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This is just a breathtaking level of corruption. And the president is so confident that his corruption will be tolerated by his party that he does it in the open.
It's not just about the president using his office to promote his private business. That kind of open corruption is bad enough, though unfortunately a routine occurrence in today's United States.
This tweet is way scarier.
This tweet is way scarier.
To give a quick recap of the backstory here: as you may recall, there are few things Trump despises more than wind turbines, and he especially despises them when they're near his golf courses.
Trump has two golf courses in Scotland. At Trump Turnberry, his newer acquisition, he successfully blocked a turbine development. However, at his other course, Trump Int'l Golf Club Scotland, he did not fare as well.
Plans to build wind turbines near his course in Aberdeen were approved by the Scottish government, so Trump sued them, trying to get the decision reversed. He lost, and then appealed, and kept losing, until finally in Dec 2015 he ran out of courts he could lose before.
Trump had vowed that he would "spend whatever monies are necessary to see to it that these huge & unsightly industrial wind turbines are never constructed."
But after he lost the case, construction on the wind farm went ahead. It was completed last year.
But after he lost the case, construction on the wind farm went ahead. It was completed last year.
The litigation wasn't over, though. In the US, all parties to a lawsuit are usually responsible for their own court costs, regardless of who won in the end. But in Scotland, the default rule is that the loser of a case pays the winner's expenses (as well as their own).
And the more unreasonable the loser's litigation strategy was, the more the loser is typically going to have to pay.
Which is bad news for Trump. Because on Thursday, Scotland's highest civil court ruled Trump must pay the gov't of Scotland's legal fees. bbc.com/news/uk-scotla…
Which is bad news for Trump. Because on Thursday, Scotland's highest civil court ruled Trump must pay the gov't of Scotland's legal fees. bbc.com/news/uk-scotla…
The exact amount has not been disclosed yet, but Scotland's court costs for years of appeals are undoubtedly not insignificant.
And Trump's Aberdeen golf course is, how do you say, skint af.
And Trump's Aberdeen golf course is, how do you say, skint af.
Trump bought TIGC in 2006, opened the course in 2012, and has never turned a profit. Every year he has to loan it more & more money just to keep the lights on. In all, he's poured about $55M US into it, and there's no sign yet that the property has the ability to turn profitable. 
The exact value of Trump's Aberdeenshire course may be subject to debate (he says it's +$50M on FEC disclosures), but it's clear he's underwater on it. And any time TIGC's liabilities increase, the more money Trump has to loan it that he'll almost certainly never get back.
All of which is to say: on Thursday, Trump was effectively ordered to pay the government of Scotland an untold number of millions of pounds, as their payment for defeating Trump in his war against the cursed wind turbines.
So there are many reasons for Trump to be upset about the Scottish ruling.
Which brings us back to this morning's horrific tweet -- the one in which he used his presidential powers to demand that the UK give him preferential treatment in a business deal.
Which brings us back to this morning's horrific tweet -- the one in which he used his presidential powers to demand that the UK give him preferential treatment in a business deal.
Trump's explicit message was: "My golf course in Scotland is important to the US's relationship with the UK."
And his barely-implicit message was: "If the UK takes a position that is adverse to my golf course, US foreign policy will take a position that is adverse to the UK."
And his barely-implicit message was: "If the UK takes a position that is adverse to my golf course, US foreign policy will take a position that is adverse to the UK."
And of course, Trump has foreign business interests in countries all over the world. If TIGC Scotland is important to the US-UK relationship, that means every other Trump property abroad is important to the US relationship with the country where it's located.
It's naked corruption. The ugliest kind -- not just a request for a handout, but the use of U.S. foreign policy as a weapon against an ally, to coerce them into giving favorable treatment to the president's private business. /end
