arab
this is a tag
no merri
SEE ARAB PETRO SWF SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUND --> GENERIC $ FUCKERY KUSHNER
SEE CORRUPT 3
SEE CRYPTO CURRENCY
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aha: arabs saudi corrupt murderous monarchy, extreme unequal, bad to women and immigrant labor, slaughter civilians in yemen, and burning down the world, chummy with trump and all bushes, bandar bush, poppy gulf 1 nahyirah, gulf 2 wmd bush shrub
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an 4 26
no lnx
Trump's son-in-law has a $5 billion problem
:{Jared Kushner applauds during U.S. President Donald Trump's State of the Union address in the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 24, 2026.
Thom Hartmann March 20, 2026
There are several clear winners from Trump’s attack on Iran:
— Russia, who can again fund its violence against Ukraine with new oil revenue and now claims its unprovoked attack on that nation is consistent with this new Trump Doctrine;
— Saudi Arabia, which has long hated Iran and lobbied since at least 2008 for the US to attack that country;
— the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has similarly pushed America to attack Iran since at least 2010;
— the American defense weapons industry, which is making additional billions;
— Don Jr. and Eric, who have taken a big position in a drone-manufacturing business, getting them in on the Pentagon gravy train;
— Donald Trump himself, who’s succeeded in largely pushing Epstein off the front page;
— and Benjamin Netanyahu, who’s called for American strikes against Iran since 1992 and will stay out of prison as long as the war continues.
The losers include:
— The credibility of the United States and the rule of international law;
— the families of 13 dead and 140 injured American soldiers and airmen,
— the families of at least 160 dead Iranian little girls and thousands of other dead civilians in a dozen countries,
— American taxpayers who’re paying for the bombs;
— and future prospects for world peace.
But the biggest winner may be Jared Kushner, who apparently pushed Trump to initiate the war while he’s trying to solicit $5 billion from the same Arab states that have been begging American administrations for decades to attack Iran.
Back on March 5th, I speculated here on Hartmann Report that Kushner and Witkoff had been negotiating with Iran in bad faith, possibly to get the Iranian leadership to meet together in one place so Netanyahu (who used to sleep in Kushner’s bedroom) could kill them all with a missile strike.
Three years earlier, I laid out the backstory of how Kushner allegedly helped MBS take over the Saudi kingdom and was richly rewarded with $2 billion to fund his new investment venture.
Now, The New York Times is reporting that Kushner is back at the Arab trough, trying to pick up an additional $5 billion for his company from the same states that have been begging America to attack Iran for decades.
This represents a massive and apparently corrupt conflict of interest, as Congressman Jamie Raskin and Senator Ron Wyden pointed out when they called for an investigation into Kushner acting as an unregistered foreign agent in violation of the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA. They wrote:
“This revelation is deeply disturbing, as Mr. Kushner appears to be influencing U.S. foreign policy by acting as a political consultant to the Saudi government while also accepting their money. … Mr. Kushner’s proximity to President Trump and the potential for political interference warrants the appointment of a Special Counsel.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, in a brilliant imitation of Vladimir Putin, is threatening news organizations for their reporting on the War. He seems upset about news stories that Trump may have ignored warnings from his top generals that Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz if we attacked them; those reports appear to be well-sourced.
And it appears it was Kushner who was one of the main cheerleaders for this war, risks to world oil supplies and the possibility of the conflict igniting WWIII be damned.
Trump himself said that Kushner had advised him that Iran was preparing to strike America, something that’s patently impossible; they don’t have any missiles capable of reaching the United States and had just offered to sign a new deal promising never to develop any. Nonetheless, Trump — in an eerie echo of Bush’s lies about Iranian WMD — told America:
“Within a week, [Iran was] going to attack us, 100 percent. They were ready. They had all these missiles, far more than anyone thought, and they were going to attack us.”
Did I mention that Kushner is asking the Saudis and Emiratis for another $5 billion? As Popular Information reported:
“Kushner’s largest investor is the Saudi Arabian government, which provided Kushner with $2 billion in funding in 2021. Each year, Saudi Arabia pays Kushner 1.25% of its investment, $25 million, as a ‘management fee.’ Meaning he has received in excess of $100 million from the Saudi government over the last few years.
