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President-Elect Trump Flagrantly Breaks the Law; Skittish Media Drops It
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President-Elect Trump Flagrantly Breaks the Law; Skittish Media Drops It

By Dustin Rowles | Horror | November 22, 2016

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There was speculation yesterday that Donald Trump had sought a personal business favor from Argentine President Mauricio Macri during a phone call last week after an Argentinian newspaper claimed that Trump had sought to have permits cleared for a Trump Tower in Buenos Aires. Yesterday, both a Trump spokesman and a spokesman for the Argentinian President denied that business was discussed during the congratulatory call.

After denials from both sides, the media basically dropped the issue. However, in a lengthy tweet storm, Susan Simpson (via Bilge Ebiri) connected all the dots and more or less illustrates that Trump did indeed seek business favors in that phone call, and that the Argentinian President granted them.

It's a lengthy tweetstorm, and can get a little confusing, but here's the long and short of it: Donald Trump had sought to build a Trump Tower in Buenos Aires for at least four years, but knew there would be massive difficulties getting permits and through other red tape. Trump's company had partnered with Yaryura & Yellati, an Argentinian Development Company. Yaryura and Yellati are close friends with the Trump family. In fact, they were with Eric Trump on election night and ate breakfast with Eric Trump the next morning.

As of election day, Yaryura & Yellati were still waiting for approval from Argentina to get to work on Trump Tower in Buenos Aires.

Argentinian President Macri had been rooting for a Clinton victory (Macri has a long and sordid personal history with Trump). After Trump won, Macri quickly sought to connect with Trump to make things good with the U.S President.

I'll let select Simpson tweets explain the next part of the story:

Here's the TL;DR: Donald Trump wanted to build a Trump Tower in Buenos Aires but couldn't get approval. He had a phone call with the Argentinian president. The very next day, it was announced that Trump Tower would be moving ahead in Buenos Aires despite the fact that there was no paperwork submitted. Donald Trump's campaign denies that he discussed business with the Argentinian President. The media says, "OK, sure," and drops it, and nobody seems to give a damn now except Peggy Noonan.

However, Air Fleischer raises the prospect of "fake news":

The New York Times takes the Argentinian President at his word that they didn't talk about Trump Tower:

And the whole thing is dropped, never mind that Trump Tower was given the go ahead the day after Trump spoke with the Argentinian President.

Good job, media!

In our continued efforts to keep photos of Donald Trump on the site to a minimum, today we feature a still from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which has seen an fun new narrative shift and a new character played by Brittany Snow. You can follow Dustin on Twitter.