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Friday, June 03, 2016

A Preview of a Trump Presidency in Alabama


Michael G. Hubbard, the speaker of the Alabama House, is on trial for corruption. The chief justice has been suspended for ethics violations. And the governor is under investigation for talking sex with his top aide (whose company received $400K in campaign cash from the governor and whose husband landed a state government job after the governor was elected).

The case of the speaker is most illustrative of what we'll see in a Trump administration. His business was having trouble, and he needed cash, but no one would hire him:

Such reluctance, the emails showed, deepened the frustrations of Mr. Hubbard, who lamented that companies hesitated to hire him, even though he had helped strengthen Alabama’s reputation as a business-friendly state. Eventually, Mr. Brooke and others agreed to invest in Mr. Hubbard’s struggling printing company.

Prosecutors also brought out testimony that depicted the extent of the speaker’s ties with lobbyists. One lobbyist, for instance, described how he and two others had once met about their business in Mr. Hubbard’s conference room in Montgomery, the state capital.

Mr. Hubbard faces 20 years in prison on each of the 23 counts against him. Testimony will continue Thursday.
Now, as president, Trump wouldn't be looking for a job. Previous presidential candidates haven't been actively running companies the way Trump does; they do the honorable thing and step down. Even though he's running for president, Trump is still involved with the day-to-day business of his companies: he's going to Scotland soon for the reopening of the Turdberry -- excuse me, Turnberry -- golf course.

Previous presidents have turned over their investments to a blind trust to avoid conflicts of interest. Not Trump. He said he'd turn over the management of his businesses to his children.

That doesn't resolve the conflict of interest. The businesses of children and other relatives of presidents still represent a huge conflict, especially in the case of Trump, a control freak who is completely incapable of relinquishing control of his companies.

For example, in the 1980s Neil Bush, son of George H. W. Bush, ran Silverado Savings & Loan into the ground, resulting in a bailout costing taxpayers $1.3 billion. The FDIC sued Bush but the case was settled out of court. The 1980s S&L scandal under Reagan/Bush was a prequel to W.'s meltdown of the financial system in 2008.

Did Neil Bush get kid-glove treatment because he was the president's son? I don't know. But based on everything Trump has said about abusing the system to get what he wants, you'd have to be a fool to think that he wouldn't take advantage of his position to increase the value of his companies and help his children out.

Because if Trump's companies went belly up while he was president, it would be a huge embarrassment to him. He will never be able to step away from them.

It's inevitable that a Trump presidency will be consumed by and endless run of scandals: conflicts of interest, funneling money and business to Trump companies, mob cronies showing up to collect favors, his tirades against world leaders, further revelations about Trump University and other real estate scams, his uncontrollable urge to get even with old enemies, murders at his casinos due to security cuts to save money, his incompetence with military affairs (he had no clue what the nuclear triad was in a December debate, has said Japan and South Korea should have nuclear weapons, has advocated torture and murder of innocent children in violation of the Geneva Conventions, like some third-world despot), and, given Trump's braggadocio and very long history of marital infidelity, at least a few sex scandals.

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