According to a bombshell report by BuzzFeed News, Donald Trump allegedly tried to establish a working business relationship with the Muammar al-Qaddafi regime after he provided the Libyan tyrant with space to stay at his massive New York estate in 2009.
“This Sunday, when asked about the U.S.’s Libya policy on CBS News’ Face the Nation, Trump brought up an incident many had forgotten: that time in 2009 when Qaddafi rented Trump’s opulent Westchester estate to erect a huge traditional tent where the Libyan leader would stay — and sacrifice a live lamb — while in New York for a United Nations assembly,” reports BuzzFeed. “The despised tyrant had been turned down by many other venues.”
At the time, Trump was reportedly attempting to expand his business ventures into Libya and diversify his investments. In doing so, the ambitious billionaire appears to have willfully overlooked the Qaddafi regime’s egregious crimes against humanity.
BuzzFeed details Trump’s purported machinations:
But BuzzFeed News has learned there was more to the relationship between Trump and Qaddafi than the short-term rental of an expensive campground and surrounding estate. According to four U.S. and Libyan sources, Trump sought to use the opportunity to gain access to Qaddafi, who was in a position to release billions in investment capital.
It is not clear exactly what kind of project Trump had in mind, according to the sources, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
An insider who worked with a PR agency representing Qaddafi at the time suggested that Trump was interested in “the Mediterranean waterfront and construction.”
2009 was supposed to be Qaddafi’s breakout year. After decades of sponsoring terrorism worldwide, the Libyan strongman was attempting to remake his image and convey a business-friendly persona to draw in investment into his economically unstable country. To appeal to Western investors, Qaddafi hired American public relations firms to enact a media blitz designed to paint the dictator in a positive light, a feat only problematized by the regime’s explicit sponsorship of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The terrorist attack took the lives of 189 Americans and 81 others.
Less than two years later, the Qaddafi regime was toppled by domestic unrest and a US-led NATO air-raid campaign. After fleeing the capital of Tripoli, Qaddafhi himself was captured by opposition forces and beaten to death. The execution was captured on camera.
Trump has long dismissed criticisms about his unsavory business past by suggesting that “businessman” Trump was simply acting cleverly to pursue his rational self-interests. Doubling-down, Trump has exploited this admonishment as a springboard to argue that he would harness the same business ruthlessness to secure “great deals” for the United States as president.
However, Trump’s seemingly cozy relationship with dictators the world over, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un has raised red flags in the foreign policy and national circles in Washington. Now one more autocrat can be added to Trump’s black book of lovers.