I mean this is the predominant conception of corruption as per western countries, where it never is corruption unless you’re enough of an idiot to explicitly state that, on video, at the time of transaction. It’s why everyone in the western world is oddly proud of how their cops aren’t corrupt - they don’t tell you to pay them 30 eurodollars so they forget about that 60 eurodollar fine. And it’s also why this type of shit never gets understood as corruption. Trump didn’t explicitly say “Thanks, I will now treat the Qataris WAY more favorable” so it’s just a thing
By this definition, even saying “Thanks, I will now treat the Qataris WAY more favorable” would just be aligning interests, that’d be 100% in the clear. He specifically has to state something like “I am now supporting this war against our interests in direct response to the bribe I was given”.
I mean this is the predominant conception of corruption as per western countries, where it never is corruption unless you’re enough of an idiot to explicitly state that, on video, at the time of transaction. It’s why everyone in the western world is oddly proud of how their cops aren’t corrupt - they don’t tell you to pay them 30 eurodollars so they forget about that 60 eurodollar fine. And it’s also why this type of shit never gets understood as corruption. Trump didn’t explicitly say “Thanks, I will now treat the Qataris WAY more favorable” so it’s just a thing
By this definition, even saying “Thanks, I will now treat the Qataris WAY more favorable” would just be aligning interests, that’d be 100% in the clear. He specifically has to state something like “I am now supporting this war against our interests in direct response to the bribe I was given”.