~By Kenneth Tiven
You probably have never seen these names in the same sentence before: PC Sorcar, David Copperfield, Harry Houdini, David Blaine and Donald Trump. Yes, all magicians well versed in the art of misdirection, which is focussing the audience’s senses away from the magic trick itself. Sorcar, born into a family of magicians, is the most famous Indian magician of the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Trump uses misdirection and has added verbal and Twitter disparagement with sufficient skill to bring him the US Presidency.
This week the performance art has been directed at the American health care system, (Obamacare) which the Republicans claim they want to improve. Critics suggested that it was mostly a tax cut for the rich and would kill affordable insurance for millions of Americans. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has the job of calculating the cost and impact of legislation before it is voted on.
Not surprisingly Republican Party and Trump disparagement of the CBO started with a sustained ferocity before CBO had issued any judgment. Perhaps they already knew from their own calculations what the CBO would rule: Basically the plan as proposed could leave as many as 25 million people uninsured by 2025.
CONSIDER: While a lot of those who would lose insurance voted for Trump, it seems the White House agrees with orthodox conservatives that healthcare is not a right but a privilege. Or as a Democratic congressman described the GOP plan a year ago: If you get sick, die quick.
CONSIDER: Also the Trump Administration proposed drastic budget cuts for the US Coast Guard and for the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), two modest agencies that help when there are emergencies in America. Trump suggested the savings would help cover cost of any Mexican border wall. (The wall, incidentally, which he once said Mexico would pay for)
Not surprisingly Republican Party and Trump disparagement of the CBO started with a sustained ferocity before CBO had issued any judgment. Perhaps they already knew from their own calculations what the CBO would rule: Basically the plan as proposed could leave as many as 25 million people uninsured by 2025.
CONSIDER: Is this apparent insensitivity and poor judgment for real. No. This is all part of an effort to lower the American expectations so voters will accept whatever is ultimately offered. This is Trump’s art of the deal… Take a half a loaf, it’s better than no loaf.
CONSIDER: The context. As a failed Casino owner and real estate developer now mostly licensing his “brand” he is damaged goods to American banks. Forced to take a half a loaf more than once, they realized a pattern of behavior and will not loan Trump any more money.
CONSIDER: Through all of this there is a growing body of facts which suggest his denial of any connection to Russian President Putin and Russian Oligarch money (virtually one and the same) isn’t going to work.
CONSIDER: His primary lender according to what little information he has released is the Deutsche Bank of Germany, a really large lender with a reputation for helping Russian Oligarchs.
The bank’s stock went up after it was fined $630 million by the state of New York for laundering money. Considering the billions of rubles turned into dollars and washed into things like apartments at Trump Towers, the fine was perceived as modest. For mortgage banking violations last year the bank paid a $7 billion dollar fine. (Bank fines are tax deductible by the way in US Tax code)
The US attorney in New York has an on-going federal investigation of Deutsche Bank’s money laundering. Could there by any connection between that, Trump, and the firing of the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (basically New York City), Preetinder Singh “Preet” Bharara (born 1968) is an Indian-born American lawyer appointed US Attorney in 2009.
CONSIDER: Another Russian Oligarch connection that would be hilarious except for the price tag. A few years ago Trump bought a Palm Beach mansion for about $40 million dollars as an investment. He sold it to a Russian Oligarch for $100 million. The buyer never set foot in it, did not intend to live in it. And in fact had it torn down. Trump pocketed around 60 million profit on a such a deal.
I am sure it is a coincidence that the Russian Oligarch involved is a partner in a
Cyprus-based bank whose major shareholder is Wilbur Ross, the Trump Secretary of Commerce.
There are more curious real estate deals — In Dubai, in New York — that serve to make Trump or his family a great deal of money. Doubtless there are more that we don’t know about.
New York Times columnist Charles Blow puts it succinctly: “Trump appears to view the Treasury as a personal piggy bank and the presidency as a part-time job… This is a 70-year-old man who has lived his entire life as the vile, dishonest, incurious creature who got elected. That election validated his impulses rather than served as a curb on them.”
—Kenneth Tiven is a senior international
journalist and former vice president of CNN