Not that it should surprise anyone, but the corruption of our Grifter-in-Chief has become too flagrant and apparent to hide. As Trump has decimated the Justice department and fired the various officials whose job it has been to ensure government ethics, his administration is coming to look a lot like that of his idol Putin.
Want examples?
Here’s a recent report from CNN Business:
A businessman who pumped $75 million into the Trump family-backed crypto token finds himself in a fortunate position this week as federal securities regulators are hitting pause on their civil fraud case against him.
On Wednesday, lawyers for the Securities and Exchange Commission and Justin Sun, a 34-year-old Chinese crypto entrepreneur, asked a federal judge to put the agency’s case on hold, citing the interests of both sides and “the public’s interest.”
The pause is a 180 for the SEC, America’s top financial regulator, which two years ago charged Sun and his companies — Tron, BitTorrent and Rainberry — with selling unregistered securities and fraudulently manipulating the price of digital token Tronix. Sun and his companies sought to have the case dismissed.
This particular grift revolves around the issuance of so-called “meme” coins–crypto tokens. Buyers with sufficient means are invited to bribe Trump by purchasing large amounts of them. To the best of my knowledge–and I’ve looked– there is no accounting, no agency or government individual keeping track of those purchases.
The media, however, has begun to investigate; Rolling Stone recently ran an article titled “HERE’S EVERYTHING WRONG WITH TRUMP’S CRYPTO MEME COINS” with a subhead reading “The Trump family’s new crypto meme coins are an ethical disaster and ripe for corruption — and they could cost his supporters dearly.”
While campaigning, Trump promised to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet” after crypto bros poured over $130 million to elect a crypto-captive administration and Congress. Trump has tapped pro-crypto acolytes for regulatory posts across the federal government and released pro-crypto executive orders to establish a White House crypto working group and prioritize crypto across government. To top it off, the huckster-in-chief launched his $TRUMP meme coin: one part a vehicle for personal profit, one part a playground taunt over federal ethics rules, and one part a crypto-fascist pledge of allegiance. It’s a move that could not only rip off Trump supporters but also significantly corrode the democratic process.
The article goes on to explain just what a “meme coin” is:
a crypto token based on little more than an online image, slogan, or passing social trend. The crypto industry argues it is a sort of digital collectible. The fine print on the $TRUMP coin website notes that the coins “are not intended to be, or to be the subject of, an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type.”
These coins have no practical use, unlike other crypto assets, which do have such uses (mostly laundering drug money or tax evasion). Most end up being worthless; a number are sold by “investors” hyping their value just long enough to allow insiders to cash out. Interestingly, the $TRUMP fine print requires its buyers to give up their rights to sue.
As the article notes, the Trump venture “presents a mind-boggling number of potential conflicts of interest” and appears designed to prey upon rather than protect naive Americans. Or–as emerging evidence like the dismissal of the SEC suit suggests–to provide a perfect mechanism for bribery.
Lawmakers (okay, Democratic lawmakers) are beginning to catch on; one Democratic Senator has promised to introduce a measure that would make this particular grift illegal. As ABC recently reported,
Since launching a little over a month ago, the $TRUMP coin has tanked in value after early investors dumped the cryptocurrency. Members of Congress have noticed as hundreds of thousands of investors have taken hard hits and billions in value have quickly vanished.
California freshman Democrat Rep. Sam Liccardo told ABC News on Thursday he will introduce legislation to prohibit the country’s top officials and their families — from Congress to the White House — from capitalizing on personal meme coins.
I don’t think ABC is quite correct in saying that the coin has no value. That is undoubtedly true for the MAGA cult suckers who purchase it, but it clearly has considerable value for “businessmen” who want government to drop lawsuits and/or investigations, or who seek fat contracts or other preferential treatment. (Reports are that a number of lawsuits are being dropped.)
Trump has learned a lot from his idol Putin about how to keep the oligarchs loyal…..
