Bankruptcy is a Feature, Not a Bug
For Trump, moral bankruptcy is no different than his multiple business failures
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In December 2020, the non-partisan reference site ThoughtCo reported the details of Donald Trump’s business bankruptcies.
Donald Trump has portrayed himself as a successful businessman who has amassed a net worth of as much as $10 billion. But he has also led some of his companies into bankruptcy, maneuvers he says were designed to restructure their massive debt.
The New York Times, which conducted an analysis of regulatory reviews, court records, and security filings, found otherwise, however. It reported in 2016 that Trump "put up little of his own money, shifted personal debts to the casinos and collected millions of dollars in salary, bonuses, and other payments.
"The burden of his failures," according to the newspaper, "fell on investors and others who had bet on his business acumen."
Despite Trump’s claims that bankruptcy is a smart business move, it is generally recognized as being unable to meet financial obligations. Alternatively, bankruptcy is also used to describe a person who demonstrates a lack of moral value, someone who is morally bankrupt. Trump checks both these boxes. In truth, it is more accurate to say, given his obvious sociopathy, he is morally corrupt, guided by no principles except greed and self-aggandizement.
And so his behavior in Friday’s Oval Office meeting with Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelensky was in character. The stated purpose of the meeting was to have Zelensky agree to a ceasefire agreement that Trump would negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the brief session with the press present, Trump used the word “deal” 11 times. Deal is a bizarre euphemism for the terms offered Zelensky- a ceasefire with Russia occupying the parts of Ukraine it had seized by force. In return for his role negotiating directly with Putin, Trump demanded Ukraine give the United States 50 percent of its rare earth natural resources1 as payment for the military aid we had already provided. The kicker: When pressed by Zelensky, Trump would not guarantee Ukraine’s security against future Russian aggression. It should be no surprise Zelensky questioned a ceasefire in which he ceded territory to the invaders and mineral wealth to a participant in a negotiation from which he was excluded.
What followed was the shameful display of the President and Vice-President of the world’s most powerful nation castigating the leader of a country struggling for its very existence. Zelensky was attacked for his imagined lack of sufficient gratitude. VP Vance’s condescension was exceded by Trump’s bullying and threats.
TRUMP: You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.
ZELENSKYY: I’m not playing cards.
There is no deal to be made on such terms. On Monday, Trump called for a “pause” in US military aid to Ukraine. Punching down on the weak party is a signature act of a bully, especially one irked by his mark’s refusal to play along.
Trump’s frustration has its roots in his grandiose view of himself as a clever deal maker. Specifically, he saw in the Ukraine-Russia conflict the opportunity for him to end the largest land war in Europe since World War II and to save face for Putin by allowing Russia to retain occupied Ukrainian territory. This was the achievement he hoped would propel him to a long-sought goal, the Nobel Peace Prize. That desire can be traced back to his resentment that Barack Obama had won the prize while he had only been nominated.
…President Donald Trump has repeatedly conflated winning a Nobel Peace Prize with being nominated for one, and has wrongly faulted the media for ignoring his nomination after making former President Barack Obama’s nomination in 2009 “the biggest story I’ve ever seen.”
The media attention for Obama came after he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump has been nominated, but that’s not the “big thing” he makes it out to be. There are 318 candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2020 … [emphasis added]
Any one of thousands of people can nominate someone for the prestigious award. (FactCheck.org, September, 2020)
How would you describe an American President who would extort an ally to aid an enemy of our way of life so as to satisfy a pathological need for acclaim? Moral bankruptcy seems insufficient. Perhaps moral depravity is more appropriate.
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“Rare earths are a group of 17 metals used to make magnets that turn power into motion for electric vehicles, cell phones, missile systems, and other electronics. There are no viable substitutes.” On February 12, Reuters reported on US efforts to get access to the resources as the price of negotiating a ceasefire.