Ulterior Motive? Trump Personally Profited From The Cruise Missile Strike On Syria

When Donald Trump ordered the launching of 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian air base Wednesday night, the taxpayers were billed for about $60 million. And some of that money may have made it into Trump’s bank account, too, because he owns stock in Raytheon, which manufactures the missiles.

The Palmer Report, citing Business Insider, reports that as recently as 2015 Trump did indeed have shares of Raytheon in his stock portfolio. And the day after the cruise missile attack, Raytheon stock was up nearly 2 percent.

None of this would be the least bit questionable if Trump had done as previous American presidents have and placed his holdings in a blind trust. Instead, we’re left to wonder if Trump’s decisions are based purely on profit. And this raises even more troubling questions:

  • What might we encounter if we could see Trump’s tax returns? Financial ties to Russia and even to Russian organized crime?
  • As president, is Trump motivated purely by personal profit motive?
  • Can a man who will not divest himself of his business or share his tax returns be trusted with anything?

It’s also unclear exactly what Trump hoped to accomplish with the attack on the air base outside Homs, Syria. If it was to destroy the facility so it couldn’t be used again, he failed: On Thursday, it was reported that the Syrian government was again conducting air operations from the base. So what was accomplished?

Let’s not overlook the fact that the attack on Syria also benefited Russia as the price of oil spiked sharply the day after the missiles were launched. Oil is about the only thing Russia has that anyone wants to buy. The price of crude has been down, which hurts the Russian economy. Did Putin and Trump devise the operation to bolster Trump’s poll numbers and put cash into the Russian treasury?

There are more questions than answers right now. And none of them are comforting.

Featured Image Via Gage Skidmore for Flick available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License