Last night Trump signed another Executive Order establishing a government Reserve for Bitcoins. A reserve is like a Fort Knox for cryptocurrency. Remember the news flashes about Donald Trump and Melania Trump selling their personal crypto coins barely prior to his inauguration. I admit I got this information from AP who have been banned by Trump as an unacceptable news source for his press corps.
Breaking news last night of the second explosion in recent weeks of Musk’s SpaceX rocket; termed on Rachel Maddow as an UNEXPECTED DISASSEMBLY, don’tcha’ love that term!!! So many areas to apply it as we watch Musk DISASSEMBLE our 250 year old government foundation and fires thousands of necessary workers. No longer in the news is Musk’s SpaceX planned 8 DAY space trip with two passengers which has stretched to 9 MONTHS, due to malfunctions and UNEXPECTED DISASSEMBLY of numerous parts. Musk says the extended trip is due to politics and Trump says President Biden left them stranded in space. How many billions of our tax dollars are part of Musk’s wealth for military and space contracts which are failures as he continues, with or without Trump’s say-so, to DISASSEMBLE our government and our lives.
There was no solace this morning to watch Morning Joe and Gene Robinson point out something I have said recently; Democrats have no leader to speak for us to immediately call out LIAR, LIAR, LIAR on specific major lies Trump is pushing on the hapless public which reportedly is the majority of Americans. I have pointed this out about the local Democratic party repeatedly; we have no one to place our trust in as well as our money. At the federal level those Democrats sitting in Senate and House are not putting anyone of their numbers in front of us.
“Trump has learned a lot from his idol Putin about how to keep the oligarchs loyal…..”
Where do we find an American idol to place our loyalty in???
Donald Trump learned the grift from his father Fred Trump,
a racist, ruthless, amoral, grandstanding, tax-evading, law-breaking, megalomaniac narcissist who didn’t care about anyone but himself and was incapable of empathy.
See my blog post on Fred Trump
https://drchrislamb.com/only-the-best-people-fred-trump-sr/
Trump, an average person at best, had beaten into him when he was young that he was not even average. He could only become successful by intimidating others with his ruthless, no limits mouth. In other words, he was intimidated by his father to the point he had no option but to follow his grandfather and father.
Same with the other two in the ruling triumvirate.
Others who agree with that approach gave the three no limits power over the federal government.
Now we have to take it back.
Rachel Maddow compared buying bitcoin to collecting Beanie Babies. That’s the first time it made the slightest bit of sense to me.
I wouldn’t listen to Rachel Maddow for advice on Bitcoin, and BTC is nothing like a meme coin that $Trump and #Melania set up through one of their company affiliates—World Liberty…or something. Anybody can set up a digital meme coin; almost the entire value goes to the holder. If Sun bought $75 million of $Trump, guess who received that money after subtracting fees?
For those who don’t know Justin Sun, he is the one who spent a few million buying the banana duct-taped to a whiteboard at an art auction and then ate the banana as a display of “contempt for the art.” He’s from a wealthy family but has made a fortune on crypto.
Crypto is popular because it’s encrypted, meaning you can’t trace who is buying or selling. BTC is obviously highly valued because of blockchain technology, which requires a significant amount of energy for mining. However, the value is highly volatile. I bought some through an ETF, which is a trust that holds Bitcoin for my daughter’s trust. Like the whole market, it has done exceptionally well, even though it’s been down recently.
