Trump is nothing if not a master of distraction. He’s got the pundits on cable news hyperventilating over his very hectic weekend. His musings on Arnold-Palmer-in-the-shower, by my watch, got more airtime this morning than any other Trump story, including his cameo appearances at McDonalds and at the Jets-Steeler game, and his doubling down on Fox News of the Nazi-era phrase: “The enemy within.”
It’s a lot to chew on.
So you would be forgiven if you did not notice that, between all this, he slipped in a quick interview with Saudi Arabia’s State TV Al Arabiya, in which he was positively glowing about Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed Bin Salman. Trump calls him, “A great guy.” And also says:
I have so much respect for the king, so much respect for Mohammed, who is doing so great. I mean, he’s really a visionary. He’s done things that nobody else would have even thought about. His very long city that he’s building, he’s really doing something. He’s a great guy. And he’s respected all over the world.
So, you know where I’m going with this…
Mohammed Bin Salman is not only a guy with a questionable human rights record, he’s the main “backer” – how else to put it? – of the lavish lifestyle of Trump’s daughter, Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner.
Trump makes it very, very easy for people to forget this — and the very serious risk Kushner’s business ties pose to American foreign policy and national security – with his continual, successful poking-of-the-bear that is the mainstream media. No journalist seems to be asking him any questions about the national security risk that his daughter and son-in-law could pose to a future Trump administration, because he’s got the media exactly where he wants them: doing deep-dive research into which presidential candidate has now spent more hours working for McDonald’s.
I’d argue that journalists should spend more time studying the Instagram accounts of Ivanka and Jared and think about the deeper meaning beneath the surface imagery, which, as I’ve written here before, could be easily confused with an episode of Real Housewives of Miami.
To the unthinking and sympathetic eye, Ivanka’s social media shows the former First Daughter having a well-earned rest. She wakeboards; she foils; she golfs; she goes boating with the girls; she and Jared entertain in their new $24 million home in the private enclave of Indian Creek.
And, unlike the awkward years of her father’s presidency – remember when Christine Lagarde rolled her eyes when Ivanka tried to insert herself into a conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, and British PM Theresa May at the G20 summit – the couple is now wanted at the parties of the global elite! Perhaps Christine Lagarde is not issuing them an invitation, but as a consolation prize there’s the Ambani wedding in India, and Kim Kardashian’s 43rd birthday party!
It all seems to be going so well for the couple…
Read on at Vicky Ward Investigates