The Trump-Kushner family businesses are no longer a hypothetical conflict. https://t.co/a0goo5vuwi pic.twitter.com/sQ3b9zGPKa
— Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) May 7, 2017
After furor in Beijing, Kushner slide showing Trump as EB-5 decisionmaker remains in Shanghai @keithbradsher reports https://t.co/ryaCGTJ9Hw
— Mike Forsythe ??? (@PekingMike) May 7, 2017
Despite considerable attention over the weekend, the Kushner family has yet to be dissuaded from shilling their high-level “access” to Chinese investors hoping for a Disney-style FastPass to the front of the visa line:
… Kushner Companies’ China roadshow, promoting $500,000 investments in New Jersey real estate as the path to a residency card in the United States, moved to Shanghai on Sunday after a similar pitch on Saturday in Beijing. Security was tighter in Shanghai than it had been in Beijing, where reporters for The New York Times and The Washington Post briefly attended the event before being kicked out.
Mr. Kushner has said he has stepped back from the day-to-day operations of the family business. But government ethics filings show that he and Ivanka Trump, his wife and the president’s daughter, continue to benefit from their stake in Kushner Companies’ real estate business and other investments, which is worth as much as $600 million…
NYMag adds:
… Kushner is also no stranger to EB-5 visas, as he reportedly raised $50 million in loans using the program to help finance a Trump-branded 50-story apartment tower in Jersey City called Trump Bay Street. Kushner, who has done repeated business with Chinese firms, has become a primary adviser within the White House regarding matters related to the country. He has promised to recuse himself from any White House discussions on the future of the EB-5 program, but his family is clearly still looking to benefit from the program before any decisions are made by the Trump administration.
This is also not the first controversy involving Kushner Companies and China since Jared took on his multitasked role in the White House. The company’s recently abandoned effort to negotiate millions of dollars in equity for a Manhattan redevelopment project from China’s Anbang Insurance Group was widely criticized by American lawmakers and government ethics experts as a scenario in which China might be trying to gain favorable treatment from the Trump administration…
Kushners selling visas in exchange for investments in their properties will be a fun sub-bullet in impeachment docs https://t.co/Nv4SY7ABwk
— laura olin (@lauraolin) May 6, 2017
To be clear: Trump chokes off immigration while his son-in-law & chief adviser's gang literally SELLS visas. https://t.co/tcdzFVjCN3
— David Waldman (@KagroX) May 6, 2017
In fairness visas are worth even more when you choke off immigration. Just good business sense! https://t.co/gkMLzNLgUV
— Gady Epstein (@gadyepstein) May 6, 2017
The Moar You Know
I have managed to maintain my calm, my cool, my center, ever since this sham of an election.
THIS is a goddamn outrage.
satby
If Fox picks this up it may even make a dent in the rabid base’s devotion to Trumpenstein. Not holding my breath, but I would die of schadenfreude overdose if it did.
Jeffro
@The Moar You Know:
Oh yes indeedy!
That trio of tweets makes for a nice, succinct case of impeachment, doesn’t it?
Cue the obligatory “Can you imagine if a Dem tried to pull this crap?” comparison…
schrodingers_cat
EB-5 or investor visas have had these problems for a long time.
Spanky
@The Moar You Know: So ? What’re ya gonna do about it, libtard?
@satby: Why are you assuming Trumpistas will see a problem with this? Why, it’s brilliant!
Yeah, I do go overboard on the sarcasm when I get pissed. Sorry ’bout that. I’ve been a PITA to talk to since mid-November.
CM
Constitution: “no person holding any office of profit or trust under them (the United States), shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, … of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.”
The “original intent” of this clause seems clear. What am I missing?
Corner Stone
Are we setting up a pool for betting on when, or where, the missiles will start flying? Another strike on Syria? More bluster at NoKo? A third party to be named later?
Corner Stone
@schrodingers_cat:
Completely agree. But they haven’t had *this* problem before. That was a blatant sales pitch using the WH access as not so subtle backdrop. I’m surprised they didn’t play a recorded sales pitch from Trump like he did for Trump U.
Patricia Kayden
This is so disgusting. And yet the grifting continues unabated. I feel sorry for Democrats having to keep up with all this mess but they’ll just have to pace themselves because the Trump hustling just won’t stop.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: True but compared to the Russian stuff this seems like garden variety huksterism.
Patricia Kayden
@CM: Democrats need to start suing the Trump regime for flagrantly unconstitutional behavior. That may be the only way to address this issue because Trump and his ilk are going to make as much money in office as they can. Republicans sure aren’t going to stop Trump’s behavior which is amazing after all the harassment to which they subjected President Obama and his people.
Patricia Kayden
@satby: Fox? Fox as in the media arm of the GOP? Nope. I don’t think so.