As for Sheila’s comment about the grifting Putin, take a closer look at all the nonprofits set up in Washington to help spend our tax dollars like USAID. ProPublica just had another article about how a TN preacher, who a TN billionaire finances, has a “ministry” home in Washington where Republican officials live in this eight-bedroom condo. I spent a few minutes yesterday looking at the Form 990 for this nonprofit and it claims that it does not involve itself in political activities. LOL
Why do you think the IRS is a punching bag? Even when Biden hired more agents, how did all the Democratic-nonprofits go unpunished? LOL
Washington, Indianapolis, and your community government are all about grift. The average person loves spending other people’s money. Our Mayor just bragged at his SOTC that he has invested $11 million of our taxpayer money into a YMCA (a member-only fitness center), a new building for Ball State (run by the state), and “investments into nonprofits.” Our city acts more like a foundation than a municipal government with crumbling infrastructure. Our roads are horrible every year. They only have money to do a small percentage of patching, yet they can funnel millions to nonprofits that don’t pay property taxes.
Please amplify the above example for our statehouse grift, and quadruple it for the federal government. This is why I support what DOGE is doing in theory, but for Musk, it has more to do with gathering government data for his AI ambitions.
As others have said this morning, a deeply immoral and savagely hateful family has produced a BELOW average monster that became our president because the voters got it wrong for all the wrong reasons. OF COURSE IT’S A GRIFT. It’s all it’s ever been.
What will be amazing to watch is when the poor and the rural voters -those that do vote – start getting screwed into painfulness, how many of them will still vote for Republicans. Why aren’t Democrats flooding those deep-red areas with the facts and do what the Gingrich strategy did/does? Call them every name but a child of God and point out in colorful terms how Republicans have been screwing the people and our nation for decades. It’s not that hard to do.
Why aren’t Democrats recruiting GOOD people to be candidates who run against the idiots like Scott, Cruz, Graham, et. al.? Democrats keep begging for money, but where is it spent? Spend it on information and candidate campaigns STARTING NOW.
If this horror show isn’t stopped very soon, we will plunge into third-world status in just one generation. In 2013 I wrote a book explaining this. It turned out to be prophetic. “Killing the Dream: America’s Flirtation With Third-World Status.” Sorry for flacking the book, but it will confirm a lot of what’s going on these days.
So, as usual, hear all y’all…but, what do we do about it? What can be done?
Another “small” part of the grifter/MAGA ecosystem..
https://www.propublica.org/article/roommates-steve-berger-mike-johnson-andy-ogles-right-wing-influence-townhouse?
Lester, that was the nonprofit I mentioned yesterday. What a scam!
I strongly encourage folks to listen to this interview with Republican Tim Burchett, a congressman from Tennessee, after he meets with DOGE and Musk in Washington. He said he’ll probably get primaried for telling the truth, but he does it anyway. He said both parties in Washington are corrupt, and they know that as Musk and DOGE keep digging, lots of taxpayer money will flow into the politicians’ grubby hands. Washington is no different than Indianapolis, or your local municipality. This is why the establishment fights against populists who aren’t part of the club. He also said they are just scratching the surface. The real corruption is in the Education and Defense departments. Anyone surprised?
https://www.waaytv.com/video/full-remarks-rep-tim-burchett-speaks-after-meeting-with-elon-musk-about-doge/video_05f04d84-32f6-546e-b0ae-9aba66a8cb6c.html
Lol, I guess we’ll see how many of his acolytes will be taking the swan dive out of skyscrapers. Like my grandfather used to say, once you’re in, you’re in, there’s only one way out, in a bag, usually with your tongue hanging out of your larynx.
The problem with shenanigans, you’ll make some folks happy, you’re going to make plenty angry. And you’re going to create a power caste, They all want to move up. Night of the Long knives greased Hitler’s path into the chancellory, then the Reichstag false flag immolation which was blamed on the Communists, led to the elimination of the last obstacle to total rule.
And then the famous El’duche, IE Mussolini who was caught by the citizens and dragged through the streets and slaughtered like beef cows hanging in the public square. You wonder which route this whole situation is going to take. Probably a medley of history. Everything in this country that was fought for, and paid for with blood, is going to seek it’s return. Blood For blood, that way is as old as humanity itself!
DO not know if this will work.
but if we Stop voting by political party, investigate those running in your state. Look for education & experience in the job they are running for.
