Trump Empire The Conflict Of Interest

Trump Empire The Conflict Of Interest by Gage Skidmore via Flickr.com Many of those who intend to vote for Mr. Trump cite his business experience as a major source of confidence in his ability to take on the role of President of the United States. They believe that Trump can renegotiate the trade agreements like TPP and NAFTA that he criticizes, that because he knows the ins and outs of dirty-money politics in America, he is the only one who can stop it. They frown upon Clinton for being one of these dirty politicians. Yet, what fails to be recognized is the other side of the coin: if Hillary Clinton is too tied into big money, Trump is the big money (and its in his interest to keep it that way). In fact, he contributed to her political campaign in 2008 (Washington Examiner). He now claims that he contributed for business reasons. Presumably, if Trump were to step up to the plate in 2017, he would still have at least a finger in, if not a firm grip on, the family business, and that means his interests wouldnt suddenly be reoriented to those of the workingman. In fact, whats to stop Donald Trump, a man whos been fighting for his business his entire life, from enacting law to specifically favor that very same Trump business? Donald Trump admits to making political donations to fodder friendly political winds now hes simply cutting out the middle man. He has taken full advantage of the devaluation of currency in China and Mexico that he complains about by setting up his factories there. To make the same profit margins he does now with factories in the United States, domestic factory workers would have to work for virtual slave wages (about a tenth of what the average factory worker makes now if he wanted to be on par with China) (Huffington Post). Trump has played the system at every junction, so why would he want to affect change that would take away the advantage he already has as a very wealthy man? by Sharon McKellar via Flickr.com Another disturbing fact is that when given the opportunity, Donald Trump bankrupted his casinos four times. The bill fell on his investors and business partners while he collected millions of dollars in salary, bonuses and other payments(NY Times). He made blatantly irresponsible business decisions, acquiring loans with unsustainable interest rates and acquiring outrageous debts. Take for example his touted project the Taj, on which the debt exceeded 820 million. The failure of this casino gets lumped into the bankruptcies of a number of New Jersey casinos, however, the Taj was barely afloat years before the others went under. Even before its opening it would have needed to gross an unprecedented 1.3 million a day in revenue just to make its interest payments. Yet, Trump doesnt seem to regret any of these decisions; in fact, he  brags about them, and frequently talks about how much profit he made. He never seems to mention the small companies he destroyed by failing to pay, or the employees he left on a sinking ship. Which begs the question: Whose side will he be on when the going gets tough? His countrys or his own?