Clinton’s Brunei Connection

The tiny island nation of Brunei is the perfect symbol of Hillary Clinton’s corrupt priorities, and the perfect example that Donald Trump can use to expose Clinton’s shameless hypocrisy.

Lest one thinks the Islamic monarchy is unfairly harsh on gays, know that one can also be put to death in Brunei for theft, adultery, blasphemy, apostasy, and insulting Mohammed.

Trump referred to Clinton’s Brunei connection in his speech on Wednesday, and continuing to highlight the confluence of Clinton negatives around the Islamic island nation, could very well be an effective strategy in a general election campaign. Ethical questions around Clinton Foundation foreign donations, Clinton ties to human-rights-challenged nations, past support for the much-maligned Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal — Brunei ties the threads together.

“Hillary Clinton accepted $58,000 in jewelry from the government of Brunei when she was secretary of state — plus millions more for her foundation,” Trump said.

Indeed, if anything should disqualify Hillary Clinton from the office of the presidency, it is the fact that she used the State Department as a subsidiary of the Clinton Foundation, accepting donations from regimes with some of the worst human rights records in the world in return for influencing U.S. policy.

Sure, Brunei isn’t quite as bad as say, Saudi Arabia — another country which has “gifted” the Clinton Foundation millions of dollars — but it is far from a shining example of enlightened liberal democracy.

“The Sultan of Brunei has pushed oppressive Sharia law, including the punishment of death by stoning for being gay,” Trump claimed, although the Brunei penal code sanctions the death penalty for sodomy, not same-sex attraction.

Of course, this distinction likely means little to the gay community. But lest one thinks the Islamic monarchy is unfairly harsh on gays, know that one can also be put to death in Brunei for theft, adultery, blasphemy, apostasy, and insulting Mohammed. Perhaps Clinton’s social justice-minded supporters can find solace in the fact that the sultanate is most egalitarian in its application of the death penalty.

Trump also noted that the “government of Brunei also stands to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of Hillary’s Trans-Pacific Partnership, which she would absolutely approve if given the chance.”

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Clinton may now be claiming to doubt the wisdom or benefits of signing up to the TPP, but Trump’s suggestion that she would “absolutely approve” the deal if she can is likely true. No doubt Brunei hoped to grease the skids on Clinton’s ongoing support for TPP with their generous donations to her family’s foundation.

But aside from the near-outright bribery leading Clinton to support TPP are the facts her husband ushered in the North American Free Trade Agreement, and her own past affinity for the deal — before it became so unpopular. While she was secretary of state, Clinton was rabidly in favor of the TPP, saying it “sets the gold standard in trade agreements to open free, transparent, fair trade — the kind of environment that has the rule of law and a level playing field.” The State Department is also stonewalling watchdog efforts to make public her communications with the U.S. Trade Representative on TPP until after the election — ostensibly to mask her glowing support for the bargain.

“We got here because we switched from a policy of Americanism — focusing on what’s good for America’s middle class — to a policy of globalism,” Trump said in his speech on Wednesday.

Nothing illustrates better the ugly face of globalism better than Hillary Clinton’s cozy relationship with Brunei. That relationship also illustrates Clinton’s fundamental and equally ugly hypocrisy.