“Notably, ‘Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made multiple private phone calls to Trump’ in February, advocating a U.S. attack,’ according to reporting in the Washington Post. Trump’s comments reveal that Kushner used his role in Geneva to push Trump toward the outcome favored by his biggest client. Affinity Partners also received more than $200 million from the UAE. According to CNN, behind the scenes, the UAE was also lobbying Trump to strike Iran.”
Never before in American history have US negotiators had massive personal financial stakes in the outcome of their own negotiations. It’s a clear violation of the Constitution’s and US law’s ban on foreign emoluments, and possibly numerous anti-bribery laws.
With Congress paralyzed by terrified, spineless Republicans refusing to even look into the possibility that billionaire Trump, billionaire Kushner, billionaire Witkoff, and billionaires in the Middle East have thrown America into war just to enrich themselves, the burden has fallen on the American press.
Which has produced the predictable squeals from Carr and the billionaire Murdoch family’s Fox “News” propaganda channel, and from Whiskey Pete Hegseth, giggling about how things are going to change when David Ellison takes over CNN.
Threats notwithstanding, our elected officials need to step up now to defend both the First Amendment, the Emoluments Clause, and the lives of our men and women in uniform.
Even lacking subpoena power, Democratic leadership should convene shadow hearings to investigate this possible double-dealing that’s already killed Americans and threatens to plunge the entire world into flames.
At the very least, they should spend a few weeks holding public, on‑the‑record hearings into whether this Iran war is being steered from Riyadh, Jerusalem, and Kushner’s investment firm instead of the Pentagon.
With their Benghazi spectacle that followed the death of four Americans, Republicans taught us that when our officers and enlisted people die abroad, Congress has a duty to drag every decision‑maker before the cameras; Democrats should apply that same standard now, and ask under oath whether Trump, Kushner, and their billionaire partners are profiting from a war they helped ignite.
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AN 4 26
President Donald Trump's profits from the presidency continue to grow, and so do the funds flowing to his friends and family.
NBC News Miami walked through some of the recent updates on Trump World's profits, which are scoring billions.
“I don’t think there’s any line right now between policy decisions and political calculations and the interest of the Trump family,” said presidential historian Julian Zelizer, from Princeton University.
Trump's conflicts of interest aren't new; they were a concern even before he entered the White House in 2017, when he said he would put his businesses into a "blind trust." It never happened, and he claimed that he knew nothing about the Trump Organization, as his sons were running the business. Indeed, they managed to negotiate
The White House and the Trump Organization claim there are no ethical issues. When Donald Trump Jr. was asked about profits from failed cryptocurrency during a conference, he complained, "Frankly, it’s gotten old."
However, during the first term, the Trump Org. wasn't doing deals in foreign countries. There were minor deals like trademarks in China and shortly after the first term, two Trump advisors were given billions by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF): Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, and Trump's former Treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin.
In the first year of the second term, the Trump Org. has made deals all over the Middle East, including eight agreements, but not directly with foreign governments.
"But governments in authoritarian and one-party states rarely take a hands-off approach — especially when the business belongs to a sitting president," the report said.
That's particularly the case for the Saudis. Currently, a real estate tycoon with close ties to the royal family is developing a project. It will be a “Trump Plaza” resort on the Red Sea.
In Qatar, for example, Trump not only scored a multi-million-dollar plane that taxpayers retrofitted for him, but a Trump golf club and villa project is currently under development. The company that is part of the operation is owned by the Qatari government. The same thing is happening in Vietnam, where the *New York Times*reported the government took land from farmers to build a Trump resort. The report said that the government violated its own laws to do it. The country’s deputy prime minister signed off on the Trump Org. deal in a ceremony, the AP reported.
Meanwhile, what the countries got in return came from the United States. Qatar got U.S. technology, Vietnam got tariff relief and Saudi Arabia scored fighter jets.
The Trump Organization reinforced that none of its deals are done with foreign governments. The claim is that it is a coincidence that after deals were done in those countries, the government got something it needed.
A year after a deal was struck, it was exposed by the *Wall Street Journal* in January. Before the inauguration, a company linked to the UAE government, run by a member of the royal family, bought $500 million in crypto from Trump's "World Liberty Financial."
