October, 11 2017, 12:30pm EDT
Trump's Deregulatory Agenda Could Boost Family Business
Report: Six Deregulatory Actions Could Benefit Trump Organization and Endanger the Public.
WASHINGTON
President Donald Trump's deregulatory agenda could boost the bottom line of his businesses, and in some instances, Trump's financial interests are directly at odds with protecting the public, a new report from Public Citizen and U.S. Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) shows.
The conflicts of interest stem from Trump's refusal to divest from his business empire before taking office. Instead, Trump maintains his ownership stake in his businesses, setting the stage for unprecedented opportunities for the president to profit by wiping out protections. The report details six deregulatory actions or proposals by the Trump administration that could greatly benefit Trump's business and financial interests and an additional 12 potential conflicts that point to the need for greater transparency.
Public Citizen released "Deregulating for Dollars: How Donald Trump's Reckless Anti-Regulation Agenda Could Boost His Own Pocketbook," to coincide with Cicilline's introduction today of the DRAIN the Swamp Act, which would bring transparency to the public on how Trump and top government officials could profit from deregulation.
"I want to thank Public Citizen for helping to shine a light on an urgent problem in Washington. Trump promised to drain the swamp, but that's not what he's doing. He's undermining regulations in order to benefit himself, his family and his close friends," said Cicilline. "The American people deserve to know that the president is acting in the public interest, not in his own financial interests."
"Trump's unprecedented conflicts are troubling, not just because they enable the president to shamelessly pursue self-enrichment schemes," said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. "They have far-reaching policy impacts, undermining the health, safety and other protections that improve our quality of life."
The rules highlighted in Public Citizen's report that have either been killed or are at risk include:
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules to protect Americans' drinking water and ban chlorpyrifos, a toxic pesticide. Golf course owners are among the business interests opposing both rules, largely because they restrict pesticide use. Trump owns 12 golf courses in the U.S. that could be affected by the drinking water rule.
- U.S. Department of Labor rules to expand overtime pay and strengthen the rights of workers employed through staffing firms and contractors. Hotel and restaurant owners are among the business interests opposing these rules on the grounds that increasing worker pay will harm businesses' bottom lines and lead to increased restrictions on workers. A significant portion of the Trump Organization's 22,450 employees are hotel and restaurant workers.
- The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's collection of pay data to identify and resolve discriminatory pay practices. The Trump Organization, whose demographics are unknown, would have had to comply with the rule. During Trump's presidential campaign, a staffer filed a lawsuit accusing the campaign of discriminatory pay practices; in Trump's White House, the pay gap is double the national average.
- The Department of Homeland Security's cap on the number of foreign nationals who can be employed in the U.S. through the H-2B visa program. The same week in July that Congress raised the cap for 2017, Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort sought approval to hire 76 new H-2B guest workers.
The report also provides examples of anti-corruption restrictions, consumer protections and worker protections that could be rolled back under Trump to the potential benefit of his companies. It notes Trump's potential conflicts of interest relating to an affordable housing program from which he and his family profit, and details how Trump could benefit from restrictions on class-action lawsuits and tax cuts to benefit corporations and the rich.
"Trump's conflicts should make legislators and the public profoundly skeptical of the motives behind the president's deregulatory agenda. They also should prompt a deeper assessment of the degree to which this president - or any future occupant of the Oval Office - should be able to personally profit from his administration's policies," Weissman added.
Added Rick Claypool, research director at Public Citizen and co-author of the report, "The stakes are high. Trump's deregulatory agenda will result in more workers facing injuries and discrimination, more consumers ripped off and more pollution accelerating climate change and poisoning our air and water. The more Trump's deregulatory agenda is realized, the more the costs will be borne by the American public."
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
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'We Do Not Support' ICC Probe of Israeli War Crimes in Gaza, Says White House
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White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday reaffirmed the Biden administration's opposition to the International Criminal Court potentially issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other top officials related to Israel's war on the Gaza Strip.
"Would the U.S. or the White House see any potential arrests by the ICC as an aggravating factor in the negotiations?" one journalist asked about talks to end the bloodshed and free hostages.
Jean-Pierre responded: "So, we've been really clear about the ICC investigation. We do not support it. We don't believe that they have the jurisdiction. And I'm just gonna leave it there for now."
#WATCH | On International Criminal Court's (ICC) investigation into Israel's conduct in Gaza, White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre says, "...We don't believe is in the ICC jurisdiction in this situation. We do not support the investigation. And I think that kind of… pic.twitter.com/du8NpEtLxj
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Asked later about President Joe Biden's Sunday call with Netanyahu and whether the U.S. government is involved in any attempts to avert warrants from the Hague-based court, the press secretary echoed her previous comments.
The exchanges followed reporting that the Israeli government, in partnership with the U.S., is "making a concerted effort to head off" possible arrest warrants from the ICC targeting Netanyahu as well as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi.
Citing two unnamed Israeli officials, Axiosreported that Netanyahu on Sunday asked Biden to help prevent the ICC from issuing warrants. A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council told the outlet that "as we have publicly said many times, the ICC has no jurisdiction in this situation and we do not support its investigation."
Neither Israel nor the United States is a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the treaty that established the tribunal, but Palestine accepted its jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed "in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem," in 2015.
The ICC formally launched its war crimes investigation in the occupied Palestinian territories in 2021, long before the IDF began its ongoing retaliation for the Hamas-led attack October 7 on Israel. The probe includes crimes going back to June 13, 2014.
