When Donald Trump ran for office four years ago, he promised to ‘drain the swamp’ and he promised to surround himself with the best people. I’d like to take a closer look at those promises. According to Merriam-Webster a swamp is:
1: a wetland often partially or intermittently covered with water especially:one dominated by woody vegetation
2: a tract of swamp
3: a difficult or troublesome situation or subject
I am assuming in this instance we are really talking about the 3rd definition. According to Trump during his 2016 campaign, Washington D.C. was a dystopian swamp filled with monsters, ogres, and unpatriotic people who were bent on sabotaging this country. He claimed that ‘he alone’ could fix the problems and drain the swamp.
A quick review of some of the people surrounding Trump makes one wonder who the real monsters, ogres and unpatriotic people really are:
Steve Bannon – former senior advisor and chief strategist for Trump; indicted for fraud yesterday
Michael Cohen – Trump’s former attorney and fixer; sentenced to prison for tax fraud, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations
Paul Manafort – currently serving a 7 ½ year sentence for financial crimes
Rick Gates – sentenced to 45 days in jail and 3 years probation for helping Manafort conceal his crimes
Roger Stone – Trump friend; convicted on 7 Federal counts; sentence commuted by Trump
Michael Flynn – Trump’s first National Security Advisor; pled guilty to lying to the FBI; DOJ is trying to get the case dismissed against the wishes of the investigators and prosecutors who worked the case.
There are a few other minor players – George Papadopoulos; George Nader and Chris Collins – but you get the gist of this.
And to add to the list, Forbes published a report that listed a number of Trump associates identified in the recently released bi-partisan report from the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election:
Felix Sater: Managing director of Bayrock Group; Spent 15 months in prison in 1994-95 for assault; 3 years later pleaded guilty to racketeering as part of a Mafia stock dumping scheme; has extensive Russian contacts including into the GRU (Russian Intelligence Directorate); had an office in Trump Tower just a few doors away from Trump.
Tevfik Arif: Owner of Bayrock Group; alleged to be involved in Russian organized crime, money laundering and human trafficking dating back to 2000.
Emil and Aras Agalarov: Hosted the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow when Trump owned it; according to the Senate report the Agalarovs “ have significant ties to Russian organized crime and have been closely affiliated with individuals involved in murder, prostitution, weapons trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, narcotics trafficking, money laundering and other significant criminal enterprises. Some of those activities have extended outside of Russia, including to the United States.” They also have significant ties to the Russian government, including access to Putin.
Irakli Kaveladze: Worked for Aras Agalarov: worked closely with Donald Trump Jr on the initial Trump Tower in Moscow negotiations; Allegations by the GAO of Russian money laundering through some of the 2,000 corporations he created
Giorgi Rtskhiladze: Has high level contacts into the Russian government
Andrey Rozov: Allegations of ties to Russian influence operations
And, if those aren’t enough ‘swamp creatures’, you have Trump’s recent Tweets of congratulations to Laura Loomer who won the GOP primary in Florida Congressional District 21 and is a very vocal ‘islamaphobe’ and Marjorie Taylor Greene, the pro-Trump supporter of QAnon, the conspiracy theorist group, who just won a Congressional primary in Georgia.
As far as bringing the best people, you just have to look at the list of Cabinet Secretaries who have been forced out or are currently undergoing scrutiny for ethics violations and/or conflicts of interest – Scott Pruitt (EPA), Wilbur Ross (Commerce), Ryan Zinke (Interior), Tom Price (Health and Human Services), Michael Flynn (National Security Council), Mick Mulvaney (Director OMB), Ben Carson (Housing and Urban Development), Betsy Devos (Education), and the list goes on.
If Trump’s objective was to ‘drain the swamp the data certainly don’t support that. He has surrounded himself with a collection of con men, criminals, conspiracy theorists, and foreign agents – none of whom have the best interest in the United States as the driving force behind their actions. This election is shaping up more and more to simply be a choice between ‘The Joker’ or ‘Batman’! I can only hope the citizens of Gotham will make the right choice.
“Horseshoe theory” is the notion that at the extremes, opposing ideological movements grow closer together—both in ideology and methodology. Classical liberals become authoritarian. The tolerant become intolerant. Love becomes hate—all in the service of what is allegedly good and true and so very righteous.