Trump’s White House, responding to HuffPost queries about whether he would be amenable to quid-pro-quo arrangements that benefit him in exchange for exemptions from the new tariffs, said he was only interested in helping the country.
“The only people President Trump is currying favor with are the American people who have faced the devastating consequences of backward, ‘America Last’ trade policies that have led to millions in job losses, vulnerabilities to our national security, and a weakening of our dominance,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement.
Trump, though, has over the years established a history of such transactional behavior and of mixing his official duties with his personal financial interests ― actions that are the very definition of corruption. Thursday evening, for example, Trump traveled at taxpayer expense to Miami to attend a closed-door dinner for the Saudi-backed LIV golf tour — a business entity he profits from.
Trump not long ago called cryptocurrencies “a scam,” but changed his position last summer after industry leaders began making massive donations to help get him elected. As president, Trump is creating a “strategic” Bitcoin reserve, giving the U.S. government’s imprimatur to an “asset” that has zero intrinsic value. He also pardoned the creator of a website designed for the sale of drugs and other contraband after promising crypto enthusiasts he would do so if they voted for him.
In his first term, Trump pushed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to open an investigation into his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, using congressionally approved military aid as leverage. Had a federal official who did not have presidential immunity done the same thing, he would have been charged with extortion, former prosecutors have said.
And unlike previous presidents who made a point of separating themselves from their private businesses and financial holdings during their time in office, Trump has done the opposite. In his first term, his party and officials in his administration made his hotel just blocks from the White House a gathering place for meetings with both foreign and domestic interest groups. Foreign delegations would book rooms and, occasionally, even large blocks of rooms during their stays.
At one point, Trump even tried to hold the G7 summit of leaders from the world’s largest democratic economies at Doral, his troubled golf resort near the Miami airport.
She said the arbitrary rates based on balance of trade as well as the potential for corruption make her question the administration’s purported goal of helping American workers. “Whether or not this helps workers, it seems to be kind of a con, in our view,” she said.
As for the oil and gas industry, they have already expressed their appreciation. “We welcome President Trump’s decision to exclude oil and natural gas from new tariffs,” the American Petroleum Institute said in a statement.
A report by Public Citizen last month pointed out that sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska won an exemption from Trump’s aluminum tariffs not long after Trump met privately with Deripaska’s friend, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. That waiver was reversed after a public outcry.
Indeed, even a Department of Commerce inspector general’s report in 2019 found evidence of an “unofficial appeals process” for waivers and undocumented discussions between petitioners and government officials. “We believe these issues give the perception that the Section 232 exclusion request review process is neither transparent nor objective,” the report stated.
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