Monday’s Theme: Trump tarnishes everything he touches

By Robert A. Vella

In Greek mythology, King Midas had the ability to turn everything he touched into gold.  In contemporary America, Donald Trump has the habit of tarnishing everything he touches.  In his long wake, there are bankrupt casinos, failed enterprises, ruined relationships, discarded women, disgraced banks, corrupted lawyers, destroyed careers, convicted felons, strained relations, and a forever stained Republican Party.  This would-be dictator and egomaniacal wrecking-ball is systematically smashing into everything and everyone he can reach.  Nothing is safe, no one is safe, not even his own allies.  Anyone who dares to get close to Trump is going to get burned.

Here is today’s news:

From:  AP: Federal grand jury probing GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal grand jury in New York is investigating top Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy, examining whether he used his position as vice chair of President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee to drum up business deals with foreign leaders, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press and people familiar with the matter.

A wide-ranging subpoena the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn recently sent to Trump’s inaugural committee seeks records relating to 20 individuals and businesses. All have connections to Broidy, his investment and defense contracting firms, and foreign officials he pursued deals with — including the current president of Angola and two politicians in Romania.

Prosecutors appear to be investigating whether Broidy exploited his access to Trump for personal gain and violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to offer foreign officials “anything of value” to gain a business advantage. Things of value in this case could have been an invitation to the January 2017 inaugural events or access to Trump.

From:  Trump is a huge headache for Deutsche. But the bank has plenty more.

Investigations surrounding Deutsche Bank’s more than decade-long relationship with President Trump and his business have created a crisis for the German financial giant.

It’s caught in a legal tug of war between Trump and House Democrats for the president’s financial records and calls for broad investigations of its anti-money-laundering practices.

But for the 150-year-old bank, Trump is just the beginning of its problems.

Once a global powerhouse, catering to the U.S. elite from a tower on Wall Street, Deutsche Bank’s fortunes have waned. Sunday, it announced a sweeping restructuring, including gutting its stock and bond trading business and reducing other investment bank operations.

From:  Trump unleashes on Fox News: ‘They forgot the people who got them there’

President Trump slammed Fox News and its reporting in a series of tweets Sunday evening, claiming the conservative network is “changing fast” and being staffed with Democrats.

From:  FBI, ICE find state driver’s license photos are a gold mine for facial-recognition searches

Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have turned state driver’s license databases into a facial-recognition gold mine, scanning through millions of Americans’ photos without their knowledge or consent, newly released documents show.

Thousands of facial-recognition requests, internal documents and emails over the past five years, obtained through public-records requests by Georgetown Law researchers and provided to The Washington Post, reveal that federal investigators have turned state departments of motor vehicles databases into the bedrock of an unprecedented surveillance infrastructure.

From:  Mitsotakis sworn in as Greek prime minister after big win

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Conservative party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis has been sworn in as Greece’s new prime minister Monday, a day after his resounding win over left-wing Alexis Tsipras, who led the country through the tumultuous final years of its international bailouts.

From:  Russian-led assault in Syria leaves over 500 civilians dead: rights groups, rescuers

AMMAN (Reuters) – At least 544 civilians have been killed and over 2,000 people injured since a Russian-led assault on the last rebel bastion in northwestern Syria began two months ago, rights groups and rescuers said on Saturday.

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