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Trump’s trip to the Middle East isn’t like any other foreign trip that a previous president has made. It is historic because Trump isn’t making the trip to strive for peace in a long-troubled region. Trump isn’t looking to broker stability. Trump won’t be visiting Israel as Netanyahu continues his campaign to exterminate the Palestinian people.
The media has been willing to sell the White House narrative that Trump is trying to do deals, but Sen. Chris Murphy told the real story on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
Video of Murphy:
Sen. Murphy said when asked about Trump’s trip:
This is President Trump’s corruption tour of the Middle East. He is going to the Gulf in order to collect tribute. What’s happening here is an extraordinary level of corruption. We shouldn’t pretend this is business as usual. What the president is doing is giving countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE, what they want for Saudi Arabia.
It’s a civilian nuclear deal with the United States for the UAE. It is taking some of the restrictions off of the way that semiconductors flow into that country. And in exchange, Trump is not asking for any benefit to the American people. He’s not asking for any movement towards peace in the region.
He’s asking for cash. He’s asking for cash payments. UAE is giving him that through this deal on cryptocurrency in which they are. Paying doing a big deal through Trump crypto. And of course, we just found out this weekend that Qatar is going to be giving Donald Trump a plane, apparently, personally.
So that’s the story of this trip on Iran. I mean, listen, I obviously I want a diplomatic agreement with Iran. But what tragedy it would be if the result of these negotiations is to move Iran from where it is today, a handful of weeks away from a nuclear weapon, if it wanted one to a year, which is what the stated objective is, that was the deal that President Obama had negotiated, that Donald Trump walked away from.
We wouldn’t have to be at the negotiating table today talking about extending the timeframe for an Iranian new. Nuclear weapon out to a year if Donald Trump hadn’t thrown that agreement in the trash. So it’s just a sign of both the corruption and the incompetence of this administration’s foreign policy.
Corruption and incompetence are a powerful combination in a presidential administration. History tells us that any “deals” that Trump announces on his trip don’t actually exist and are non-binding preliminary commitments.
Trump is visiting countries that have given him money or are promising personal gifts to him. The Saudis, Qatar, and UAE bought Trump, and what they are getting in return are presidential visits and favorable policies.
The trip is the selling of American policy and the presidency.
It is not business as usual, and should be viewed as a corrupt president dirtying the presidency.
What do you think about Sen. Murphy’s interview? Share your thoughts in the comments below.