Marcopolo
We are seeing & know about this because the NYT sent reporters (who were allowed in) to the Beijing event (see they can do stuff right :)). Reporters were then not allowed in in Shanghai.
However, if anyone doesn’t think this is just the tip of the iceberg, just consider that events similar to or just like these are going on in every country where there are folks who are wealthy (probably through illicit means) who would prefer to live in a more developed country. Think of all the -stans, countries in Africa & the Middle East, etc… We just aren’t hearing about it because the world in a pretty big place.
Thoroughly Pizzled
It’s insulting. They don’t even try to hide it. Just whom do they take us for?
SFAW
@Thoroughly Pizzled:
“What kind of fool do you take me for?”
“First class!”
? ?? Goku ? ?
Why should anyone believe him? What is his word worth? Is there any way to hold him accountable?
I want this Richie Rich wannabe flayed alive
? ?? Goku ? ?
@Patricia Kayden: Its been said before but: he was a darkie, therefore not really President. It was ok then. Now one of them is in charge, and white too, it goes without saying
satby
@Patricia Kayden: pure sarcasm on my part.
CM
The word “bribery” also comes to mind. Josh Marshall calls the transaction being discussed here “cash for visas” and he asks, “Do we think this is the only case of the Trump and Kushner families doing this?”
Answering his own question, he notes, “We see hints and shreds of evidence popping up – Ivanka Trump securing numerous trademarks for her company in China.”
Didn’t Hair Furor himself secure even more trademarks in China? And didn’t he dramatically change his policies on China?
Remind me, please: what does the Constitution have to say about bribery?
Captain C
Given the (non-)vetting that this crew does, what are the chances that multiple foreign intelligence agencies are licking their chops at a chance for a) citizenship visas, and b) investor’s rights in Kushner’s (and maybe Trump’s) companies for their field agents?
Adam L Silverman
@satby:
Not going to happen.
Redshift
And we got this brilliant headline writing from the NYT (via Josh Marshall.)
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@The Moar You Know:
To be sure, and the sad part for me is that it’s so unsurprising.
@satby: I’d be dead right next to you, in your lovely urban garden.
Petorado
We should build a wall to keep out all of these Chinese immigrants from swarming into this country and robbing us of our opportunity. It should be a big wall, a huge wall, a great wall! Oh, wait …
Gindy51
It’s like a more expensive version of the Wiseguys book is playing out before our eyes….
dww44
Was watching France 24 news cable channel earlier today on the reaction to yesterday’s Macron victory. Some non-French pundit,(assumed to be non-French because his Enlish was almost American), in talking about who Macon would need to deal with in the U.S., advised flat-out that he would need to bypass Trump, who “doesn’t understand anything” and forge relationships with others in the WH, or in Congress, or just bypass Washington altogether and deal directly with Silicon Valley!
Perhaps Borowitz has it right in his New Yorker article when he opines that he French are intellectually superior to us.
ThresherK
Anyone hear of “MintPressNews.com” aside from them shitting themselves about Syria?
Some FB jagoff is “quoting” their story, “DNC says they had ‘legal right’ to rig 2016 primaries”.
It sets off all my alarms.
mak
@Marcopolo: Yep. After China, Russia is the most popular source of EB-5 investors.
Cheryl Rofer
@ThresherK: Mint Press is run by some quirky people. I haven’t thought about them much since their Syria debacle.
Mnemosyne
@Redshift:
I don’t know when Josh Marshall started annotating photos, but I like it.
Elie
I am SOOOOOOOO jealous of the French! My God — our situation sucks so bad I am just beside myself. I am torn between running away and sticking my head in the sand and just going nuts.
What they hey! We have to break this regime! I have no idea how, but the danger dial is way past 10. The utter shamelessness and complete brazen disregard for any legal (or moral) requirements is just stunning…
Peale
@mak: Yep. And for all these “investor” visas, you’d be hard pressed to find more than a dozen Russian companies with operations in the US. Technically these are supposed to be given to people who are coming to start businesses or expand businesses, not for rich folk who’ve agreed to purchase a million dollar condo. You don’t need a special visa to park money in bank account or hide assets in the US.
gene108
Just keep in mind the Kushner family dynamics are far, far more dysfunctional than the Trump family dynamics. The Trump’s and Kushner’s are sleaze balls meant for each other.
NY Times Link from 2004
schrodingers_cat
@Peale: Its one of the paths to the green card, a path not available to people who have worked and paid taxes in the United States for years, sometimes decades legally or illegally.
brendancalling
just fyi regarding the eb-5 program: Foreign Investors Help Fund I-95 to Pa. Tpk. Project in Exchange for Citizenship
Epicurus
These so-called “investor visas” have been a rich vein of fraud for many, many years. As the old joke goes, we’ve already determined what you are; we are now simply negotiating a price.
