Business and Politics

President Trump is Openly Soliciting Bribes from American Business

And yet, somehow, that doesn’t seem surprising

In an unprecedented move, United States President Donald Trump has asserted that the U.S. should receive part of the payment on any potential purchase of the Chinese app TikTok, a video sharing service.

Trump suggested that the approval of the deal would hinge on the U.S. getting a “very substantial” portion of any amount paid. Microsoft is said to be interested in acquiring a portion of TikTok’s business operations and the Trump administration has pushed for the sale of the company to U.S. owners as a solution to potential national security problems raised by the application.

Microsoft stands to gain much in the form of potential advertising opportunities for a novel set of users, most of them young adults and teens. Additionally, this fits well alongside recent acquisitions made by the tech giant including the LinkedIn business networking platform, ownership of the company that created the “Minecraft” video game, as well as the digital collaboration site, GitHub.

Nothing short of a thinly veiled (or just blatant) bribe, the suggestion that the government should receive payment for “brokering” a deal is ridiculous to comprehend, and yet here we see it with the Trump administration.

While illegal and unethical aren’t necessarily deterrents to any sort of Trump antics, this one seems more flagrantly barefaced than previous extreme positions as Trump prepares for the final push into election season.

Clearly not the first bold attempt to assert presidential power that doesn’t exist, such as threats to cut school funding and apply coronavirus restrictions, this is just one more in a series of gestures of the ridiculous that are becoming terrifyingly normalized for most Americans.

While Trump has always backed down on his threats, because he simply doesn’t have the power to act like a dictatorship might, it is alarming just how much chest thumping and posturing he seems to be capable of.

The danger of these threats of action is that, after hearing so many, we have become immune to listening to his ridiculous antics, to the point that the public at large has stopped paying attention.

We only have so much bandwidth available to evaluate whether what the president is spouting is legal, moral or ethical that we have become fatigued with the discussion. Certainly, this is part of Trump’s agenda, the wearing down of the collective public conscience.

Much like a toddler that has seemingly perpetual ability to whine, kick and yell, at some point the parents may ultimately give in and hand the petulant tyke a treat; just simply to get him to shut up.

Not only that, but the Trump voters seem to relish his antics, possibly because they rationalize that if Trump gets what he wants, so will they. This generally flawed logic also extends to those Trump supporters that are simply curious to see how much he can shake up the establishment.

While that theory might interesting if we could be assured that the result wouldn’t end in an actual dictatorship with King Trump at the helm, all indications available point to that being a potential outcome if Trump could simply get a firm enough toehold on the concept that he is “all powerful”.

Trump has attacked the very pillars of democracy in America repeatedly and has managed to achieve some success in silencing and discrediting free speech, testing the establishment within the judicial system, and undermining our belief in the election process.

This latest assault on business seems to be the one remaining area of democracy that hasn’t seen the full brunt of Trump’s disruptive force, but now, finally, that has arrived in the form of asking for bribes from Microsoft to secure a business deal on the eve of election season.

It would be almost comically absurd if it wasn’t so spine-tinglingly terrifying. What Trump does in real life surpasses even the worst-case scenario that we could have imagined only four years ago.

And if you think that a disruption and replacement of democracy isn’t possible, just look at history — you know, that which we are doomed to repeat if we don’t remember. It was a mere 50 years ago that Idi Amin promised to re-stabilize the democracy of Uganda, only to rule as a brutal and bloody military dictatorship. A blink of the eye ago in historical perspective.

With our resolve weakened by months of social distancing and economic turmoil from the coronavirus, along with social unrest and an extraordinary rise in violent crimes, our nation has never been so divided; and so vulnerable to attack, especially from within.

As we limp into the polls in November, battered, fatigued and worn down from months of not just one disaster, but a confluence of crises, it has never been so important that we voice our collective opinion of what we want from our government.

Trump has had his day in the limelight, and I don’t think there is anyone that can credibly say that we are better off for it. And, if we miraculously are, somehow, better off, the trade-off to get here is simply unacceptable.

We have enough going on with civil unrest and a global pandemic. This is not the time to be shaking the foundations of democracy to see how well they hold up to repeated attacks from our commander in chief.

I fear that Trump’s blatant hand outstretched to receive bribes from big business isn’t going to be the last attempt we see to break the proverbial camel’s back. Trump likely has more up his sleeve with three months left before the first Tuesday in November.

I just hope we can make it there as a nation, then stand in unison to say that we want more out of our elected president. I don’t think we can take any more discord this year. We need some relief, and we need it now.

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Timothy Key spent over 26 years in the fire service as a firefighter/paramedic and various fire chief management roles. He firmly believes that bad managers destroy more than companies, and good managers create a passion that is contagious. Compassion, grace and gratitude drive the world; or at least they should. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and join the mail list.