Late Night host Seth Meyers devoted Wednesday’s “A Closer Look” segment to Donald Trump’s troubling approach to climate change policies, which is rather frightening. Yet MSNBC anchor and guest Rachel Maddow brought up an equally problematic subject regarding the New York real estate mogul’s political ascendancy — his refusal to release his tax returns, and the resulting confusion over just how many potential business conflicts the Trump empire will cause on the international scene. Consider Maddow’s example for Meyers and the Late Night audience: windmills.
Specifcally, that time the president-elect renewed his fight with British politicians by encouraging Nigel Farage and his allies to oppose offshore wind farms along the coast of Scotland. Trump had previously lashed out against the plans, saying the windmills would obstruct the otherwise beautiful views afforded by his two Scottish golf courses. That he’s bringing this up as the incoming president, however, presents new complications:
“That’s hilarious if you think of it as just his ‘phobia,’ but now that he’s going to be president… This seems weird, but Scotland could come to him, the U.K. could’ve come to him: ‘Listen Donald, we know you really care about the windmills and you think that’s a very important thing for your business. We’ll get rid of the windmills if you do this thing for our country, which the United States doesn’t want to do — it’s not good for the country. But we want that from you as president, and we’ll give you this private benefit instead. That kind of transactional stuff is already a problem.”
Maddow mentioned a few other prominent examples of situations pertaining to Trump’s private affairs that might also become potential conflicts of interest.
However, watching the political pundit and Meyers riff about the president-elect’s apparent fear of windmills put the matter into perspective. Not because their bits necessarily cheapened the otherwise important matter, per se, but because they remind everyone watching that yes… America just voted for a guy who’s chief diplomatic concern with Scotland is its desire to build windmills along the coasts of his two golf courses. Good job, everyone!
