$100 Million and Ethically Questionable.


Ivanka Trump participates in a presentation ceremony of The Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud Medal to President Donald Trump at the Royal Court Palace, Saturday, May 20, 2017, in Riyadh. CREDIT: AP Photo/Evan Vucci.

Oh, palace intrigue, it never ends. Once again, a deal struck now reverberates back to the Tiny Tyrant condemning something done by others, but it’s okely dokely for him and his family. Y’know, Donny has to absolutely love it there, in spite of that little curtsy gaffe, look at all that gilt! Is it too much to hope he’ll stay?

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have pledged $100 million to the World Bank’s Women Entrepreneurs Fund, an initiative proposed by first daughter and senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump. The fund, which was first announced in April, has already raised serious legal and ethical questions about how a White House adviser can both shape foreign policy and actively solicit donations from foreign countries for the fund.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the initiative would provide technical assistance and investments for projects that support the economic empowerment of women around the globe. Ivanka Trump does not control the money, though she first pitched the idea to World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and has discussed the idea with leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

On Sunday, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim praised “Ivanka’s leadership” in spearheading the fund, and called it “a stunning achievement.”

Getting people to shovel money your way is a handy talent, no doubt. A stunning achievement, though? Oh, I don’t think so. Could the bar for this family possibly be lower?

President Donald Trump was extremely critical of Saudi Arabia’s contributions to the Clinton Foundation while campaigning against Hillary Clinton, going so far as to call for Clinton to return all the money given to the foundation, both in speeches on the campaign trail and during the October presidential debate.

Credit: Facebook.

Donald J. Trump: Saudi Arabia and many of the countries that gave vast amounts of money to the Clinton Foundation want women as slaves and to kill gays. Hillary must return all money from such countries.

“You talk about women and women’s rights. These are people that push gays off business — off buildings. These are people that kill women and treat women horribly, and yet you take their money,” Trump said during the debate. “So I’d like to ask you right now. Why don’t you give back the money that you’ve taken from certain countries that treat certain groups of people so horribly? Why don’t you give back the money. I think it would be a great gesture.”

The Clinton Foundation received between 10 and 25 million from Saudi Arabia. Gosh, that’s barely a peach pit next to 100 million, isn’t it? Naturally, Trump has not brought up receiving that amount of money from Saudia Arabia, because now that sort of thing is just fine. Great, in fact.

Think Progress has the full story.

Comments

  1. komarov says

    His speech must have been wonderfully ironic: “Trump to Muslims: Drive extremists out” (BBC) (That was the original headline, which has been changed in the meantime. Maybe the BBC thought it was a bit much, too)

    This from the president of a government infested by right-wingers and fanatical Christians, who was ran on a platform of hatred against foreigners, singling out, among others, muslims.

    The fight against extremism, he added, was not a battle between different faiths or civilizations: “This is a battle between good and evil”.

    From the man who bragged about launching missile strikes and dropping the biggest conventional bomb to date, and whose first act failure as POTUS (give or take) was to try and ban a religious country from entering the country.

    But, he added, the countries could not wait for “American power” to act, and had to “fulfil their part of the burden”.

    Well, I know of one country busily building nukes to stop American power from acting, and its kind of hard to blame them, whatever else one may think of them. American power tends to leave a lot of rubble and bodies and creates more problems it solves. I doubt anyone is keen on more US interventions, at least not if they show up on their own doorstep.

    Needless to say, everything that’s wrong with anything is Iran’s fault.

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