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They say art imitates life.?

A few years ago, I suggested?that once the comic book superhero film craze grew a little well-worn, studios would transition into supervillain stories to appease audiences. Since then, DC Comics? movie division, DCEU, has begun churning out a cinematic universe chalked full of supervillain origin stories and team-ups like Todd Philips? Joker origin story, Birds of Prey, the Harley Quinn spin-off, and Suicide Squad.

Unfortunately, politics followed suit and in 2016, the electorate replaced one of our most lawful administrations and a Constitutional scholar President with a wannabe autocrat in Donald Trump, who?d just like to see the world burn. Since then, our tinpot president has formed his own coterie of corrupt criminals.?

His shady business interests in Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Turkey and Russia have factored the most in his foreign policy as he?s become the public face of a Presidential Criminal Enterprise Universe (PCEU).

The last four weeks of Congressional investigations have unveiled a White House omert? which resulted in hidden transcripts of Trump?s phone calls with world leaders within a highly-secured electronic system and a months-long attempt to extract information from Ukraine to use against his potential general election opponent, Joe Biden.?

Their latest Nixon-inspired scandal has ensnared Rudy Guiliani, who has modeled his descent from ?America?s Mayor? and 2008 Republican Presidential front runner, into the modern day Oswald Cobblepot.

Trump is The Joker, Arthur Fleck, if he?d grown up with Wayne Enterprise’s resources and generational wealth. Trump?s Career Suicide Squad took a whiff of the corruption around the world and smelled an opportunity to reap personal benefits.?

His latest gambit was a multivariable shakedown of Ukraine from every angle. Trump?s furtive intent to withhold $400 million in aid allocated by Congress to Ukraine in exchange for a falsified investigation into Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who once served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company is the impetus to his downfall.?

Ukraine has been vulnerable to Russian incursions since seceding from the Soviet Union in 1994. Soon after, their nation agreed to denuclearized in exchange for the international community’s vow to protect them from Russia aggression. In 2014, Russia invaded Ukrainian territory and annexed Crimea. As the consummate con man, not to mention one with a campaign advisor in Manafort who operated within Ukraine?s sleazy political realm and later paid the price for it, Trump identified a mark. After initially promising Congress they?d release the aid in February of this year, even White House officials became mystified by the hold-up.?

Despite, the Trump Organization-Administration?s best attempts at obscurantism, the truth has been squeezed from the tube via testimony, a whistleblower complaint and various disclosures this month. During a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July 25, Trump asked for a favor in exchange for the aid to purchase defensive Javelin missile systems.

Three days after the whistleblower complaint was taken to Congress on Sept. 9, but before its existence became publicly known, the White House finally released the military aid, but only to preemptively fan the stench of impropriety.?

Behind the scenes, Guiliani had spent months pressuring Trump to fire Ukrainian ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and urged Ukrainian government officials to announce a fishing expedition into the Bidens.?

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton, who resigned in anger last month before the whistleblower complaint brought much of this illicit behavior to light, reportedly referred to Guiliani?s rogue interference outside the unofficial channels as a ?hand grenade who?s going to blow everybody up.? Bolton also compared the deal being cooked up by the acting chief of staff, Nick Mulvaney and Gary Sondland, the US ambassador to Europe, as a ?drug deal? he wanted no part of.

Giuliano?s role in Trump?s malfeasance harkens back to the president?s previous personal lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen and his secret plans for a Trump Tower in Moscow. Those negotiations took place into November 2016, while candidate Trump denied having any business interests in Russia throughout his campaign. And like the campaign finance violations he commuted at the behest of Candidate One, which landed him in prison, Guiliani is also in hot water. This is the Trump?Circle of Life.

Yet, as bottomless as the pit of Trump?s known corruption has been, we discount how much worse it could have been if they weren’t caught in the act. The FBI discovered Mike Flynn, Trump?s original National Security Advisor discussing a repeal of President Obama?s Russian sanctions on a surveilled line with Russia’s US Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. It was almost liked he wanted to be found out. He also allegedly sought to execute the rendition of a US citizen back to Turkey for $15 million.?

Even his attempts to illegally influence the 2020 election could have been buried were it not for a twist of fate. Dan McGuire, the reigning DIrector of National Intelligence May have breached protocol when he brought this to Congress? attention, but if Congressman John Ratcliffe hadn?t backed out of the nomination, nobody knows where the whistleblower complaint would have wound up?

