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May initially looked to be the month that the long-awaited US-China trade war would finally arrive. Sunday, though, things changed. President Trump seems to have basically just backed down.
“We’re putting the trade war on hold,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced on Fox News Sunday. Trump’s proposed tariffs on China are suspended while talks continue on possible revisions to US-China trade policy.
The White House spun this furiously, of course. The New York Times reported on Friday that the Trump administration had secured a Chinese pledge to purchase an additional $200 billion in American-made goods. But financial journalists from CNBC and Bloomberg both reported Chinese officials saying they had promised no such thing. And Monday’s joint statement from US and Chinese officials makes no reference to a specific $200 billion figure. This all comes just one week after he suggested he might back down on an unrelated US-China dispute over the cellphone company ZTE.
But even as economic policy reporters and the business press detail the palace intrigue, reversals, and dissension, most do not even mention a well-documented conflict of interest. They seem too polite to mention that Trump’s personal financial interests play a role in the decision-making.
Donald Trump and Lido City, explained
Trump has a direct financial interest in a major real estate development project essentially underwritten by a state-owned Chinese bank. In a normal administration, this would be a weeks-long scandal dominating media coverage of the White House.
The project in Indonesia, called Lido City, secured a $500 million loan from the Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC). MCC is a state-owned enterprise, and its involvement in the huge Indonesian development seems to be part of China’s “Belt & Road” initiative. China will finance major international projects that will, in return, use Chinese companies as suppliers.
Lido City, according to its backers’ promotional website, “is an iconic 3,000 hectare Live, Work and Play development set to deliver an unprecedented range of premium first-in-kind leisure, entertainment, and lifestyle choices for elevated living.”
One of those lifestyle choices will be what the developers are billing as Asia’s first “Trump community,” featuring a resort, golf course, condominiums, and private villas:
Developed in partnership with The Trump Hotel Collection, the first Trump community to open in Asia will deliver Trump’s signature brand of unparalleled luxury, modern glamour and uncompromising service, wrapped in world-best design by award-winning international firms Oppenheim Architecture and EDSA.
The community will boast an ultra-luxury 6-star resort for a lavish retreat from the city, offering the Trump brand’s impeccable standard of personalised service and a range of facilities, including premium fine dining restaurants, a wellness destination spa and conference facilities. Complimenting this will be an 18-hole championship golf course designed by Ernie Els, four-time Major winner and 2015 Golf Designer of the Year, together with an elite lifestyle country club providing members with unrivalled privileges, from a 24/7 lifestyle concierge to state-of-the-art amenities. For those seeking a second home, this one-of-a-kind niche community will also feature an exclusive collection of super luxury villas and mansions, as well as high-end resort condominiums, all set with stunning views over the golf course yet secluded within the privacy of spacious landscaped gardens.
The actual terms of Trump’s deal with Lido’s developers are completely opaque, with the Trump Organization merely saying it will be “involved with the 700-hectare Lido development” and that the country club “will showcase the Trump brand’s impeccable standard of excellence by offering a captivating golf experience that features state-of-the-art facilities, 24/7 lifestyle concierge at the Lifestyle Country Club, uncompromising personal service and attention to detail.”
But while the specific terms are unclear, Trump has some kind of licensing arrangement, an equity stake in the development, or both. Either way, he has a clear financial interest in the problem going forward, and the loan from the Chinese government is good news for his pocketbook. The existence of this egregious conflict of interest, meanwhile, has been noted by the press but remains weirdly unintegrated into ongoing coverage of the Trump administration’s back-and-forth on China policy.
The Trump administration’s inadequate response
Asked at last week’s press briefing about the business deal in Indonesia, White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah punted questions to the Trump Organization, saying, “You’re asking about a private organization’s dealings.”
(Raj Shah is really friggin' bad at this -- almost makes @PressSec look good by comparison)
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 14, 2018
This is a ridiculous answer.
There’s no allegation that the Trump Organization qua private business is doing anything wrong. And the Trump Organization, as a privately held business, has no particular obligation to answer skeptical questions from the public. The obligation to answer questions from the public rests with the White House, and the questionable conduct is on the part of the US president.
Way back in January 2017, Trump attorney Sheri Dillon reassured the public that “no new foreign deals will be made whatsoever during the duration of President Trump’s presidency.”
She was, obviously, misleading people about that and doing so on behalf of Trump. A company that he owns and that is run by his sons — sons who also serve as close political advisers — is doing business all around the world, including with foreign governments, at the same time that Trump is doing multifaceted international negotiations with those same governments.
Many Republicans in Congress are clearly aware that something fishy is happening with ZTE. And journalists are clearly noting that Trump is contradicting some very clear campaign promises on Chinese trade in general.
But while the GOP-led Congress has extensive oversight powers that could be used to check Trump’s conflicts of interest, they uniformly decline to use any of them, leaving America to depend on nothing more than Trump’s say-so and goodwill for as long as the GOP retains the majority.
And journalists who cover the Trump administration’s infighting and intrigue seem inordinately reluctant to so much as mention the conflict of interest when covering these issues.
