Rachel Smalley: Trump's responses show his motives are wrong

NZ Herald

30 Oct, 2017 06:26 PM3 mins to read

US President Donald Trump. Photo / Getty

The Trump administration is a murky world.

US intelligence agencies have already said the Russian government tried to help Trump win the election. That, they said, is fact.

Now, a big development. The first big moves as Special Counsel Robert Mueller looks into the Trump administration's links to Moscow.

Paul Manafort, who headed up Trump's presidential campaign, has been charged with conspiring to defraud the US - this is in his dealings with pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians.

Manafort had some pretty shonky dealings with the Ukrainians and laundered millions of dollars for his efforts. Some $75 million went through his accounts, apparently. He allegedly banked about $18 million of that. He apparently offered Russian billionaires, who were close to Putin, private briefings on the Trump campaign too.

All of these charges, at this stage, relate to Manafort's actions before he came on board with Trump. And Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign last year, after his links to the Ukraine emerged.

Rick Gates, a longtime associate of Manafort's and another Trump campaign official, has been charged with the same - money laundering, tax evasion, fraud and conspiracy against the US.

And, George Papadopoulos, one of Trump's early foreign policy advisers, pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI about contact he had with the Russian government.

It's explosive stuff - but perhaps not surprising.

This is what happens when big business enters politics. Millionaires - and in Trump's case, billionaires - who are used to doing deals, not doing democracy.

Donald Trump's been on Twitter this morning. He says "Why aren't Crooked Hillary and the Dems the focus?"

Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017

Well, answer this. Why isn't policy and improving the lives of Americans and "Making America Great Again" - why isn't that the focus?

Instead, the focus has been on what must be the most morally bereft and ethically corrupt political administrations in the western world today: an investigation to uncover some of the shonky practises that undermined American democracy. Fat cats getting fatter. Fat cats pulling strings to ensure, whichever way possible, they would take over the White House.