Jared's Protection Racket

Russian mobsters call it Krysha, in the English speaking world it is known as the "protection racket." During the election and after, Jared Kushner tried to shake down Qatar, strong arming a Qatari billionaire into giving him a $500 million "investment" in his business.

The Qatari eventually refused. Shortly afterwards Trump publicly denounced the tiny nation of Qatar, sending them into a crisis and crashing the Qatari stock market. It was the international equivalent of  throwing bricks through their windows and roughing up a few employees. Like any ruthless New York gangster, Kushner needed to punish Qatar for disrespecting him and also teach a lesson to any other countries that might resist his extortion.

It may be crude, but extortion, as we have seen, is Trump's favorite strategy. Also China, Cuba and, of course, NATO. What Trump says and does makes a lot more sense if you accept as true that the White House is now run by Vincent Gigante.