It'd be a coincidence only if there weren't two and half million traceable dollar bills to this happenstance



Well, the record shows Trump has behaved according to the directed wishes of both Saudi Arabia and the UAE since taking office - supporting the kingdom's blockade of Qatar, firing Tillerson, threatening to tear up the Iran nuclear deal, and bringing in John Bolton as National Security Adviser, a dangerous neoconservative ideologue who has for years urged the US to bomb Iran.



It'd be a coincidence only if there weren't two and half million traceable dollar bills to this happenstance.



So, while the media's attention is fixated on the investigation into the possibility Trump colluded with Russia to undermine the US democratic system, it appears the Oval Office is very much occupied by agents working on behalf of foreign powers, but in the Middle East.



The timeline of events reads as yet another damning indictment against the legitimacy of the Trump presidency.



According to the Reuters report, Broidy and Nader first met at Trump's presidential inauguration on January 20, 2017, noting that Broidy had signed onto the Trump campaign as a fundraiser in 2016. Shortly after their initial meeting, the pair began working together in an effort to shift Trump towards taking favourable positions on both Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Three months after their initial meet, Broidy invoiced Nader's Dubai-domiciled company for $2.5 million.



Six weeks later, on May 23, 2017, Ed Royce, a 13-term Republican Congressman, announced he was introducing a bill to sanction Qatar, accusing the US Gulf ally of sponsoring terrorism. "Hamas has received significant financial and military support from Qatar," reads the original draft of the bill.



Read also: UAE adviser 'sent Republicans millions' to push anti-Qatar agenda

With the sanctions bill in motion, Broidy and Nader used $600,000 from the $2.5 million to sway Republican lawmakers to support the Saudi and UAE push to wound their regional rival Qatar. "Broidy has personally given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republicans over the past decade or more," observes Reuters. But the amount of $600,000 is "more than in the previous 14 years combined".



On June 9, 2017, Trump declared his support for sanctions and the Saudi blockade, accusing Qatar of funding terrorism at a "high level" - despite his secretary of state, Tillerson, urging the Gulf states to end their actions against Qatar because it was causing "humanitarian consequences", thus explaining why Tillerson has been on the out since the middle of last year, and thus explaining why he was eventually fired last week.



Obviously, we will know more when the overall findings of Mueller's investigation come to light, but this appears, at least on the surface, to be a clear case of the US Commander-in-Chief being led not by those who have the interests of the US public in mind, but rather by those who have large sums of cash and their own respective national interests to advance.



In any other universe, we'd call this treason or conspiring against the United States, but in today's hyper-polarised, tribal political landscape, it'll likely register only as another tumble in what is a never-ending cascade of Trump scandals.







CJ Werleman is the author of 'Crucifying America', 'God Hates You, Hate Him Back' and 'Koran Curious', and is the host of Foreign Object.



Follow him on Twitter: @cjwerleman



Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.