Trump And Clinton: A Tale Of Two Conspirators To Defraud The American People?

It was probably the most revealing moment of the entire 2016 presidential election. In their last debate, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, had accused Donald Trump of being a “puppet” for Russian President Vladimir Putin-whose country had been accused by U.S. intelligence officials of meddling in the U.S. general election. For those who understood the importance of body language and the psychological defense mechanism known as projection, it was clear that Hillary Clinton had struck a very personal and candid nerve. In an angry voice and extremely defensive tone, Donald Trump shot back: “No puppet! No puppet! You’re the puppet! No, you’re the puppet!”(1) For someone who shows signs of dishonesty and who twists the truth, you can always tell when the truth strikes its mark. Hillary Clinton had hit the bull’s-eye.

Converting Collusion And Treason Into Legitimacy
Meanwhile, most people see the world not as it is, but as they are. Although Hillary Clinton’s attack continued, saying that if Donald Trump were elected to the White House he would serve Russia’s foreign policy interests and jeopardize America, she had little room to talk. Indeed, a bipartisan House Oversight and Government Reform Committee just heard testimony about how she and her Clinton Foundation’s alleged misdeeds were also serving as a de facto “foreign agent.” One devoted not to charity but to “advancing the personal interests of its principals.”(2) Along with indicating how foreign leaders donated money in return for business deals and most favored nation status, the report included details of them hiding human rights abuses and violations, purchasing arms and then selling them to U.S. adversaries, and influencing U.S. foreign policy decisions.

According to government forensic investigator John Moynihan and 6000 pages of evidence with the IRS over 18 months, the Clinton Foundation moreover began acting as an agent of foreign governments early in its life. It continued to do so throughout its existence. Others noted the Foundation’s “misuse of donated public funds,” explaining that it “falsely attested that it received funds and used them for charitable purposes which was, in fact, not the case.” Along with an uranium deal with Russian oligarchs and other foreign leaders, “it was hard to tell where the Clinton State Department ended and the Clinton Foundation began.” It was almost as if political power and money had converted collusion and treason into legitimacy, and that defrauding the American people had become supreme. It included constitutional disloyalty at the expense of “We the People.”

Swearing Allegiance To All Of The Above
Early in his life, Donald Trump used his businesses too to negotiate deals with dozens of foreign leaders. For Russia, it started as early as 1987. He not only visited Leningrad-now St. Petersburg and Moscow, but sought out Soviet Union oligarchs and officials to build luxury hotels-including a Trump Tower. By 2013, at the Miss universe Pageant in Moscow, he announced that he was in serious talks about building a skyscraper in Moscow. His announcement included complimentary comments about Russia’s President Vladimir Putin-despite prosecuting and persecuting journalists and political opponents. As they exchanged letters and gifts, he made business deals with Russian oligarchs. Some included loans.(3) Like Hillary Clinton, it was better for him and the Trump Organization to swear allegiance to “pay for play” now, despite having to pay later.

But Donald Trump went further. During his run to secure the White House, he repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin’s leadership and his strong, authoritarian nature. This entailed criticizing the U.S. government for its unfriendly relations with Russia. Despite Russian election meddling, economic sanctions leveled against certain oligarchs, the tense situation over Ukraine, arming Afghan insurgents, and the civil war in Syria; he maintained that instead of fighting Russia, “America should bond and be friends and have common goals with Russia.” “This could be an amazing breakthrough…” he said, adding “…if I become president I will actually become friends with Putin.”(4) Whether one wants to refer to Donald Trump as a foreign agent, mediator, negotiator, representative, or conspirator, it was as if he had become all of the above.

Putting Foreign Oligarchs Before Americans
For now, the border wall isn’t the only thing closing in on Donald Trump. With the arrest of another close associate, Roger Stone, who obstructed justice, tampered with witnesses, and made false statements, it’s clear he too is a target of Mueller’s Probe. This includes cooperating, colluding, and conspiring with WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2.0-one of 13 Russian military intelligence officers-over hacked Democratic emails during the 2016 election.(5) The damaging and illicitly obtained information from the WikiLeaks dumps was then used to either help coordinate talking points and campaign attacks against Hillary Clinton, or to distract from his own embarrassing scandals-like the Access Hollywood tape. This comes on the news that the Trump Tower Moscow project had taken place throughout the campaign, which was clearly an extraordinary conflict of interest concealed from voters.

With her foundation and his organization, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have upended 240 years of tradition and core convictions: that a stable, safe, representative republic depends on protecting it against the foreign corruption of its officeholders. The Founding Fathers moreover feared the day when a representative republic would become corrupt by those who would not only put foreign interests before America’s interests, but put foreign oligarchs and authoritarians before America’s workers and electorate. Along with politicians putting family loyalty and estate building before loyalty to the country, this includes inviting foreign attachments that might be sent and insinuated into America’s councils-domestic and foreign-in order to be made instruments for their purposes. Instruments, that is, that don’t always play well for the American people.

A Nation Can Survive Its Fools, But Not Disloyalty From Within
But there’s another more serious matter at stake when politicians put family loyalty and estate building before loyalty to the country. It’s called endangering and corrupting a constitutional republic. Though corruption and foreign interference in American elections go back to the beginnings of the American Republic, foreign political and commercial entanglements seem to be worsening and undermining “We the People.” It’s an ethical problem too, one that should never be dismissed so easily. To be sure, and as Marcus Tullius Cicero noted: “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely…, heard in the very halls of government itself.”

Halls that were meant for, and were supposed to have belonged to the American people.

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John’s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.WN.com. You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and www.WN.com/dallasdarling.

(1) www.voxnews.com. “Full Transcript: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s Final Presidential Debate,” by Tara Golshen. October 20, 2016.
(2) www.sputniknews.com. “‘Foreign Agent at All Times’: Bombshell Testimony Heard Over Clinton Foundation.” December 15, 2018.
(3) Kranish, Michael and Marc Fisher. Trump Revealed: The Definitive Biography of the 45th President. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster Publishers, 2016., p. 245.
(4) www.washingtonpost.com. “After Being Told About Russian Indictments, Trump Still Aspired to Be Friends With Russia,” by Phillip Rucker. July 13, 2018.
(5) www.voxnews.com. “Roger Stone’s Arrest and Indictment Explained,” by Andrew Prokrop. January 25, 2019.