Who is American foreign policy for?
Yesterday morning the New York Times revealed that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the envoys who are ostensibly negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine, are simultaneously discussing a multibillion-dollar oil deal with Lukoil, a Russian company. Remarkably, the deal includes the protagonists of several previous stories about Trump administration conflicts of interest, giving the story a kind of “greatest hits” feel to it: All the old names are back in the news.
Among the investors in the proposed deal, for example, is Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the UAE, whose fund purchased a large stake in the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial, run in part by Witkoff’s son. Months later, the US agreed to sell sensitive computer chips to the UAE. Another investor is a Qatar-based conglomerate controlled by two brothers, Moutaz Al-Khayyat and Ramez Al-Khayyat, who appeared at Trump’s inauguration in 2025 and who are now partnering with Kushner and Ivanka Trump to build a multibillion-dollar luxury hotel in Albania. This is the project, as some may remember, that led to weeks of protest in the Albanian capital. An American investor, Todd Boehly, who has donated both to Donald Trump’s inauguration as well as MAGA Inc, the Trump-aligned campaign committee, is leading the project. The US government is also involved, and seems to control the deal because the Treasury makes decisions about lifting sanctions on Russian property.
There are at least two major scandals here. For one, it looks from the reporting as if the administration designed the deal to favor Trump’s friends in the Middle East over other American business groups who tried to acquire the property, which is bad enough.
But this story also helps explain a bigger mystery. Five years into their failed invasion, the Russians, unable to move forward on the front line, are stepping up their aggressive bombing campaign, hitting schools, hospitals and bridges in Kyiv and other cities, along with power plants and factories. Why? Because Putin believes he can.
The Russian president has reason to believe that he has bought off Trump and his envoys with flattery, fake talk of “peace” and business deals. He repeatedly stops Americans from helping Ukraine. Even if no money ever changes hands and no deal is completed, the fact that Kushner, Witkoff and others around Trump discuss them gives Putin the conviction that he can continue to commit war crimes, kill civilians and never pay a price.
America and America’s allies are all badly damaged by this policy, which is a disaster for Ukraine, for European security, for America’s reputation, for the rule of law around the world and ultimately for American security and prosperity too. The only beneficiaries are Kushner and Witkoff’s Middle Eastern partners and some businessmen close to the president.
American foreign policy should be good for Americans, not for a tiny predator clan linked to the White House. That was the argument of my recent Atlantic cover story, and it seems like it will need repeating many more times before this presidency is over.
Indeed, I’ve been talking about these themes a lot in the past two weeks. Here are a few of the conversations…
With Sam Harris
With Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer
With Margaret Hoover of Firing Line
And, especially for Canadian readers…the CBC!
This one is audio only
The Kleptocracy Tracker
Continuing to monitor conflicts of interest, ostentatious emoluments, outright corruption and policy changes that will facilitate outright corruption. (Read my original article, Kleptocracy Inc and check out the SNF Agora Institute chart)
September 25
US Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle has frequently brought a lobbyist for the Greek construction firm Aktor Group to private meetings with government officials to discuss natural gas infrastructure projects across the Balkans. (The same article also describes her telling a dinner attended by Greek government officials that she had helped bring down the government in Romania: “We can do that to any country we want. We can do that here,” she allegedly said.
September 28
Enforcement at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has slowed to a crawl since the start of the Trump administration. The agency has filed an average of one new complaint a month for any violation, one-fifth the rate under the Biden administration.
Two months after a coal lobbyist wrote to the Trump administration suggesting that the Department of Energy use its emergency powers to keep plants slated for closure open, the agency did exactly that.
September 29
The Trump administration used Department of Homeland Security funds to pay for pro-Trump TV advertisements, even though the president’s super PAC has a $400 million war chest.
The US formally notified the Council of Europe that it is withdrawing from the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), a leading European anti-corruption watchdog. Russia and Belarus are the only other countries that have withdrawn from the body.
Trump’s municipal bond portfolio has grown to roughly 1,000 positions worth between $300 million and $1 billion, many of them issued by cities, hospitals, and coal plants directly affected by his administration’s policies.
October 1
Trump is again hosting a dinner for the 185 largest holders of his meme coin, $TRUMP, a venture that has netted the president $635 million since 2025.
The drone company Powerus became publicly traded through a merger with a subsidiary of Aureus Greenway Holdings Inc., a publicly listed golf course management company backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.
While Jared Kushner has served as special envoy negotiating an end to the war in Gaza, his private equity firm, Affinity Partners, has held the largest stake in an Israeli firm that invests in Israel Defense Forces contractors.
Watching Over Us
Ben Franklin, lit up in pink and orange, for an evening event at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
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