Check them out in terms of where what and how they use their & our money.
Just has to be at least a few independent, Republican & Democratics. Who care about AMERICA. AND START OUTING, those from all party’s that are grifters.
Maybe everybody grifts, but The Republican grifters make the Democratic grifters seem like pikers. They do so much more and so much better you hardly notice when they pick your pocket. I wonder if anyone will notice when Medicaid is gone, or will it only be those who have the additional burden of caring for Mom or Dad after the Nursing Home has discharged them?
There are some Democrats who have the ability to lead. I personally think AOC is perhaps the best, most articulate of the younger Dems. Maxwell Frost has potential. Jasmine Crockett is fun to watch as she takes on MTG and Lauren Bobert.
I’d like to note that the two of them weren’t escorted out of the chamber, as was Al Greene, when they actively and boisterastly interrupted all of Biden’s SOTUs. Even as diminished as he was he still managed to get the better of those two. That’s what a smart person does.
Lester. Lawsuits, lawsuits and more lawsuits backed by participation in every nonviolent form of protest that is organized.
Caren (and anyone else),
What you are advocating is EXACTLY what the volunteer community I run, CommonGoodGoverning has been doing for 8 years, mostly on US House elections. With gerrymandering destroying competitive races at that level, we are turning to using our tools to get “sometimes” voters out for local servant leader candidates. We do not have a website, so please contact me at lester.levine@gmail.com.
This crypto stuff reminds me of the tulip craze in Holland A couple of centuries ago. Gift indeed.
13 And one of the crowd said to him “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him “Man, who has set me as a judge or divider over you?” 15 And he said to them “See that you keep clear of all overreaching, because it is not by having an oversupply that one has his living out of his property.”
16 And he told them a parable: “Once upon a time a rich man’s lands bore a great crop, 17 and he was going over the question to himself ‘What shall I do, because I have nowhere to put my crops when I gather them?’ 18 and he said ‘This is what I will do: pull down my barns and build larger ones, and put all my wheat and the rest of my good things in them, 19 and say to my soul “Soul, you have a great stock of good things laid up for years: rest, eat, drink, be gay”’; 20 but God said to him ‘Silly man, this night your soul is to be called for, and who will have what you have got ready?’ 21 That is what the man is like who lays by for himself and is not rich toward God.” (Luke the 12th chapter)
Sorry, grift not gift.
Of course!
Hunter claims he’s broke – needs the judge to stop the lawsuit. Send money people – like all good liberals who care about the less fortunate.
Becky, Hunter reminds me a lot of Trump’s older brother who committed suicide rather than deal with addiction.
You may not know that the US is the one money laundering capitals of the world because of our loose disclosure laws. A bipartisan Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act last year, Right now when a corporation is set up, the only name that has to be on the corporation is the name of the lawyer that set it up and not any of the parties that have a “beneficial interest“. You can see how that lack of disclosure would make the US a favorite for people trying to hide financial transactions or keep money donors secret.
Because I’m on the board of our HOA i’ve been getting updates from our management company about reporting requirements under this new act. Here’s the latest update.I just got about how the Trump administration is trying to grift us:
On Sunday, March 2, 2025, the Treasury Department issued a press release stating that the administration would permanently suspend enforcement of the law against all U.S. citizens or domestic reporting companies or their beneficial owners. The Treasury Department now intends to issue proposed new regulations narrowing the scope of the reporting requirements to foreign reporting companies only. However, although the Treasury Department may seek to impose regulation related to law, it is not a lawmaking body itself. The Treasury Department does not have the authority to overrule an act of Congress without the support of Congress itself.
At this point, the Corporate Transparency Act remains in effect and is not stayed by any court order, but there is a clear intent that the Treasury Department does not intend to enforce the reporting requirements against domestic entities. The court cases challenging the law remain pending, and there is at least one bill in Congress to extend the reporting deadlines.