In yet another example of how President Trump is abusing his office for personal profit, ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and ethics in Washington (CREW) says Trump may have used tariffs to strong arm Argentina into granting two trademarks to his business, which he is yet to divest from.
1. Trump applied for trademarks in Argentina.
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) December 24, 2019
2. The Trump administration rescinded tariffs while Argentina considered the trademarks.
3. The Trump administration didn't put them back until after Trump got the trademarks. https://t.co/Xd6wBDoCtq
CREW essentially takes issue with the peculiar sequence of events from the time Trump’s business appied for the trademarks to the time they were granted. According to CREW, Trump’s business applied for the Argentinian trademarks in December 2017 while aluminium and steel tarrifs were still in effect.
A few months after that, May 2018, while the trademarks were still pending, the Trump administration lifted the tariffs. In November 2019 with the tariffs still lifted, Argentina granted Trump’s business the requested trademarks. Shortly after securing the trademarks, the trump administration reinstated the aluminium and steel tariffs on Argentina–literally manipulating U.S. foreign policy for personal profit. Sickening corruption!!
You’ll remember similar accusations were made against Trump’s daughter Ivanka regarding the way she secured Chinese trademarks, which Yours Truly wrote about.
#BREAKING:When will #MSM TAKE A BREAK from HOUNDING #Biden about his son and ask @IvankaTrump how her Chinese trademarks were approved THE SAME WEEK #Trump lifted sanctions on ZTE?#TheResistance #Ukrainegate #CNN #MSNBC #Yahoo #TuesdayThoughts #FBRPartyhttps://t.co/AolNMv2Eyb
— Emoluments Clause (@Emolclause) October 8, 2019
Bottom line folks, as Yours Truly has repeatedly stated before, the brazen corruption of the Trump administration is not normal and the only way we can prevent him and his cronies from normalizing it is if we scream about it. Where, as here, tariffs are seemingly being abused to secure trademarks for Trump’s business, Congress and the mainstream media owe it to the public to get to the bottom of it.
For those of you very happy with @Emolclause’s activism don’t shy away from the “tip jar” below on your way out.
You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com