Then, another UAE company invested in Binance, an offshore cryptocurrency exchange, with $2 billion in digital currency called stablecoin, which came from the Trumps' World Liberty Financial.
"That allowed the Trump company that received the dollars to put it in safe investments such as bonds or money market funds and keep the tens of millions of dollars in interest for itself," the report said.
Suddenly, the new Trump government reversed restrictions on the UAE's access to U.S. chips. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao got a pardon from Trump, even though he'd pleaded guilty. He maintains that there was no connection between the Trump deals and his pardon.
World Liberty also denies any conflicts of interest.
It's only a portion of the cryptocurrency deals, the report said.
The White House alleged that any suggestion that the moves weren't "ethically sound" is either "ill-informed or malicious." It also falsely claimed that Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his children. While Trump pledged to have a blind trust in 2017, it never happened, a Common Cause investigation showed. In the new administration, Trump put about $4 billion in shares of his media company into a trust. There is no "blind trust" in the new administration either. There is, however, a revocable trust, that covers all of Trump's assets and is run by Donald Trump Jr.
The arguments from the White House "are belied by Trump’s failure to limit the appearance or reality that he is using his power to reward people who help enrich him," said *Mother Jones* in a March report. "Trump continues to benefit from the family companies now run by his sons, and ethics experts note that because Trump has not set up a blind trust, the president can keep track of who is paying or investing in those firms in hopes of influencing him."
NBC said that the Trump Organization claims it is “fully compliant with all applicable ethics and conflicts of interest laws” and added, “the implication that politics has enriched the Trump family is unfounded."
Trump, in January, told *The New York Times* that when it comes to potential conflicts of interest, “I prohibited them from doing business in my first term, and I got absolutely no credit for it. I didn’t have to do that. And it’s really unfair to them."
He added, "I found out that nobody cared, and I’m allowed to."
In January 2026, the Pew Research Center found that 42 percent of Trump voters were confident in his ethics. That said, in January 2025, that number was 55 percent. So, he's fallen 13 percent in a year, NBC cited.
In that same year, Forbes estimates Trump has increased his net worth by 60 percent, to $6.3 billion. Before he entered the White House, the Trump Organization was struggling, the report said.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr. started a private club in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. There is a $500,000 "initiation fee." NBC compared it to the Yellowstone Club in Montana. In that case, members get access to multiple resorts, 50 ski trails and more than a dozen restaurants across an area the size of Manhattan. Don Jr.'s club is in a basement and is called the "Executive Branch."
"Meanwhile, as the two oldest brothers’ new drone company" is asking for Pentagon contracts and other government deals that would ensure the Trump's score taxpayer dollars for their companies. There are already companies with government contracts that one or both of the Trump sons have an ownership stake in. It includes a rocket motor maker, an AI chip supplyer and data analytics company, government records show, according to NBC.
When asked about the potential conflicts of interest, a spokesperson for Don Jr. said he doesn't "interface" with the government on companies in his portfolio. He complained that he shouldn't have to stop "living his life and making a living to provide for his five kids just because his dad is president." He said it "is, quite frankly, a laughable and ridiculous standard."
The report closed by saying, "A new investment firm that the brothers joined as advisers last year has raised $345 million in an initial public offering to buy stakes in U.S. companies designed to help their father revive America’s manufacturing base. After the AP asked Trump’s chief business lawyer about language in a regulatory filing stating the firm would target companies seeking federal grants, tax credits and government contracts, he filed a new document with that language removed."
Commenting on it, the Princeton historian, Zelizer, said that he thinks future presidents will be more restrained or be forced to be more restrained.
“[Trump] has shown politically there is no price to be paid to making money,” he said. “You know you can go there.”
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AN 1 26 bibi?
Early Thursday morning, January 22 during the 2026 World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, U.S. President Donald Trump held a launching ceremony for his Board of Peace. Trump invited a long list of countries, from the European Union (EU) to Latin America, to join. But according to Daily Beast reporter Will Neal, his invitation is being rejected by a long list of European countries and western democracies.
