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Comment by ot

6 hours ago

> Trump works transactionally

Why can't we just call this corruption? Is there any other, more charitable, interpretation of "transactional"?

11 comments

ot

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actionfromafar  6 hours ago

Transactional at best. Not sly mob-leader transactional, but toddler transactional.

Edit: to his own detriment. Why bother with "deals" when you know it can change at any moment. Just put on a golden dog and pony show for the King and hope for the best.

  • jfengel  3 hours ago

    An article on HN yesterday calculated that he has made $2 billion on these various deals. Sounds like it's working great for him.

tempodox  4 hours ago

It has become so normal, nobody is even calling it corruption any more. See also: “regulatory capture”.

pavlov  6 hours ago

I suppose the charitable interpretation is that Trump favors transactions that offer short-term benefits to the country, rather than America’s traditional investments into long-term goals that tend to be more nebulous (“soft power” etc.)

Of course, one look at Trump’s actual transactions in office should dissuade of that notion. After he made the preliminary trade deal with the EU, he bragged on TV that Europeans are investing $600 billion and Trump himself gets to decide where the money goes. It’s baffling that anyone would assume that’s how any of this works, but he clearly thinks the point of these transactions is to get more power and wealth for himself.

  • balamatom  6 hours ago

    >It’s baffling that anyone would assume that’s how any of this works.

    It's because the president said it on TV.

    • pavlov  5 hours ago

      Is that a recursive loop? The president thinks that’s how it works because the president said so on TV.

      I can believe that kind of reinforcement happens. Trump watches Fox News, sees himself saying X, and thinks “yes, it’s very good that {X}.”