Donald’s dirty dealings

Time for a commercial break from the spy thriller starring President Trump — to revisit intensifying questions about his privatesector business interests and their conflicts with the interests of the nation he leads. Where to begin? Start with the 38 Trump-brand trademarks just tentatively approved by China, with speed observers familiar with the process describe as rare indeed for Chinese bureaucrats — for hotels, golf resorts, restaurants and bars, massage centers and, even, ahem, escort services.

The applications arrived less than a year ago, when Donald Trump still ran the Trump Organization. While the President has since handed control to son Don Jr. and a company executive — who may, once cleared, embark on any or none of the trademarked ventures — Trump still ultimately benefits from the proceeds.

Late last year, under pressure to avoid conflicts, Trump pledged his business would pursue “no new deals” around the world. Pray tell, what are these trademarks for if not new deals?

That it is wholly unacceptable for the President of the United States to seek personal enrichment from foreign governments there is no doubt — starting with the line in the U.S. Constitution, known as the Emoluments Clause, that forbids U.S. officials from taking any such goodies.

Our global tour takes a stop back home in Washington, where the brand new Trump International Hotel, housed in the governmentowned Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Ave., has become, who’da thunk, a hot spot for visitors in town for dealings with the Trump administration — and even home to a cabinet member, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Here, Trump dispenses with the emoluments annoyance by pledging to forward all proceeds from foreign governments to the public fisc. May we see the receipts, please? Also in Washington, by way of Chile, daughter Ivanka Trump and hubby Jared Kushner are renting their new house from one of the wealthiest men in that South American nation, a minerals magnate currently suing the U.S. government to open a mine in Minnesota, who just happened to buy the $5.5 million house in December.

Now off to Baku, Azerbaijan, where screaming sirens signal entanglement by the Trump Organization, and Ivanka, in a real estate project that teamed the Trumps with the son and parliamentmember brother of the nation’s transportation minister, who somehow — in a nation rated one of the world’s most corrupt — became a billionaire.

That billionaire has been involved in extensive business dealings with Iran, via a construction firm linked to the mullahs’ terrorism-sponsoring Revolutionary Guard.

Inconveniently for Trump, a powerful U.S. anti-bribery law called the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act forbids any American business from giving anything of value to foreign governments, and is enforced aggressively by the U.S. Department of Justice. At least it’s supposed to be.

When the Department of Justice is run by a man who owes his job to the guy who made the deal and stands to profit from it, indeed already has made millions, that remains to be seen.