"Some of the United States' longest standing allies have scorned en masse a signing ceremony for Donald Trump's new 'Board of Peace' initiative," Neal reports. "Not a single representative from a Western European country was present at the launch Thursday morning at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Fewer than 20 nations made an appearance, among them Gulf States like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, along with Argentina and Paraguay. The number stands well below the 35 anticipated by senior White House officials."
The lack of enthusiasm for Trump's Board of Peace is fueling a lot of comments on X, formerly Twitter — many of them scathing.
Progressive Marlene Robertson tweeted, "Trump invited 60 countries to join his board of peace. Below is listed the s--- hole countries who have joined."
The countries Robertson listed ranged from Israel to Belarus to Turkey to Hungary.
Mike Nellis, an ex-senior adviser to former Vice President Kamala Harris, posted, "Donald Trump says it's okay he invited well-documented mass murderer Vladimir Putin to his b------- 'Board of Peace' because he 'gets the job done.' Maybe tell that to the people of Ukraine, j------."
Finnish author Joni Askola wrote, "Trump's board of peace is pathetic to watch. It doesn't include anyone who is serious about peace."
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// trump tower mtg
Other meetings
Gulf states emissary
In August 2016, Donald Trump Jr. had a meeting with an emissary representing Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates. The envoy offered help to the Trump presidential campaign.[107] The meeting included Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, Joel Zamel, an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation, and American businessman Erik Prince.[108][107][109][110]
Los Angeles based Emirati real-estate developer, Rashid al-Malik, who is close to Prince Mohammed and one of Trump's aides, is being investigated for running an illegal influence scheme. A whistle-blower has also accused the UAE of using cyberespionage techniques from former American operatives to spy on US citizens.[111]
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an 5 25
Donald Trump insists that he is maintaining a strict distance between his presidency and his business interests, and he maintains that he is avoiding conflicts of interest by letting his son, Eric Trump, handle the Trump Organization.
But in an article published by the New York Times on May 5, journalists Eric Lipton and David Yaffe-Bellany report that during Trump's presidency, his business is making more foreign deals than ever.
The deals, according to Lipton and Yaffe-Bellany, are being orchestrated by Eric Trump and his older brother, Donald Trump Jr.
READ MORE:George Washington would have thrown up
"It is a rush to cash in that involves billions of dollars with few precedents in American history," the Times reporters explain. "A luxury hotel in Dubai. A second high-end residential tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Two cryptocurrency ventures based in the United States. A new golf course and villa complex in Qatar. And a new private club in Washington. In many cases, these new deals promoted over the last week will personally benefit not only Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., but also, President Trump himself."
This "marathon of deal making," according to Lipton and Yaffe-Bellany, "has been so rapid that many elements have drawn limited public attention in the United States, despite most of it being out in the open."
Trump White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told the Times, "The president's assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest."
But author Douglas Brinkley, a history professor at Rice University in Houston, said of the Trump family's foreign deals, "There’s nothing like it."
READ MORE:'Fundamentally dishonest': Liz Cheney reemerges to blast Trump and 'personality cult' GOP
*Read the full New York Times article at this link (subscription required).
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an 1 24
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no lnx wapo
Disgrace in the desert: The shameless return of business and government leaders to Saudi Arabia
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin during the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday. (Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters)
By Ali AlAhmed
October 31, 2019
Ali AlAhmed is founder and director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs.
This week, many of the world’s business and government leaders have convened in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the 2019 Future Investment Initiative, the Saudi regime’s annual money fest to promote doing business with the kingdom. Instead of the romanticized moniker “Davos in the Desert,” it would be better to call it a “Disgrace in the Desert.”
Last year’s event was shunned by most leading financiers due to disgust over the shocking murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi-born critic and Post contributing columnist.
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So, what has changed this year to entice President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and top executives of BlackRock, Blackstone and Goldman Sachs to show up?
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Well, here’s what hasn’t changed: The CIA’s finding that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s effective ruler, was the one who ordered Khashoggi’s brutal execution in Istanbul. To date, none of those implicated has faced any serious punishment or accountability.
What has also not changed: Saudi Arabia remains not only a rogue state by most international standards — it also makes an unstable strategic partner for the United States and others, fundamentally incompatible with Western business practices. The entire kingdom is now controlled by a ruthless 30-something whose first instinct is to imprison, torture, expropriate and murder.
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