Anonymous At Work
Any indication of how Le Pen and the French Fascist Party plans to pay back the $15 million it owes to Russian banks?
TenguPhule
@CM: Republicans in Congress will consent to it.
And the fall of the Republic will be complete.
TenguPhule
@Captain C: I’ll take complete certainty for $500, Alex.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
I object to this on the grounds that if I were to win this pool, I wouldn’t be around to collect on my winnings.
Because I’d be radioactive ashes.
hovercraft
Maybe that’s why he’s trying to distract everyone with his tweets. Between this story and the story about Eric’s Russia admission this weekend, bringing back the “deep state” gets the media away from the looting, and gives them a new shiny object to yap about. Case in point CNN:
CNN Panel Taken Aback By Trump Tweets On Yates: It’s ‘Beyond The Pale’ (VIDEO)
I guess having them talk about him is better than having them talk about what she’s actually going to say?
hovercraft
@Petorado:
Well he did say that the wall would have a big beautiful gates, he just failed to mention that the gate would be only for those with a big beautiful 500K golden ticket.
TenguPhule
@hovercraft:
Baby steps. First get them to realize he’s completely bloody thirsty and insane. Then break it to them about the evidence he’s also a fucking traitor.
Jeffro
@hovercraft: Wow, I take back my earlier comment (that no one in the media was noticing much about how unprecedented it is to have a sitting president commenting on testimony from a former AG the morning before that AG testifies)
Mnemosyne
@hovercraft:
Yes, but ask those assholes if this is better or worse than what Obama said about Henry Louis Gates and Trayvon Martin. I’m guessing they’ll say, Not as bad as what Obama did. ?
TenguPhule
Fuck Scott Pruitt with a sharp pointy piece of metal
Carbon dioxide, some call it pollution, we call it life. /hacks
Jado
A large part of me really wants the entire world to burn until the GOP itself feels that things have gone far enough. Because anyone who ends up leading the fight against this treason is going to end up on the far side of a telescopic sight from one of these Fox News fanatics. I firmly believe we are in Jim Jones territory with the Trump supporters, and they would drink poison for their President. He is flawless, and faultless, and anyone who says different is a traitorous libtard pinko commie. But not the Putin kind – the bad kind.
No Republican is ever going to “come to his senses” about this. It’s going to be like digging out ticks. There will be no assistance from the Parasitic Insect Brigade, they will simply gaze on scornfully and ask why you are trying so hard to rid the body politic of something that is natural and even beneficial – after all, ticks get rid of extra blood you weren’t using.
Makes the body healthier, with all new blood. Nothing to be hysterical about. You all need to calm down and let nature take its course
https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-03-18/moose-new-england-face-grisly-deaths-tick-infestations
Shalimar
@Jado: The entire world includes 7.44 billion people who didn’t vote for these assholes. Think of all the innocent who will suffer any time you start believing Armageddon would be a good thing.
Applejinx
@Jado: I don’t buy that. You overestimate people’s worship of and trust for Trump. You figure it’s about convincing people he’s bloodthirsty and insane. They kind of already know: it’s rationalization, and not wanting to admit they’re fucked.
Do you understand how many people figure Hillary Clinton is bloodthirsty and stone cold fucking sane? Trump didn’t run alone and you can’t claim he ran against a ‘normal Democrat’: he ran against Neoliberal Satan, the worst of both worlds… in a certain narrative.
Trump was a bulwark against a certain kind of nightmare that’s haunted both the Left and the Right for years. You can whine about how impossible it is that anybody would see things that way, but those are the facts. That is a strength, not a weakness.
All you have to do is run somebody relatively normal. Or, y’know, third time’s the charm, right?
If the Democratic Establishment (and Hillary Clinton) are really the source of all good, then half the country MUST be completely berserk batshit insane fascist followers. OR, a hell of a lot of people hate both parties and all their choices, and delivered a vote of no confidence. Remember, for Trump to run, the entire Republican establishment had to battle him and fail, and that happened. He does NOT represent Republicans, any more than Bernie Sanders represents Democrats. He represents ‘fuck this’, and that’s what we’re seeing.
There’s no reason to assume people actually like what he’s doing. There’s no reason to assume Trump supporters particularly like what he’s doing, they are just left with nothing but end zone taunting until they die, and that gets old. They will be expecting he’s not serious, they will be expecting actual governance that (a) beats up out-groups and (b) gives THEM stuff. B ain’t gonna happen.
dm
@Redshift: I like the Josh-Marshall-as-Eustace-Tilley logo on Josh Marshall’s twitter account.