Tracking Trump’s National Security Conflicts of Interest
Channel: Trump Breaking News Network
Date: 2017-01-02

Trump Breaking News Network - Tracking Trump’s National-Security Conflicts of Interest.

A global business empire raises the question: will the next president’s foreign policy serve America’s interests or his own?

From close neighbors in Latin America to European allies in the fight against the Islamic State, Donald Trump has international entanglements like no previous commander in chief. Each of the president-elect’s business endeavors, critics say, offers an opportunity for foreign leaders and other actors to unduly influence U.S. policy through emoluments — or potentially, even extortion.

Keeping track of Trump’s national-security conflicts-of-interest will be no simple matter, observers say, unless and until he creates a truly blind trust for his assets. Though some potentially profit-inflected decisions have already attracted critical scrutiny, others have surfaced only in the international press, and still others may remain hidden by the Trump Organization’s opaque operating style.

What follows is as complete an accounting of Trump’s overseas financial interests as could be gleaned from open-source reporting, including the financial disclosure form he filed as a presidential candidate. Released by the Federal Election Commission, the form is light on details but provides broad estimates of Trump’s assets, income, and debt for the year ending May 2016.

Some of Trump’s business interests listed here have positive cash flow, while others are still in development or remain merely prospective. More on our methodology here.

Europe, the Middle East, Africa:

The U.S. has long maintained an intricate web of bilateral and regional Middle East security partnerships in the interest of regional stability. Its most visible military engagement, the coalition fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, is a complicated, multilateral effort that could grow even more complex with Trump’s financial interests.  

Most notably, America’s NATO ally Turkey plays host to a pair of Trump Towers and contributes troops to the coalition fight in Syria. Turkey lets the U.S. and others fly combat strike and surveillance missions against ISIS from its Incirlik Air Base. But Turkey also has long-simmering issues with some separatist Kurdish groups the U.S. has welcomed into the fight for furnishing some of the coalition’s most effective ground forces.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has cracked down on Kurdish and opposition groups, including journalists, angering European and American officials and publics, but his military commanders, Pentagon officials privately say, at least remain committed to the fight against ISIS, and Turkey’s cooperation is needed.  

Trump’s rise has also rocked relations with European leaders, who are questioning America’s commitment to defend its NATO allies and nervous over Trump publicly yearning for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s friendship.

Here are Trump’s business interests in the Middle East and Europe:

Turkey:

The Trump Towers Istanbul project is reportedly already being used as a bargaining chip to sway the president-elect’s policy interactions with Turkey. It is not the first time his business and policy have collided there: When Trump proposed banning Muslims from entering the U.S., Erdogan called for Trump’s name to be removed from the towers, threatening the licensing fees that netted Trump $1 million to $5 million in the previous year. Trump has recognized the conflict of interest.

Saudi Arabia:

Trump’s interest in Saudi Arabia is still largely that – an interest. Ivanka Trump identified it as one of three Middle Eastern countries in which the Trump Organization planned to open hotels. Trump touted his transactions with Saudis on the campaign trail and registered eight companies tied to the country after he started his presidential campaign, all seemingly linked to a potential hotel in Jeddah. But there has yet to be any other progress, and he has reportedly dissolved half of those corporations.  


Source: 

http://www.defenseone.com/politics/2016/12/next-national-security-conflict-trumps-foreign-business-interests/133899/?oref=d-channeltop

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