[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12763-12767]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              DONALD TRUMP

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am very concerned about the integrity and 
the security of our democracy in America.

[[Page 12764]]

  The United States is a nation that has always been and must always be 
governed by its people.
  Later on today, I am going to see Ambassador Baucus. He is someone 
who has always talked about how we have to make sure the people 
determine what we do. America must never be subject to undue influence 
from foreign powers. Potential conflicts of interest involving our 
Nation's elected officials deserve our highest scrutiny. That is why I 
found yesterday's article by Kurt Eichenwald in Newsweek really 
frightening. I ask unanimous consent that the article be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                    [From Newsweek, Sept. 14, 2016]

  How The Trump Organization's Foreign Business Ties Could Upend U.S. 
                           National Security

                          (By Kurt Eichenwald)

       If Donald Trump is elected president, will he and his 
     family permanently sever all connections to the Trump 
     Organization, a sprawling business empire that has spread a 
     secretive financial web across the world? Or will Trump 
     instead choose to be the most conflicted president in 
     American history, one whose business interests will 
     constantly jeopardize the security of the United States?
       Throughout this campaign, the Trump Organization, which 
     pumps potentially hundreds of millions of dollars into the 
     Trump family's bank accounts each year, has been largely 
     ignored. As a private enterprise, its businesses, partners 
     and investors are hidden from public view, even though they 
     are the very people who could be enriched by--or will further 
     enrich--Trump and his family if he wins the presidency.
       A close examination by Newsweek of the Trump Organization, 
     including confidential interviews with business executives 
     and some of its international partners, reveals an enterprise 
     with deep ties to global financiers, foreign politicians and 
     even criminals, although there is no evidence the Trump 
     Organization has engaged in any illegal activities. It also 
     reveals a web of contractual entanglements that could not be 
     just canceled. If Trump moves into the White House and his 
     family continues to receive any benefit from the company, 
     during or even after his presidency, almost every foreign 
     policy decision he makes will raise serious conflicts of 
     interest and ethical quagmires.


