not grasped yet is, as strange as it sounds, the President of the United
States is more concerned about promoting his interests than defending
America’s.
Gilmore elaborated on the inverse of
this idea in a separate article, writing that:
Until this President, every previous modern occupant
of the White House divested their assets upon assuming office. This eliminated
the possibility personal business interests might benefit from political
decisions.
Conversely, it
prevented others from threatening the President by attacking those assets.
Trump, by refusing to give up his businesses, and by flagrantly violating the
emoluments clause, has inadvertently handed us the perfect stick.
I propose that instead of taxing the import of
American serviettes, we tax Trump.
In the spirit of
the Magnitsky Act, Canada and the western allies come together to collectively
pressure the only pain point that matters to this President: his family and
their assets.
This could take
the form of special taxation on their current operations, freezing of assets,
or even sanctions against senior staff. Canada could add a tax to Trump
properties equal to any tariff unilaterally imposed by Washington.
The European
Union could revoke any travel visas for senior staff in the Trump organization.
And the United
Kingdom could temporarily close his golf course.
And as Vox News reported, this strategy
is consistent with the sentiments expressed by Canadian Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau who recently tweeted that his grievance – indeed Canada’s
grievance – was with Trump and not the American people, that Canada remains a
“friend” and “ally.”
“Americans
remain our partners, friends, and allies. This is not about the American
people. We have to believe that at some point their common sense will prevail.
But we see no sign of that in this action today by the US administration.”
he tweeted.
Gilmore
concluded his article, writing:
I recognize this column has the stench of bad satire
about it. I am sane enough to know this proposal does not sound sane.
But I also know
we are confronting an unprecedented crisis and one that would have sounded
insane if we’d been warned of it just three years ago: the President of the
United States is dismantling the entire liberal international order we have
spent a century building, and he is completely focused on promoting his own
interests, at the expense of American allies, and at the expense of Americans
themselves.
Our attempts to use traditional diplomatic
strategies to deal with this crisis are failing. If we do not ask ourselves
now, “How do we hurt Trump?”, I predict we will reach that point in the not too
distant future. In this case, then, delaying the inevitable will not be a
failure, not a success.