This nation doesn’t negotiate with terrorists — or trolls.
So when billionaire-turned-buzzword Donald Trump decided to hold $5 million in charity donations hostage unless President Obama releases his college applications and passport records, Obama found new reason to ignore most things coming from the political right.
The offer is trolling at its finest: It’s the week before the big election, and Trump figures Obama will either be hated for passing on the charity money or found guilty of some degree of fraud if he gives in.
Obama should ignore the offer in its entirety. He shouldn’t have even mentioned it in his recent interview with Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show.”
By merely acknowledging Trump’s lucrative offer, the president sets a dangerous precedent for money in politics.
What else can people get out of their government with a shiny penny?
The country has enough issues with the immense lobbying industry and corporate interests in lawmaking. Similar deals happen daily in Washington, but Trump’s announcement pushes the process to dangerous heights by directly challenging the president.
Former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer ran a dark-horse presidential campaign on this topic alone.
“What we have is a political structure that works against the young, against small business and against people with big ideas but not big checks,” he told The Daily Reveille during the Republican primary.
Though his presidential campaign became an awareness campaign after he was shunned from the debates, Roemer continues to fight to keep money out of the political sphere as he should.
Trump is hammering Roemer’s point home by considering himself a political player only on the merit of his dime, and he shouldn’t be granted to pleasure.
What other offers could the billionaires of this country make to influence our elected officials? How many billionaires will be asking themselves this question if Obama heeds Trump’s demands?
While the act of releasing college applications and passport records seems innocuous enough — especially if it’s for a good cause — it injects the president into a new sphere of influence and debases his position as the leader of this country.
Blackmailing the president with a charity offer on the tired notion that he has assumed his position through fraud should be seen as an obstruction of his position and his work, and we should hope to see such a brazen challenge reprimanded rather than weighed in any fashion.
What’s ironic is that, although Obama is as guilty as the next politician when it comes to being influenced by corporate money, Trump has now served to him a means to appear innocent.
Obama can now appear to be above monetary influence on principle, granting him a moral high ground. And joking about it with Leno only helped the president’s “cool” factor.
By abstaining from negotiating, Trump will be rendered another gaffe for the Republican Party to dust off of its shoulders like former Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin.
Then who will be holding the cards? The only people upset with the president for passing up on the offer will be Republicans, and Democrats will be able to point at Trump and say, “So you’ve got $5 million ready for a donation that you’ll now withhold?”
And for what, to prove a net worth of about $3 billion makes you a political actor by default?
In trying to seem charitable, Trump appears more greedy than ever — only donating for a political move rather than for the sake of doing so.
Trump could save lives with such a donation, and by extension, the aid his fortune could provide is being held hostage unless the president of the United States does as Trump demands.
America doesn’t negotiate with terrorists, and on the same principle President Obama should not negotiate with Donald Trump.