                           The Mumbai Shuffle

       The Trump Organization is not like the Bill, Hillary & 
     Chelsea Clinton Foundation, the charitable enterprise that 
     has been the subject of intense scrutiny about possible 
     conflicts for the Democratic presidential nominee. There are 
     allegations that Hillary Clinton bestowed benefits on 
     contributors to the foundation in some sort of ``pay to 
     play'' scandal when she was secretary of state, but that 
     makes no sense because there was no ``pay.'' Money 
     contributed to the foundation was publicly disclosed and went 
     to charitable efforts, such as fighting neglected tropical 
     diseases that infect as many as a billion
     people. The financials audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the 
     global independent accounting company, and the foundation's 
     tax filings show that about 90 percent of the money it raised 
     went to its charitable programs. (Trump surrogates have 
     falsely claimed that it was only 10 percent and that the rest 
     was used as a Clinton ``slush fund.'') No member of the 
     Clinton family received any cash from the foundation, nor did 
     it finance any political campaigns. In fact, like the 
     Clintons, almost the entire board of directors works for 
     free.
       On the other hand, the Trump family rakes in untold 
     millions of dollars from the Trump Organization every year. 
     Much of that comes from deals with international financiers 
     and developers, many of whom have been tied to controversial 
     and even illegal activities. None of Trump's overseas 
     contractual business relationships examined by Newsweek were 
     revealed in his campaign's financial filings with the Federal 
     Election Commission, nor was the amount paid to him by his 
     foreign partners. (The Trump campaign did not respond to a 
     request for the names of all foreign entities in partnership 
     or contractually tied to the Trump Organization.) Trump's 
     financial filings also indicate he is a shareholder or 
     beneficiary of several overseas entities, including Excel 
     Venture LLC in the French West Indies and Caribusiness 
     Investments SRL, based in the Dominican Republic, one of the 
     world's tax havens.
       Trump's business conflicts with America's national security 
     interests cannot be resolved so long as he or any member of 
     his family maintains a financial interest in the Trump 
     Organization during a Trump administration, or even if they 
     leave open the possibility of returning to the company later. 
     The Trump Organization cannot be placed into a blind trust, 
     an arrangement used by many politicians to prevent them from 
     knowing their financial interests; the Trump family is 
     already aware of who their overseas partners are and could 
     easily learn about any new ones.
       Many foreign governments retain close ties to and even 
     control of companies in their county, including several that 
     already are partnered with the Trump Organization. Any 
     government wanting to seek future influence with President 
     Trump could do so by arranging for a partnership with the 
     Trump Organization, feeding money directly to the family or 
     simply stashing it away inside the company for their use once 
     Trump is out of the White House. This is why, without a 
     permanent departure of the entire Trump family from their 
     company, the prospect of legal bribery by overseas powers 
     seeking to influence American foreign policy, either through 
     existing or future partnerships, will remain a reality 
     throughout a Trump presidency.
       Moreover, the identity of every partner cannot be 
     discovered if Trump reverses course and decided to release 
     his taxes. The partnerships are struck with some of the more 
     than 500 entities disclosed in Trump's financial disclosure 
     forms; each of those entities has its own records that would 
     have to be revealed for a full accounting of all of Trump's 
     foreign entanglements to be made public.
       The problem of overseas conflicts emerges from the nature 
     of Trump's business in recent years. Much of the public 
     believes Trump is a hugely successful developer, a television 
     personality and a failed casino operator. But his primary 
     business deals for almost a decade have been a quite 
     different endeavor. The GOP nominee is essentially a licensor 
     who leverages his celebrity into streams of cash from 
     partners from all over the world. The business model for 
     Trump's company started to change around 2007, after he 
     became the star of NBC's The Apprentice, which boosted his 
     national and international fame. Rather than constructing 
     Trump's own hotels, office towers and other buildings, much 
     of his business involved striking deals with overseas 
     developers who pay his company for the right to slap his name 
     on their buildings. (The last building constructed by Trump 
     with his name on it is the Trump-SoHo hotel and condominium 
     project, completed in 2007.) In public statements, Trump and 
     his son Donald Trump Jr. have celebrated their company's 
     international branding business and announced their 
     intentions to expand it. ``The opportunities for growth are 
     endless, and I look forward to building upon the tremendous 
     success we have enjoyed,'' Donald Trump Jr. said in 2013. 
     Trump Jr. has cited prospects in Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, 
     Thailand, Argentina and other countries.
       The idea of selling the Trump brand name to overseas 
     developers emerged as a small piece of the company's business 
     in the late 1990s. At that time, two executives from Daewoo 
     Engineering and Construction met with Trump at his Manhattan 
     offices to propose paying him for the right to use his name 
     on a new complex under development, according to former 
     executives from the South Korean company. Daewoo had already 
     worked with the Trump Organization to build the Trump World 
     Tower, which is close to the Manhattan headquarters of the 
     United Nations. The former Daewoo executives said Trump was 
     at first skeptical, but in 1999 construction began on the 
     South Korean version of Trump World, six condominium 
     properties in Seoul and two neighboring cities. According to 
     the two former executives, the Trump Organization received an 
     annual fee of approximately $8 million a year.
       Shortly after the deal was signed, the parent company of 
     Daewoo Engineering and Construction, the Daewoo Group, 
     collapsed into bankruptcy amid allegations of what proved to 
     be a $43 billion accounting fraud. The chairman of the Daewoo 
     Group, Kim Woo Choong, fled to North Korea; he returned in 
     2005, was arrested and convicted of embezzlement and 
     sentenced to 10 years in prison. According to the two former 
     Daewoo executives, a reorganization of Daewoo after its 
     bankruptcy required revisions in the Trump contract, but the 
     Trump Organization still remains allied with Daewoo 
     Engineering and Construction.
       This relationship puts Trump's foreign policies in conflict 
     with his financial interests. Earlier this year, he said 
     South Korea should plan to shoulder its own military defense 
     rather than relying on the United States, including the 
     development of nuclear weapons. (He later denied making that 
     statement, which was video-recorded.) One of the primary 
     South Korean companies involved in nuclear energy, a key 
     component in weapons development, is Trump's partner--Daewoo 
     Engineering and Construction. It would potentially get an 
     economic windfall if the United States adopted policies 
     advocated by Trump.
       In India, the conflicts between the interests of the Trump 
     Organization and American foreign policy are starker. Trump 
     signed an agreement in 2011 with an Indian property developer 
     called Rohan Lifescapes that wanted to construct a 65-story 
     building with his name on it. Leading the talks for Rohan was 
     Kalpesh Mehta, a director of the company who would later 
     become the exclusive representative of Trump's businesses in 
     India. However, government regulatory hurdles soon impeded 
     the project. According to a former Trump official who spoke 
     on condition of anonymity, Donald Trump Jr. flew to

