After years of the Trump family using the presidency to personally profit, The New York Times on Thursday reported that merely the “potential” of corruption exists. The understatement was included in the Times’ reporting on Eric Trump’s decision to fly to China with his father while meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The story by the paper’s White House correspondent Luke Broadwater noted, “His presence could raise questions about potential blurred lines between the government and the Trump family’s business interests. The Trump Organization said Eric Trump would be traveling to China only to support his father, and would not pursue business while there.”
Well, if he said so—that’s all the paper of record needs, apparently.
Attribution: APEric Trump, the son of President Donald Trump, speaks at a campaign rally for his father, Sept. 17, 2020, in Saco, Maine.
Left unsaid in the Times story is any mention of Eric Trump’s financial dealings with the China-based bitcoin rig manufacturer Bitmain via his American Bitcoin Corp. The company has been under investigation over national security issues, and its closeness to Trump echoes activities from other business leaders (like Elon Musk) who saw the government lose interest in enforcement as they got closer to the administration.
But the Times says only the “potential” for corruption exists.
There’s also the recent matter of the sweetheart Pentagon contract that was awarded to Florida-based drone company Unusual Machines. Just coincidentally, Donald Trump Jr. is an investor and serves on the advisory board. The Trump brothers have similarly held dinners for their allies in the crypto industry while Trump has pulled back on oversight of the industry.
Related |Barron Trump gets in on the family grift
Other Trump family members like Donald’s son Barron Trump and granddaughter Kai Trump have also used the family’s access to the White House as a springboard for profitable business ventures.
But there is only “potential” for corruption.
By contrast, when reporting a few years ago on industry connections that Hunter Biden made while invoking his father, former President Joe Biden, the Times labeled his dealings “audacious.”
To be sure, the Biden family deserves scrutiny as much as any other powerful political family and their interactions with big business. But unlike the Trumps, Hunter Biden was not flying around the world with his father and simultaneously hobnobbing with businesses seeking access.
The Times is engaged in a concerted campaign to sanewash Trump and to normalize his unprecedented behavior—including calls for violence and support for corruption. That is why all it could muster was “potential.”
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