Urging Biden "to intervene as part of the administration's ongoing commitment to Israel," U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) on Monday declared that "it would be a fatal blow to the judicial and moral standing of ICC to pursue this path against Israel."
Mark Kersten, an assistant professor at the University of the Fraser Valley, responded: "Now a Democratic senator is threatening the ICC's very existence if it does what it was created to do: Impartially and independently investigate international crimes, without fear or favor. I hope this grotesque threat and atrocity-denialism is roundly condemned."
Also noting Fetterman's comments, Alonso Gurmendi, a lecturer in international relations at King's College London, said: "They really don't realize just how isolated Western governments are on this. Even among their own populations. This won't be a fatal blow to the ICC. It will relaunch its relationship with the global majority. Fighting this will only isolate and weaken the West further."
In January, the International Court of Justice found that Israel is "plausibly" engaged in genocide in Gaza. As of Monday, the Israeli bombardment and blockade had killed at least 34,488 Palestinians in the Hamas-governed strip, injured another 77,643, left thousands more missing in bombed-out communities, and displaced around 90% of the enclave's 2.3 million people.
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A front-page New York Times story that Israel used to galvanize public support for its U.S.-backed assault on Gaza must be subject to an independent review, said more than 50 journalism professors in a letter to the newspaper on Monday, as growing protests signified widespread outrage over the destruction that followed the bombshell article.
The professors, many of whom worked as full-time journalists before turning to academia, wrote to Timespublisher A.G. Sulzberger, executive editor Joe Kahn, and international editor Philip Pan, calling for a "thorough and independent review" into the article "'Screams Without Words': Sexual Violence on Oct. 7."
The letter urged the newspaper to form a commission made up of journalism experts to examine the "reporting, editing, and publishing processes" for the story.
The article came under scrutiny shortly after it was published, having been reported by not only international correspondent Jeffrey Gettleman but also two inexperienced freelancers based in Israel. One, Anat Schwartz, is a "former air force intelligence official" with whom the Times cut ties after it was revealed that she had "liked" a social media post calling for Gaza to be turned into a "slaughterhouse."
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Mufti joined Northwestern University assistant professor Steven Thrasher in gathering the signatures, and told The Washington Post that after "serious consideration and deliberation," the academics "came to the conclusion that this is necessary."
In addition to questions that have been raised about Schwartz's and Sella's experience and bias, the professors pointed to the newspaper's acknowledgment on March 26 that "new video evidence 'undercut' some important details" in "Screams Without Words," as well as Gettleman's comment suggesting he did not view the information in the story as hard "evidence."
"Can the paper 'establish' fact if its own reporter does not consider his information 'evidence'?" asked the professors.
In March, a spokesperson for Kibbutz Be'eri toldThe Intercept that victims of the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel were not sexually assaulted, and the family of one woman who was a key figure in "Screams Without Words" has denied the report's graphic details of sexual abuse were true.
The Intercept also reported that in reporting on the alleged sexual assaults, Schwartz relied on interviews with a rescue group that was "documented to have mishandled evidence and spread multiple false stories about the events of October 7, including debunked allegations of Hamas operatives beheading babies."
Al Jazeera journalist Laila Al-Arian called Monday's letter a "major development" and urged the Times to "do the right thing."
The methods used by Schwartz, The Interceptnoted earlier this month, were the building blocks for a story that "instantly served as a powerful reference in a mounting campaign waged by Israel and its supporters" to excuse Israel's assault on Gaza.
"The impact of The New York Times story is impossible to fathom," the professors wrote on Monday. "This is wartime and in the minds of many people, the Times' story fueled the fire at a pivotal moment when there might have been an opportunity to contain it before, as the International Court of Justice has ruled, the situation devolved into the 'plausible' realm of genocide. Considering these grave circumstances, we believe that the Times must waste no time in extending an invitation for an independent review."
The article, said one signatory, Sandy Tolan of the University of Southern California, was published "as the death toll mounted in Gaza, and criticism was beginning to focus more on Israel."
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The San Francisco-based Goldman Environmental Foundation announced Monday that the winners of the 35th annual Goldman Prize—which some call the "Green Nobels"—are:
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- Alok Shukla, India: Shukla "led a successful community campaign that saved 445,000 acres of biodiversity-rich forests from 21 planned coal mines in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh."
- Andrea Vidaurre, United States: Vidaurre's "grassroots leadership persuaded the California Air Resources Board to adopt, in the spring of 2023, two historic transportation regulations that significantly limit trucking and rail emissions."
- Sinegugu Zukulu and Nonhle Mbuthuma, South Africa: Zukulu and Mbuthuma "stopped destructive seismic testing for oil and gas off South Africa's Eastern Cape" by "asserting the rights of the local community to protect their marine environment," safeguarding "migratory whales, dolphins, and other wildlife from the harmful effects of seismic testing."
- Teresa Vicente, Spain: Vicente "led a historic, grassroots campaign to save the Mar Menor ecosystem—Europe's largest saltwater lagoon—from collapse, resulting in the passage of a new law in September 2022 granting the lagoon unique legal rights."
Michael Sutton, executive director of the Goldman Environmental Foundation,
described the winners to The Associated Press as "an incredible group of individuals laboring, sometimes in obscurity, against overwhelming odds to prevail against governments, against industry."
Goldman Prize winners receive a $200,000 award and can apply for additional grants to fund their work.
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