[[Page 12765]]

     India to plead with Prithviraj Chavan, chief minister of 
     Maharashtra, a state in Western India, asking that he remove 
     the hurdles, but the powerful politician refused to make an 
     exception for the Trump Organization. It would be extremely 
     difficult for a foreign politician to make that call if he 
     were speaking to the son of the president of the United 
     States.
       The Mumbai deal with Rohan fell apart in 2013, but a new 
     branding deal (Trump Tower Mumbai) was struck with the Lodha 
     Group, a major Indian developer. By that time, Trump had an 
     Indian project underway in the city of Pune with a large 
     developer called Panchshil Realty that agreed to pay millions 
     for use of the Trump brand on two 22-floor towers. His new 
     partner, Atul Chordia of Panchshil, appeared awed in public 
     statements about his association with the famous Trump name 
     and feted Trump with a special dinner attended by actors, 
     industrialists, socialites and even a former Miss Universe.
       Last month, scandal erupted over the development, called 
     Trump Towers Pune, after the state government and local 
     police started looking into discrepancies in the land records 
     suggesting that the land on which the building was 
     constructed may not have been legally obtained by Panchshil. 
     The Indian company says no rules or laws were broken, but if 
     government officials conclude otherwise, the project's future 
     will be in jeopardy--and create a problem that Indian 
     politicians eager to please an American president might have 
     to resolve.
       Through the Pune deal, the Trump Organization has developed 
     close ties to India's Nationalist Congress Party--a centrist 
     political organization that stands for democratic secularism 
     and is led by Sharad Pawar, an ally of the Chordia family 
     that owns Panchshil--but that would be of little help in this 
     investigation. Political power in India rests largely with 
     the Indian National Congress, a nationalist party that has 
     controlled the central government for almost 50 years. 
     (However, Trump is very popular with the Hindu Sena, a far-
     right radical nationalist group that sees his anti-Muslim 
     stance as a sign he would take an aggressive stand against 
     Pakistan. When Trump turned 70 in June, members of that 
     organization threw a birthday party for the man they called 
     ``the savior of humanity.'')
       Even as Trump was on the campaign trail, the Trump 
     Organization struck another deal in India that drew the 
     Republican nominee closer to another political group there. 
     In April, the company inked an agreement with Ireo, a private 
     real estate equity business based in the Indian city of 
     Gurgaon. The company, which has more than 500 investors in 
     the fund that will be paying the Trump Organization, is 
     headed by Madhukar Tulsi, a prominent real estate executive 
     in India. In 2010, Tulsi's home and the offices of Ireo were 
     raided as part of a sweeping corruption inquiry related to 
     the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi. According to 
     one Indian business executive, government investigators 
     believed that Ireo had close ties with a prominent Indian 
     politician--Sudhanashu Mittal, then the leader of the 
     Bharatiya Janata Party, India's second largest political 
     party--who was suspected in playing a role in rerouting money 
     earned from Commonwealth Games contracts through tax havens 
     into Ireo's real estate projects. A senior official with 
     Ireo, Tulsi is a relative of Mittal's. No charges were ever 
     brought in the case, but the investigation did reveal the 
     close political ties between a prominent Indian political 
     party and a company that is now a Trump partner
       No doubt, few Indian political groups hoping to establish 
     close ties to a possible future American president could have 
     missed the recent statements from the Trump family that its 
     company wanted to do more deals in their country. As the 
     Republican National Convention was about to get underway in 
     July, the Trump Organization declared it was planning a 
     massive expansion in the South Asian country. ``We are very 
     bullish on India and plan to build a pan-India development 
     footprint for Trump-branded residential and office 
     projects,'' Donald Trump Jr. told the Hindustan Times. ``We 
     have a very aggressive pipeline in the north and east, and 
     look forward to the announcement of several exciting new 
     projects in the months ahead.''
       That is a chilling example of the many looming conflicts of 
     interest in a Trump presidency. If he plays tough with India, 
     will the government assume it has to clear the way for 
     projects in that ``aggressive pipeline'' and kill the 
     investigations involving Trump's Pune partners? And if Trump 
     takes a hard line with Pakistan, will it be for America's 
     strategic interests or to appease Indian government officials 
     who might jeopardize his profits from Trump Towers Pune? 
     Branding Wars in the Middle EastTrump already has financial 
     conflicts in much of the Islamic world, a problem made worse 
     by his anti-Muslim rhetoric and his impulsive decisions 
     during this campaign. One of his most troubling entanglements 
     is in Turkey. In 2008, the Trump Organization struck a 
     branding deal with the Dogan Group, named for its owners, one 
     of the most politically influential families in Turkey. Trump 
