Trump character on full display, offers to trade planet for cash

French warn Ireland about Russian interference in elections

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If you start with character - even in the seedy world of professional politics - you will often find the difference between right and wrong, what is just and what is unethical.

Our own moral compass used to be a guide to how we voted.

Unfortunately, even voting has become transactional and that has allowed politicians of dubious character to, not only survive, but flourish.

The worst of it was on display last week with Donald Trump after revelations were made public that Trump made a serious pitch to oil executives for a quid pro quo.

He would roll back new Biden administration environmental standards designed to reduce the effects of greenhouse gases if oil executives would raise $1 billion for his reelection campaign.

Trump was trading the future of the planet for campaign cash.

And with all the "Stormy" weather in New York last week, you may have missed that story. It's an important reminder of who Trump is and the transactional nature of everything he does.

But it gets even murkier.

Paul Manafort, who was briefly his campaign manager in 2016, was being considered by Trump to again be part of his campaign.

You should remember Manafort.

Manafort was Trump's campaign manager until allegations surfaced that he pocketed $12.7 million in cash payments from a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.

When Trump was nominated by the Republicans in 2016, a little reported plank was added to the party platform saying it would not support military assistance to Ukraine if it was invaded. Many suspected Manafort's hand in that decision.

Looking back eight years later, it appears much more nefarious.

While investigating Donald Trump's ties to Russia, the Mueller investigation implicated Manafort in various financial crimes. He was found guilty of committing bank fraud and conspiring to defraud the United States and was sentenced to seven years in federal prison.

But it gets worse.

The bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee declared  Manafort a "grave counterintelligence threat" because he passed off Trump campaign information to a former business associate who was a "Russian intelligence officer" and "Kremlin agent."

Manafort went to jail.

But during his final weeks in the White House, Trump commuted Manafort's sentence. Remember he was considered a "grave counterintelligence threat."

Manafort recently surfaced as part of a deal with the Chinese worth millions of dollars to establish a new streaming service that had the approval of the Chinese government.

But when word linked that Manafort was being considered for a post in the Trump campaign, he announced he was removing himself from consideration.

It was also reported this week that Trump may owe $100 million in taxes because he used a "dubious accounting maneuver to claim improper tax breaks."

The IRS says that Trump wrote off losses on a Chicago skyscraper twice.

You can't do that.

Since the Access Hollywood tape was in the news so much this week, it seems appropriate that Steve Bannon's name would come up as well.

When Trump's words about grabbing women's private parts were being spread across the country, it was Bannon who urged Trump not to drop out of the race, so yeah, he is partially to blame for where we are politically today.

Later, during Trump's term in office, Bannon was the face of a non-profit project seeking to raise funds to build a border wall. He raised over $25 million, but he eventually faced charges that he and three others defrauded donors by using more than $1 million of that money personally.

He was convicted and sentenced  to jail, but only hours before Donald Trump left office, he pardoned Bannon.

On Jan. 5, 2021, Bannon said on his podcast, "All hell is going to break loose tomorrow.”

The January 6 Committee wondered how he knew that and subpoenaed him.

He refused to cooperate and a jury found him guilty of contempt of Congress in October 2022 and he was sentence to four months in jail.

He was allowed to remain free on bail while his appeal was pending.

This past week, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the conviction. Naturally, Bannon is going to appeal that decision as well, but it appears he will eventually end up in the slammer.

Substack columnist Heather Cox Richardson wrote this week:

Former federal prosecutor and legal analyst Joyce White Vance wrote: “Bannon is effectively out of appeals. He can delay a little bit longer, asking for the full court to review the decision en banc & asking SCOTUS to hear his case on cert, but neither one of those things will happen. Bannon is going to prison.”

These were people who were close Trump advisors.

If you lie with dogs....

His association with Manafort (a security threat), Bannon's swindling of donors, Trump's own tax dodge and his appeal to oil company executives to trade the future of the planet for campaign donations, you should have a clear view of the character of Trump.

But here's the worst part.

Politico reported this week that oil executives are actually drawing up executive orders that Trump can sign as soon as he gets into office.

They appear to be considering the deal despite the fact that the United States produced record amounts of oil in 2023 and oil companies enjoyed record profits.

Even our own congresswoman was privy to twisting the facts.

On March 20, Rep. Elise Stefanik said, "Since his first day in office, Joe Biden has destroyed American energy independence."

That has no basis in fact.

So what Rep. Stefanik needs to answer is whether she favors rolling back regulatory cuts that protect the environment and reduce greenhouse gasses - such as acid rain in the Adirondacks - in exchange for campaign donations?

Russian interference

Apparently, the Russians are at it again.

The Irish Times reported this weekend that French security services believe that Russia is meddling in elections again - this time in Ireland.

The Irish Times reported that "Russia wishes to see candidates from the extremes of the political spectrum succeed in the elections in the hope this will weaken EU support for Ukraine."

Perhaps Russia is focusing more closely countries in Europe because it had so much success with the United States Congress.

French authorities told Irish officials there is a network of websites and social media accounts that are being adapted to each European country to sow discord. These fake news sites do not produce original content. They repeat talking points from Russian or pro-Russian personalities or pro-Kremlin news agencies.

The French have dubbed the network "Portal Kombat" and since February it has greatly expanded, including sites that specifically target Ireland.

We've already seen this type of fake news take root in the U.S. Congress. Our own Rep. Elise Stefanik has recently voted against Ukraine aid.

Battenkill Books event

I'm looking forward to talking with former Schenectady Gazette editor Judy Patrick about newspapers, journalism and my latest collection of columns - The Last American Editor, Vol. 2 - at Battenkill Books in Cambridge.

The two of us will be chatting on Thursday at 6 p.m.

The new book has 90 more columns from my time at The Post-Star.

I will be signing books afterward. Hope to see you there.

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Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.