“If you want President Trump to succeed, this kind of skeezy stuff needs to stop,” Ben Shapiro said on his daily podcast on Monday. “I think if we switch the names to Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, we’d all be freaking out on the right.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan certainly would be. But for Trump, he’ll simply erase another red line that distinguishes our constitutional republic from authoritarian rule.
Shapiro is a founder and editor emeritus of The Daily Wire, a conservative media company that otherwise has fully supported Trump. What triggered his outburst was the $400 million luxury 747 jet that the Qatari government wants to give the president. It would replace Air Force One while Trump remains in the White House. Then it would become property of his Presidential Library Foundation.
“When you get something of that value from a country,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski explained, “one typically thinks that there’s something in it for the country that is offering it.”
That’s a tactful way of saying it has the appearance of a bribe.
For Shapiro, it wasn’t just the jet. He also complained about Trump’s new crypto meme coin. Last month, the president said its top 220 investors would be invited to a private dinner with him at his Virginia golf club. For the top 25, he promised a VIP White House tour.
It “raises the question of influence peddling,” Shapiro said.
That’s exactly what congressional Republicans investigated when Biden was president.
“Joe Biden is ‘The Brand,’” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) wrote before the House voted to open an impeachment inquiry. “Joe Biden showed up at least two dozen times with business targets and associates sending signals of access, influence, and power to those prepared to pay for it.”
Through his spokesperson, Sullivan said he supported that inquiry. He wanted to know where the “$20 million directed to Biden family members through various shell companies” ended up.
That bribery allegation was based on the testimony of one witness and discussed in a single paragraph in Comer’s 290-page report. And nothing about Biden being involved in any corrupt schemes was substantiated.
Now Trump and his family are peddling his brand in broad daylight. He’s the “chief crypto advocate” of World Liberty Financial. Two of his sons are involved in its management. In the past few weeks, the family business announced new real estate development deals Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. And Donald Trump Jr. co-founded The Executive Branch, a new D.C. club that will that cost a half a million dollars to join.
But Comer isn’t “worried about anything the Trumps are doing business-wise because they’re being transparent.”
Sullivan doesn’t seem concerned either. His hypocritical defense of Trump dates back to the second impeachment trial when he voted to acquit him. Now he wants to convince us to focus on “the bigger picture” of Trump’s resource development policies for Alaska.
In other words, it shouldn’t matter that three days into his second term Trump violated the law by firing 17 inspectors general without providing Congress with “substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons” for their dismissals.
Or that in February he began issuing executive orders and presidential memorandums targeting law firms that represented people or causes he doesn’t like. Two weeks ago, a federal judge ruled it violated the First, Fifth and Sixth Amendments.
Also this month, a federal judge in Texas ruled his use of the Alien Enemies Act “exceeds the scope of the statute and, as a result, is unlawful.” Another ruled a 20-year-old Venezuelan man was deported “in violation of a legally binding, court-approved settlement agreement.” Both judges were appointed by him.
And in an April Supreme Court ruling he continues to ignore, Trump has refused to facilitate bringing Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. and ensure he’s given his lawful right to due process.
These are just the tip of the iceberg of behavior that would lead Sullivan to support an impeachment inquiry of any Democrat who occupied the White House. But for Trump, he’d like us to interpret the constitutional requirement that presidents “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed” in the same manner that George Orwell’s fictional Big Brother redefined war as peace and ignorance as strength.
• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector. Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire. Have something to say? Here’s how to submit a My Turn or letter.