     and Dogan first agreed that the Turkish company would pay a 
     fee to put the Trump name on two towers in Istanbul.
       When the complex opened in 2012, Trump attended the ribbon-
     cutting and declared his interest in more collaborations with 
     Turkish businesses and in making significant investments 
     there. In a sign of the political clout of the Dogan family, 
     Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Trump and 
     even presided over the opening ceremonies for the Trump-
     branded property.
       However, the Dogans have fallen out of favor, and once 
     again, a Trump partner is caught up in allegations of 
     criminal and unethical activity. In March, an Istanbul court 
     indicted Aydin Dogan, owner and head of the Dogan Group, on 
     charges he engaged in a fuel-smuggling scheme. Dogan has 
     proclaimed his innocence; prosecutors are seeking a prison 
     sentence of more than 24 years. According to an Arab 
     financier with strong ties to Turkish political leaders, 
     government connections with the Dogan family grew even more 
     strained in May, when a consortium of news reporters released 
     what are known as the Panama Papers, which exposed 
     corporations, politicians and other individuals worldwide who 
     evaded taxes through offshore accounts. One of the names 
     revealed was that of Vuslat Dogan Sabanci, a member of Dogan 
     Holding's board.
       With the Dogans now politically radioactive, Erdogan struck 
     at the family's business partner, Trump, for his anti-Muslim 
     rhetoric. In June, Erdogan called for the Trump name to be 
     removed from the complex in Istanbul and said presiding over 
     its dedication had been a mistake.
       This is no minor skirmish: American-Turkish relations are 
     one of the most important national security issues for the 
     United States. Turkey is among the few Muslim countries 
     allied with America in the fight against the Islamic State 
     militant group; it carries even greater importance because it 
     is a Sunni-majority nation aiding the U.S. military against 
     the Sunni extremists. Turkey has allowed the U.S. Air Force 
     to use a base as a major staging area for bombing and 
     surveillance missions against ISIS. A Trump presidency, 
     according to the Arab financier in direct contact with senior 
     Turkish officials, would place that cooperation at risk, 
     particularly since Erdogan, who is said to despise Trump, has 
     grasped more power following a thwarted coup d'etat in July.
       In other words, Trump would be in direct financial and 
     political conflict with Turkey from the moment he was sworn 
     into office. Once again, all his dealings with Turkey would 
     be suspect: Would Trump act in the interests of the United 
     States or his wallet? When faced with the prospect of losing 
     the millions of dollars that flow into the Trump Organization 
     each year from that Istanbul property, what position would 
     President Trump take on the important issues involving 
     Turkish-American relations, including that country's role in 
     the fight against ISIS?
       Another conundrum: Turkey is at war with the Kurds, 
     America's allies in the fight against ISIS in Syria. Kurdish 
     insurgent groups are in armed conflict with Turkey, demanding 
     an independent Kurdistan. If Turkey cuts off the Trump 
     Organization's cash flow from Istanbul, will Trump, who has 
     shown many times how petty and impulsive he can be, allow 
     that to influence how the U.S. juggles the interests of these 
     two critical allies?
       Similar disturbing problems exist with the United Arab 
     Emirates (UAE), another Muslim nation that is an important 
     American ally. Trump has pursued business opportunities in 
     the oil-rich nation for years, with mixed success. His first 
     venture was in 2005, when the Trump Organization struck a 
     branding deal with a top Emirates developer called Nakheel 
     LLC, backed by Dubai's royal family, that planned to build a 
     tulip-shaped hotel on a man-made island designed to look like 
     a palm tree. In 2008, a bribery and corruption probe was 
     launched involving the company's multibillion-dollar Dubai 
     Waterfront project. Two Nakheel executives were charged with 
     fraud and cleared, but Nakheel's financial condition 
     deteriorated amid a collapse in real estate prices; the Trump 
     project was delayed and then canceled. So, in 2013, the Trump 
     Organization struck another branding deal, this time with 
     Nakheel's archrival, Damac Properties, a division of the 
     Damac Group, that wanted the Trump name on a planned 18-hole 
     PGA Championship golf course. The deal was negotiated by 
     Hussain Ali Sajwani, chairman of Damac, who had engaged in 
     controversial land deals with senior government officials in 
     the UAE. He met personally with Trump about the project, and 
     their relationship grew, ultimately leading to Damac working 
     with the Trump Organization on two branded golf courses and a 
     collection of villas in Dubai. According to the former 
     executive with the Trump Organization, Trump has said he 
     personally invested in some of the Dubai projects.
       In this case, even the possibility of a Trump presidency 
     has created chaos for the Trump Organization. On December 7, 
     when Trump called for a ``total and complete shutdown'' of 
     Muslims being allowed into the United States, the reaction in 
     the UAE was instantaneous: There were calls to boycott the 
     Damac-Trump properties. Damac put out a statement essentially 
     saying its deal with

