Trump Feeds My Paranoia

One of the things I hate about Donald Trump is the way he encourages paranoia in people I would otherwise take seriously -- including myself.

Presidents have been subjects of conspiracy theories, probably for as long as we have had Presidents.  And certainly those conspiracy theories have been more widely circulated since 1992.  Bill Clinton has been accused of everything from running drugs in Arkansas to the Clinton Body Count.  GW Bush has been accused of engineering 9-11.  Barrack Obama has been accused of being a Kenyan-born Muslim infiltrator and plotting to invade Texas in Operation Jade Helm.

And up until now these wild stories were easily dismissed.  But Donald Trump?  Well, here is his problem (or here are his problems).  He owns an immense business empire that he has not divested himself of, and probably cannot divest himself of, given that name branding is his stock-in-trade.  He operates foreign policy with governments that have the authority to facilitate or obstruct his business ventures in ways that can create at least the appearance of conflict of interest.  And he gives no evidence of having any concept of the public good apart from his personal advancement.  And who simultaneously had the Russian government manipulating the election in his favor and had several campaign operatives with sleazy Russian ties.  And who, unlike any previous President, has the support of the conspiracy nuts who believe he is on their side, and who seems to believe a whole lot of conspiracy theories that anyone with any sense should dismiss out of hand.

With all that, it gets a little too easy to start looking for connections among a wide array of events and end up drawing connections that don't exist.  And that is the very definition of paranoia.

Consider some of the stories coming out. 

Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen was attempting to negotiate a contract to build a Trump Tower in Moscow at the same time that Russia was manipulating the election in Trump's favor.

China approves Ivanka Trump's trademarks just about the same time that Donald Trump enters into an agreement to save the Chinese telecom ZTE. 

Qatar refuses Jared Kushner a loan.  Kushner and Trump then back Saudi Arabia in its blockade of Qatar.  The Qatari government then cleared the loan and the US began pushing for a resolution.

Michael Cohen sets up Essential Consultants, LLC, which gives all appearance of being an influence peddling scheme.  It will take a long time to sort out whether any influence was actually peddled.

And now it is reported that the Ukrainian government paid $400,000  or $600,000 to Cohen to set up a meeting with Trump.  At that meeting a deal was reached -- the US would sell Ukraine lethal weapons and Ukraine would drop its investigation of Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's incredibly sleazy dealings with Ukraine's pro-Russian party.  This is usually portrayed as a concession by the Ukrainians -- that they saw dropping the investigation as the price of support.  But it could be a game of blackmail -- sell us arms, or we spill the beans on Paul Manafort.

Anyone with a lot of research time and a minimum of imagination can draw all sorts of connections between Trump's foreign relations and his business activities and find suspicious proximity.  And here is the thing.  I certainly don't believe that all these stories are true.  With any other President, I would have dismissed the whole thing as paranoia pure and simple.  But with Donald Trump, I can't rule out the possibility that at least some of these stories might be true.  And if even one is true, it would be an impeachable offense, not to mention a scandal unprecedented in our history.