Conrad Black Knew How Embarrassingly Easy it is to Manipulate Donald Trump

Yesterday President Trump granted a pardon to former media mogul Conrad Black who was convicted of siphoning off money that should have gone to stockholders after the sale of media businesses in 2007. He spent more than 3 years in a Florida prison, was deported after his release in 2012, and was barred from returning to the United States for 30 years.

Black has always maintained that he was wrongly convicted, but never officially sought a pardon from his long-time friend, Donald Trump. But, he understands the President's fondness for praise, compliments and adoring press, so he published a fawning biography of Trump in 2018 titled "Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other". Writers at the Guardian may have figured out Black's motives for writing the biography last year.

The Guardian, 2018: "It’s a largely sympathetic take on a president whose disapproval ratings hover above 50% and whose administration has polarised American society with his ban on travellers from several Muslim-majority countries, forcible separation of migrant families and trade wars with longstanding American allies."

"The jarring disconnect has prompted speculation that Black, who in 2007 was sentenced to prison in the US for fraud and obstruction of justice, is angling for a pardon from Trump."

Black disputes this, and the White House noted yesterday that Black has also written biographies of Presidents Franklin D Roosevelt and Richard Nixon. Perhaps, but just a day before his pardon, Black upped the ante with an adoring, but entirely cringe-worthy piece in the conservative National Review titled "Smooth Sailing Ahead for Trump."

Coincidence? Mr Black likely doesn't think so.

Photo credit: Canadian Film Centre 2013

#Trump #news