[[Page 12766]]

     the Trump Organization had nothing to do with Donald Trump 
     personally, a claim that fooled no one. On December 10, Damac 
     removed Trump's image and name from its properties. Two days 
     later, the name went back up, setting off an even louder 
     outcry. Damac's share price dropped 15 percent amid the 
     controversy, and it was forced to guarantee rental returns 
     for some of its luxury properties bearing the Trump name.
       Other UAE businesses with connections to Trump are also 
     shunning the brand. The Dubai-based Landmark Group, one of 
     the Middle East's largest retail companies, said it was 
     pulling products with Trump's name off of its shelves.
       With Middle Eastern business partners and American allies 
     turning on him, Trump lashed out. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal--
     the billionaire who aided Trump during his corporate 
     bankruptcies in the 1990s by purchasing his yacht, which 
     provided him with desperately needed cash--sent out a tweet 
     amid the outcry in Dubai, calling the Republican candidate a 
     ``disgrace.'' (Alwaleed is a prodigious tweeter and Twitter's 
     second largest shareholder.) Trump responded with an attack 
     on the prince--a member of the ruling Saudi royal family--
     with a childish tweet, saying, ``Dopey Prince @Alwaleed--
     Talal wants to control our U.S. politicians with daddy's 
     money. Can't do it when I get elected. #Trump2016.'' Once 
     again, Trump's personal and financial interests are in 
     conflict with critical national security issues for the 
     United States. During the Bush administration, Abu Dhabi, the 
     UAE's capital, and Washington reached a bilateral agreement 
     to improve international standards for nuclear 
     nonproliferation. Cooperation is particularly important for 
     the United States because Iran--whose potential development 
     of nuclear weapons has been a significant security issue, 
     leading to an international agreement designed to place 
     controls on its nuclear energy efforts--is one of the UAE's 
     largest trading partners, and Dubai has been a transit point 
     for sensitive technology bound for Iran.
       Given Trump's name-calling when faced with a critical tweet 
     from a member of the royal family in Saudi Arabia, an 
     important ally, how would he react as president if his 
     company's business in the UAE collapsed? Would his decisions 
     in the White House be based on what is best for America or on 
     what would keep the cash from Dubai flowing to him and his 
     family?


