Trump is a National Security Threat; Be Prepared for Him to Flee to Avoid Prosecution
For the first time in our country’s history, the Secret Service must not only protect the ex-president from harms he may encounter, but they must also protect the country from the harms Donald Trump is likely to inflict upon us.
Trump holds information on our most vital secrets, our national security protocols, our plans in the events of nuclear or terrorist attack, where sensitive information is held, intelligence on our enemies, and all other aspects of our security apparatus. If he were to give away or sell this information, the results would be catastrophic. And the stark reality is that our intelligence agencies must face not if Trump will sell us out, but when he will try to sell us out.
No one in our history has monetized the presidency like Trump. He flagrantly violated the emoluments clause, engaged in the highest levels of cronyism and nepotism, placing his unqualified children and friends in key government positions in order to exploit the very institutions designed to protect the public. American Prospect’s “Mapping Corruption” provides a staggering report on Trump’s depravity that infected every major government institution. Trump’s final act of granting pardons to his friends was the coup de’ grace to a history of removing ethics controls, firing inspector generals and whistleblowers to cover-up his corruption.
It is impossible to uncover the magnitude to which Trump used the Presidency to profit. He began by refusing to divest from his businesses and instead used the State Department to actively promote Mar-a-Lago as a means to profit; Mar-a-Lago’s membership fees doubled to $200,000 after Trump became President because being a member was a proven way to meet and gain influence with then President Trump. After Trump lost the reelection, membership collapsed. Scores of world leaders, foreign government and special interests have spent millions at Trump’s hotels or businesses to curry favor. Examples include Ukraine’s President patronizing Trump’s Hotel right before meeting Trump in order to purchase more weapons and the government of Saudi Arabia spending hundreds of thousands at Trump’s hotel prior to murdering a US journalist. Yet another, is when days after Trump’s Indonesian real-estate project obtained a 1/2-billion-dollars from a Chinese government-owned company, Trump immediately lifted sanctions on a Chinese government-backed telecommunications firm. The depths of Trump’s corruption carried out through his family are too vast to detail. It was routine for Jared Kushner to obtain large “loans” for his troubled real estate business through meetings at the White House while supposedly conducting business on behalf of the US.
Trump is under a dozen criminal investigations, including hush-money payments (Federal and NY), falsifying business records (a felony when done to conceal other crimes), tax and bank fraud (NY); and real-estate fraud (criminal and civil).Those investigations don’t include all the expensive sexual misconduct civil suits, including E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of raping her.
Trump’s economic and legal troubles incentivize him to run and sell our secrets. Trump has few options for obtaining the kind of money he needs to pay for legal fees and his enormous debts, or ways to shield himself now that he is no longer President.
The moment an arrest warrant is issued, the US must be prepared for Trump to flee; our enemies will certainly be willing to pay for what he knows. Trump’s Secret Service detail should be vetted, and those more loyal to Trump than the US should be removed from watching him. While Republicans may look to protect Trump for his attempted coup, the government cannot allow Trump to flee the US or to sell our secrets under any condition. Trump and his children must be surveilled until all sensitive matters that they had access to are resolved. Trump’s passport should be revoked until all criminal investigations are complete.
Standard Disclaimer: The analyses, thoughts, suggestions, or experiences here reflect my own and not those of any organization I currently work for, have in the past, or will in the future.
