Trump nominates ex-jailbird as U.S. Ambassador to France.

 

Charles Kushner

What a cesspit politics is these days. They're all like pigs with their snouts in the trough. Donald Trump's team of nominees for government jobs looks more like a rogue's gallery by the day.

President-elect Trump has lambasted "crooked" Joe Biden for his decision to give a full unconditional pardon to his son, Hunter Biden, who was facing serious jail time for gun crime and tax evasion convictions. Having declared that he wouldn't interfere with the judicial process, Biden suddenly changed tack and said the charges against his son were politically motivated.

On Saturday, Trump nominated his son-in-law's father as U.S. Ambassador to France. Charles Kushner is an ex-jail bird, property tycoon and disbarred attorney. In 2005, he pleaded guilty to 18 counts of illegal campaign contributions and tax evasion as well as witness tampering, and received a 2-year jail sentence. Trump pardoned Kushner in 2020, stating that he "has been devoted to important philanthropic organizations and causes." Kushner donated $100,000 to a pro-Trump group in 2015, and $1 million to a pro-Trump super Pac in 2023. Another family member, Massad Boulos, has been appointed to serve as Trump's senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs. Billionaire Boulos, is the father-in-law of Trump's daughter Tiffany.

When Trump takes office on January 20, 2025, he will be the first sitting U.S. President to be a convicted felon. Before the U.S. Presidential election in November, Trump was convicted of 31 counts of falsifying business records in order to conceal a hush money payment to the former porn star, Stormy Daniels.  None of these charges and convictions, which Trump also claimed were a stitch up and politically motivated, damaged Trump politically.

Here in Britain, mainstream party politics is just as corrupt, squalid and sleazy. The former Conservative Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, nominated friends and family for peerages. He put his brother Joe in the House of Lords and even nominated his father Stanley Johnson, for a knighthood. During the COVID pandemic, Johnson's government awarded millions of pounds of dodgy government contracts to VIP Tory donors and cronies.

When in opposition, the self-righteous Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer-oid, promised to clean up British politics and to end the sleaze if Labour came to power. Having berated Boris Johnson about who paid for his wallpaper in his Downing Street flat, Starmer-oid and his wife, Lady Victoria sponger, were found to have received free gear and freebies amounting to tens of thousands of pounds, from wealthy Labour donors like Lord Waheed Alli.

Labour's obsequious Business and Trade Minister, Jonathan Reynolds, actually said that freebies like free tickets to Glastonbury and Taylor Swift concerts, were not perks of the job of being in government but were part of the job of being in government. Reynolds denied any knowledge of a Labour Party gimmick to charge people £30,000 to have breakfast with him at the Ivy Restaurant in Manchester. It was dubbed by the press, "cash for croissants." His wife, Claire Reynolds, who is not an elected politician, was recently appointed political adviser to Sir Keir Starmer-oid in Downing Street. Like her husband, Claire Reynolds is also a former Tameside Labour councillor.