                       A Strongman's Best Friend

       Some of the most disturbing international dealings by the 
     Trump Organization involved Trump's attempts to woo Libyan 
     dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi. The United States had labeled 
     Qaddafi as a sponsor of terrorism for decades; President 
     Ronald Reagan even launched a military attack on him in 1986 
     after the National Security Agency intercepted a 
     communications that showed Qaddafi was behind the bombing of 
     a German discotheque that killed two Americans. He was also 
     linked to the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded 
     over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 people, in 1988. But 
     for the Trump Organization, Qaddafi was not a murdering 
     terrorist; he was a prospect who might bring the company 
     financing and the opportunity to build a resort on the 
     Mediterranean coast of Libya. According to an Arab financier 
     and a former businessman from the North African country, 
     Trump made entreaties to Qaddafi and other members of his 
     government, beginning in 2008, in which he sought deals that 
     would bring cash to the Trump Organization from a sovereign 
     wealth fund called the Libyan Investment Authority. The 
     following year, Trump offered to lease his estate in 
     Westchester County, New York, to Qaddafi; he took Qaddaff's 
     money but, after local protests, forbade him from staying at 
     his property. (Trump kept the cash.) ``I made a lot of money 
     with Qaddafi,'' Trump said recently about the Westchester 
     escapade. ``He paid me a fortune.''
       Another business relationship that could raise concerns 
     about conflicts involves Azerbaijan, a country the State 
     Department said in an official report was infused with 
     ``corruption and predatory behavior by politically connected 
     elites.'' According to Trump's financial filings, the 
     Republican nominee is the president of two entities called OT 
     Marks Baku LLC and DT Marks Baku Manaaina Member Corp. Those 
     were established as part of deals the Trump Organization made 
     last year for a real estate project in the country's capital. 
     The partner in the deal is Garant Holding, which is 
     controlled by Anar Mammadov, the son of the country's 
     transportation minister, Ziya Mammadov. According to American 
     diplomatic cables made public in 2010, the United States 
     possessed information that led diplomats to believe Ziya 
     Mammadov laundered money for the Iranian military. No formal 
     charges have been brought against either Mammadov.
       Once again, however, this exposes potential conflicts 
     between Trump's business connections and national security. 
     While the development is currently on hold, it has not been 
     canceled, meaning that Anar Mammadov could soon be paying 
     millions of dollars to Trump. If American intelligence 
     concludes, or has already concluded, that his business 
     partner's father has been aiding Iran by laundering money for 
     the military, will Trump's foreign policy decisions on Iran 
     and Azerbaijan be based on the national security of the 
     United States or the financial security of Donald Trump?


                          An Oligarch in D.C.

       The Trump Organization also has dealings in Russia and 
     Ukraine, and officials with the company have repeatedly 
     stated they want to develop projects there. The company is 
     connected to a controversial Russian figure, Vladimir 
     Potanin, a billionaire with interests in mining, metals, 
     banking and real estate. He was a host of the Russian version 
     of The Apprentice (called Candidate), and Trump, through the 
     Trump Organization, served as the show's executive producer. 
     Potanin is deeply tied to the Russian government and obtained 
     much of his wealth in the 1990s through what was called the 
     loans-for-shares program, part of an effort by Moscow to 
     privatize state properties through auction. Those sales were 
     rigged: Insiders with political connections were the biggest 
     beneficiaries.
       Hoping to start its branding business in Russia, the Trump 
     Organization registered the Trump name in 2008 as a trademark 
     for projects in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sochi. It also 
     launched negotiations with a development company called the 
     Mos City Group, but no deal was reached. The former Trump 
     executive said that talks fell apart over the fees the Trump 
     Organization wanted to charge: 25 percent of the planned 
     project's cost. However, the executive said, the Trump 
     Organization has maintained close relations with Pavel Fuks, 
     head of the Mos City Group. Fuks is one of the most 
     politically prominent oligarchs in Russia, with significant 
     interests in real estate and the country's financial 
     industry, including the Pushkin bank and Sovcombank.
       The Trump Organization has also shown interest in Ukraine. 
     In 2006, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump met with Viktor 
     Tkachuk, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, and Andriy 
     Zaika, head of the Ukrainian Construction Consortium. The 
     potential financial conflicts here for a President Trump are 
     enormous. Moreover, Trump's primary partner for his lucrative 
     business in Canada, a well-respected Russo-Canadian 
     billionaire named Alex Shnaider, is also a major investor in 
     Russia and Ukraine, meaning American policies benefiting 
     those countries could enrich an important business connection 
     for the Trump Organization.
       Meanwhile, Trump has raised concerns in the United States 
     among national security experts for his consistent and 
     effusive praise for Vladimir Putin, the Russian ruler who 
     also now controls much of Ukraine. With its founder in the 
     White House, the Trump Organization would have an 
     extraordinary entree into those countries. If the company 
     sold its brand in Russia while Trump was in the White House, 
     the world could be faced with the astonishing site of hotels 
     and office complexes going up in downtown Moscow with the 
     name of the American president emblazoned in gold atop the 
     buildings.
       The dealings of the Trump Organization reach into so many 
     countries that it is impossible to detail all the conflicts 
     they present in a single issue of this magazine, but a 
     Newsweek examination of the company has also found deep 
     connections in China, Brazil, Bulgaria, Argentina, Canada, 
     France, Germany and other countries.
       Never before has an American candidate for president had so 
     many financial ties with American allies and enemies, and 
     never before has a business posed such a threat to the United 
     States. If Donald Trump wins this election and his company is 
     not immediately shut down or forever severed from the Trump 
     family, the foreign policy of the United States of America 
     could well be for sale.

