A crazy week inside the Trump administration

Justin Yost, Staff Writer

It has been a crazy couple of weeks/days in America. Republicans voted yes to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexually assaulting Dr. Christine Blasey Ford while they were in high school, to the Supreme Court. The New York Times reported that President Donald Trump engaged in suspect tax schemes as he reaped in millions of dollars from his father. And finally the most popular member of the Trump administration, Nikki Haley, announced yesterday morning in an oval office media availability that she would be leaving the administration at the end of the year.

It seems everyday something bad comes out about this administration and it is hard to remember everything. While writing I had to ask my roommates what I was missing to even remember the tax scheme story.

But let’s take this one story at a time and talk about how the most popular people in our country failed women. I wrote about how gut wrenching it was to listen to Dr. Fords testimony last week. I’m not sure if it was just a ploy by republicans or not, but republicans called for the FBI to open an investigation into the allegations. The White House agreed and ordered the investigation into Kavanaugh, but gave the FBI a week to finish the investigation. There is a big difference between an FBI criminal investigation and background investigations. In a criminal investigation the FBI has free rein to follow any leads as far as they go. In a background investigation for the the White House, what the FBI can look at is narrowed by the White House.

Trump’s assertion to the public that the FBI had free rein was a lie. Kavanaugh’s college roommate told CNN he had tried to contact the FBI to tell of Kavanaugh’s drinking habits during college, but was denied. Kavanaugh told the Senate Judiciary Committee he never drank enough to black out.

The FBI did not contact Ford or other women who came forward with allegations against Kavanaugh. This investigation was a sham by being completed in five days. Once the investigation was over, Republicans did not hesitate and confirmed Kavanaugh.

Last week the New York Times reported Trump, who ran on being a self made millionaire, committed tax fraud in the 90’s which increased his fortune he received from his parents. Trump and his siblings setup sham corporations to hide millions of dollars in gifts from his parents according to confidential tax returns obtained by the New York Times.

Trump’s parents transferred over $1 billion in wealth to their children. Under the 55 percent tax rate imposed on gifts and inheritances at that time the total amount of money taken out for taxes would of been $550 million. The Trumps only paid a total of $52.2 million, or around five percent. Maybe this explains why Trump won’t release his tax returns he said he would release last year. The president’s entire life has been a fraud.

Yesterday morning Haley announced she would be leaving the administration at the end of the year. Haley said her resignation was simply about needing a break. She served for six years as the governor of South Carolina before her two years at the United Nations.

Trump hinted that Haley had told him she wanted out as long as six months ago. If that was true it was one of the best kept secrets in an administration that has more leaks than my ceiling. The timing is odd after getting a big “win” for Republicans in the Kavanaugh confirmation. The last thing Republicans, especially the White House, could have wanted was a popular official leaving just before midterms.

On Monday a watchdog group in Washington called for an investigation into Haley’s private travel on the Government’s dime. As of writing nothing more has came out regarding wrong doing by Haley, but similar ethics allegations took down other Trump administration officials Tom Price and Scott Pruitt. If there is one way I can sum up these last couple of weeks, and even the entire Trump presidency, it would be this picture of Trump walking onto air force one with toliet paper stuck to his shoe.