Conflict of interest? Disarray at HHS. Brics. Who needs trade. Kenyans.

Conflict of interest? Disarray at HHS. Brics. Who needs trade. Kenyans.

Conflict of interest?

The president cannot be convicted for conflicts of interest and the president and his family are taking full advantage of that fact. The Trump family fortune increased by $3.9 billion in 2024 and $7.3 billion in 2025. In addition, they have reportedly received $1.8 billion in cash and gifts since the election. Trump’s family continues to enrich itself. Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law while acting as the “peace” envoy to the Middle East is also raising billions of dollars for his private equity fund. Meanwhile Don, Jr and Eric Trump are investing the in drone industry which their father has helped turn into a growth industry. Kushner was also involved in Paramount’s successful bid to by Warner Bros. Discovery. The president himself had purchased stock in the company. Now the president and his family partially own CNN which the FCC’s Brendan Carr threatened to revoke its license over a less than flattering report on Trump’s war with Iran.

Surely there could not possibly be any conflict of interest as Kushner’s dealings have resulting in his becoming a billionaire. Could there? Kushner has denied any conflict (wink, wink) and Karoline (Lying) Leavitt calls any charges of a conflict are “frankly despicable.” 

This is from the Times of Isreal: “Kushner founded Florida-based Affinity in 2021, with much of its funding coming from foreign sources, particularly the Middle Eastern governments he’d worked with. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) gave $2 billion in 2022. The Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi-based Lunate Capital together gave around $1.5 billion in 2024, Kushner said on a podcast last year. Kushner’s firm now manages $5.4 billion.”

The Mess at HHS

Have you noticed that virtually all the chaos at HHS is in the “health” part and not the “human services.” Saying that the FDA is in disarray is an understatement. The same is true with the CDC and the NIH. Robert Kennedy is fast becoming one of the most unpopular members of the administration and the White House has finally taken notice. The Administration has apparently seen the polls saying that Kennedy’s actions, particularly regarding vaccines, are increasingly unpopular. Now the White House wants more focus on eat healthy initiatives and trying to lower drug prices – things it views as winners – and less on vaccines and approval of new drugs. Also the quitting and firing of staff members, the cutting of funding for what some consider important research have damaged the agencies public image. Kennedy remains a Trump favorite however and is in little danger of being ousted.

Brics has laid a brick

Brics, that group of eleven countries that formed an economic bloc in 2009 to counter the US and the EU has been mostly invisible. Did you know that Iran is a member? I haven’t seen any rush by any other member to come to Iran’s assistance economically. Yes, China and Russia are supposed to supply Iran some intelligence and strategic tools. But the rest of the bloc has been mostly quiet. Iran has even been firing drones at the UAE, a fellow Brics member. Meanwhile, India has not even criticized Israel much less the United States. In addition to China and Russia only South Africa has voiced criticism of the US – but that is to be expected given the simmering feud between that government and Donald Trump. As a whole, Brics has been ineffective and ineffectual. I guess it just provides another avenue for diplomats to fly around the world, stay in swanky hotels and act important while accomplishing nothing but running up expensive tabs for others to pay.

Who needs trade?

We have a trade representative who hates trade. Jamison Greer, the US Trade Representative made the following idiotic statement when he was discussing the administration’s plans to levy more tariffs on our 16 largest trading partners: “Across numerous sectors, many U.S. trading partners are producing more goods than they can consume domestically. This overproduction displaces existing U.S. domestic production and harms American manufacturing as a result.” Adam Smith just turned over in his grave. Greer obviously rejects the notion of comparative advantage. What does he think about American “overproduction?” Don’t farmers produce “more goods than they can consume?” Is this a bad thing that they ship their produce abroad? What about domestically? Are farmers supposed to grow only what they can consume? What happens to the rest of us – Mr Greer? Am I hurt because I cannot – or will not – grow my own food? Or make my own clothes, furniture, shoes and the rest? Without trade, I would be a lot thinner, more threadbare and a whole lot poorer as would be the rest of the country. Why is this evident to everyone except the president and those on his payroll?

But let’s be kind and assume that Mr Greer is only talking about foreign production hurting American companies. Over half of what we import are intermediate goods. Let us suppose that we stopped importing those goods. Maybe we could produce them, but likely at a much higher cost leading to fewer goods for American consumers. I guess we could make do without any imports of food as well. Bananas, coffee, avocados, seafood, flowers and other stuff could be grown domestically or we could simply do without. Who needs French wines when we have California anyway? This would apparently be ok by Mr Greer – who I presume doesn’t own, buy or consume anything foreign-made. It was said that the president would scribble the words “trade is bad” in the margins of speeches that he makes. So let’s completely shut down all trade and see what happens.

And who needs a trade representative who hates trade – especially one who seems to be an idiot.

No more Kenyans to the Ukraine

Lastly, the Kenyan government must read my blog. After the post about the Kenyan soldiers recruited by the Russians to fight in Ukraine, the Kenyan government and the Russians reached an agreement that Kenyans would no longer be enlisted in the Russian military after bilateral consultations between Kenya’s Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on March 16^th.