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the piece is very, very thorough. So I am 
only going to quote a few things because of the time of the Senate. No. 
1, the article says that, if elected, Donald Trump would be ``the most 
conflicted president in American history,'' and ``almost every foreign 
policy decision he makes will raise serious conflicts of interest and 
ethical quagmires.''
  The article details how Donald Trump, his family, and his businesses 
have multiple questionable partnerships with foreign governments, 
political parties, and even criminals.
  The Newsweek article ends with this sound declaration: ``Never before 
has an American candidate for president had so many financial ties with 
American allies and enemies, and never before has a business posed such 
a threat to the United States.''
  We face this from Donald Trump, a candidate and a notorious con 
artist. Donald Trump is only trying to help one person--Donald Trump. I 
don't care if he wants to be President or city commissioner. Donald 
Trump is in it to benefit Donald Trump.
  If given the opportunity, Donald Trump will turn America into a big 
scam, just like Trump University. I can't make up this stuff. Here is 
what one of its managers said at Trump University--head of sales: ``a 
fraudulent

[[Page 12767]]

scheme and that it preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate 
them from their money.''
  That is one of the managers of Trump University. That is a direct 
quote.
  But Trump University is only one example. Trump has been ripping off 
people for a long, long time--long before Trump University.
  The list of people cheated by Donald Trump is a mile long, at least. 
A glass company in New Jersey, a children's singing group, real estate 
brokers, plumbers, painters, dishwashers, and many, many more all got 
fleeced by this so-called billionaire--Trump. When Trump gets sued for 
not paying, here is what he does: He hires lawyers--lots of lawyers, 
most of the time--to defend him for having cheated lots of people. 
Then, guess what. Many times he doesn't bother paying those lawyers so 
they have to sue him.
  He rips off people only to reap profit for himself.
  A lot of his business I don't understand very well, but I understand 
Atlantic City. I was chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission for 4 
very tumultuous years. I was there when we allowed Nevada operations to 
go to Atlantic City. So I understand what took place in Atlantic City. 
He will do anything to make a buck for himself. He applied for a 
license a number of years ago in Nevada. He got one. It was just 
perfunctory. If he applied for a license today after what he did in 
Atlantic City and what he has done since, he couldn't get a gaming 
license in Nevada.
  Let's be clear about Donald Trump. He is a spoiled brat raised in 
plenty, who inherited a fortune, and used his money to make more money, 
and he did a lot of it by swindling working men and women.
  Why would he change as President? The answer is simple. Trump won't 
change. He is asking us to let him get rich scamming America.
  I know these are harsh words, but look at this man. He goes to Flint, 
MI, where people are desperate for help--desperate for help. He goes to 
an African-American church. What does he do? He just starts ranting 
about how horrible Hillary Clinton is. It was so bad that the woman who 
runs the church had to come up and say: Stop; you are not here to do 
this. And he stopped. This morning he said that, obviously, there was 
something wrong with her mentally.
  Trump is a human leech who will bleed the country and sit in his golf 
resort, laughing at the money he has made, even though working people, 
many of them, will be hurt. Trump doesn't understand the middle class. 
How could he? How could he understand working people?
  This report from Newsweek proves Trump's plan to take his rigged game 
straight to the White House. The integrity and security of our 
democracy is really at stake. We can't chance the sovereignty of this 
Nation on a con man like Trump. Where are Senator McConnell and Speaker 
Ryan when America needs our help from this person running for 
President?
  Mr. President, will the Chair announce the business of the day.

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