Most people have forgotten that approximately a week after Ratcliffe questioned Robert Muller?s testimony in July like he was auditioning to be one of Trump?s new lickspittles, he was appointed to replace DNI Dan Coates. He would have been the most inexperienced DNI to be elevated to the position, which has become a well-worn phrase in this Administration, and ultimately he backed out after elements of his resum? were found to be falsified.

A week earlier, Trump was extorting the Ukrainian President, resulting in a whistleblower report, which the current DNI, Dan McGuire, would have to send to Congress.?

Rudy Guiliani and his Ukrainian associates are the only the latest additions to the PCEU franchise.

The aforementioned Mike Flynn eventually pled guilty to illegally lobbying for Turkey. Former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, have all been found guilty of federal crimes in the last three years related to Ukraine.

Trump?s personal lawyer turned state?s evidence and denounced him on national television. The first Congressman to endorse Trump?s candidacy pled guilty to insider trading.?

Alex Acosta, the first Labor Secretary for this cabal resigned due to a renewed furor and investigations into the defanged 13-month plea deal he awarded recidivist serial sex offender Jeffrey Epstein over a decade ago. At the beginning of 2019, Trump dug up Bill Barr, infamous for orchestrating a cover-up of the Iran-Contra scandal, as his Attorney General. More importantly, he proved he was willing to do anything to protect Trump?s personal interests. Together, these bedfellows have formed the foundation of an All The Presidents Mens Rea reboot.

Simultaneously, Trump formed his own personal League of Dictators. He?s especially fond of Putin, who oversaw an operation to help Trump get elected. Clearly, his campaign?s implicit collusion with Russia was merely a preseason warmup.?

Our president, the?milky facsimile to Silky Johnson,?seems to save all his vitriolic Playas Haters Ball energy for allies and Americans like the late Elijah Cummings. Meanwhile, he?s gotten cozy with Turkey president Tayyip Ergodan because the Trump Organization owns a luxury hotel in Istanbul. Last week, an impromptu conversation with Ergodan compelled him to pull the military from Northern Syria. His impulsive decision has resulted in Turkey beginning slaughter Kurds, commit an ethnic cleansing, allows ISIS? to regain prominence in the region and fulfilled Trump?s malevolent threat to release ISIS terrorists back into Europe. Not even his most loyal GOP foot soldiers could feign support for the sudden withdrawal.

Last fall, Trump was eager to let Saudi Arabia Prince Mohammad Bin Salman off the hook for the murder of a US citizen because in his words, they?d purchased a few billion dollars in military hardware. During the campaign, he bragged about how many apartments they brought and the plethora of business they provided his hotels.?

In the wake of yanking military personnel from Syria in the name of bringing the troops home, Trump also announced he?d instead be rerouting them to Saudi Arabia to help defend the country after a September attack on an oil facility.?

He praised the President of the Philippines, where a Trump Tower resides in Manila, for Duterte?s extrajudicial killings of Filipino drug addicts. He fancies North Korea?s despotic dictator Kim-Jong Un as his good friend. He hasn?t figured out a way to profit off of North Korean relations yet, but he showed his hand in 2018.

When discussing a less isolationist future for North Korea, he didn?t discuss improved human rights or well-fed citizens, the conversation circled around to him unconsciously imagining extending his own real estate ambitions into North Korea.

?They have great beaches,” Trump beamed. “You see that whenever they’re exploding their cannons into the ocean. I said, ‘Boy, look at that view. Wouldn’t that make a great condo?’?

“You could have the best hotels in the world right there,” Trump said, unable to contain his avaristic glee.

A few weeks after Trump won the election, I warned that his con man proclivities were the

gateway to kleptocracy. Three years later, it?s been proven that if you pack a briefcase with liquid equity or cash and attach it to a fishing pole, Trump?s foreign policy decisions will bite.

Those concerns about self-dealing have bubbled up on the international stage. Last Thursday, the White House announced that the 2020 G-7 Summit would be held at Trump?s own struggling hotel resort.?


Within 48 hours, they reluctantly reversed course. However, as we embark upon the final 12 months of his term, Trump, like most grifters on their way out of town is getting bolder. His attempts to maximize Trump Organization profits by selling out the US or its allies and wetting his own beak will only become more commonplace.?