Before I retired, I spent 21 years teaching Law and Public Policy to students who wanted to know about those topics, and I can confirm that even individuals with an interest in government often had a hard time following the intricacies of the policy process. When we come to the population at large–people who (as Jon Stewart once memorably explained) “have shit to do”–it isn’t surprising that much of what this blog addresses might just as well be written in ancient Aramaic. Policy nerds like yours truly talk about Trump violating the Emoluments Clause, and the average American wonders what that is.
Widespread ignorance of the laws–of America’s so-called “guardrails”–has allowed Trump to violate all manner of constitutional and statutory rules without generating an appropriate amount of concern. But sometimes, visual evidence of the arrogance and self-dealing breaks through. That’s what we are seeing with the destruction of the East Wing of the People’s house and its planned replacement with a gaudy and inappropriate ballroom, funded by people who have business with the government, and whose “contributions” are rather clearly bribes.
As Jennifer Rubin recently wrote in the Contrarian,
If you were watching any of the voter-on-the-street interviews Tuesday, you might have been surprised to hear how many Americans are deeply disturbed, furious even, about Donald Trump’s bulldozing of the White House to make way for a garish $330M donor-paid ballroom. It may not be the most egregious offense of the Trump regime (which has kidnapped people off the streets, sent them to foreign hell holes, and cut off SNAP benefits, among other outrages). It is not even the worst case of corruption, given the estimated $5B or so in wealth Trump and his family have hauled in from (among other sources) foreign buyers of crypto. But the ballroom is the most visible, easily explained, and visually disgusting evidence of Trump’s destruction of our democracy and the public’s ownership of our institutions.
Rubin cited a report from Public Citizen that–as she wrote–“captures the stomach-turning effort to transform the White House into a monument to private greed and public corruption.” Among other things, the report found that 16 out of 24 donors hold government contracts. Overall, those corporate donors benefited from nearly $43 billion in contracts just last year and $279 billion over the past five years.
More significantly, most of those donors—14 out of 24—are either currently facing federal enforcement actions “and/or have had federal enforcement actions suspended by the Trump administration,” including major antitrust actions, labor rights cases and SEC matters. The report also noted that these companies and wealthy individual donors have invested “gargantuan sums in combined lobbying and political contributions, totaling more than $960 million during the last election cycle and $1.6 billion over the last five years.”
In other words, those generous donations to Trump’s bad taste are rather obviously bribes.
You can almost hear the mob boss crooning into the ears of the supplicants: “you want this little enforcement problem to go away? Want another cushy contract? Just pony up for my ballroom and government will look out for you.” Trump is frequently described as “transactional,” a nice word for a mob boss approach that begins with “what’s in it for me?”
Citizens may not have noticed other corruption. Take the Trump family’s crypto scams, for example. Through their World Liberty Financial, they launched Trump-branded “tokens”–coins with no intrinsic value, purchases of which are efforts to gain or retain the good graces of our would-be King (aka bribes). Unlike those and similar transactions, the visual–and visceral–impact of East Wing destruction is hard to ignore. It’s an entirely appropriate metaphor for Trump’s mob boss regime.
As Rubin argues:
Certainly, any 2028 Democratic candidate worth his or her salt would need to advance a mammoth anti-corruption plan to tackle not only this outrage (“Tear it down, rebuild democracy!” would make a lively campaign chant) but to severely regulate crypto, recover unconstitutionally acquired foreign emoluments, restore prosecution of foreign bribery statutes and other white collar crimes, and undergo an exhaustive investigation and prosecution of any bribery that took place in the Trump regime.
As with other autocratic atrocities, the corruption issue is too important to leave solely to the politicians. Shareholders of these companies could demand a full accounting and pursue shareholder suits if appropriate. Consumers can organize public campaigns to expose and embarrass these companies or conduct targeted boycotts (e.g., cancel Amazon Prime, do not patronize Hard Rock Casinos and restaurants). And further No Kings events should keep corruption front and center.
Sometimes, a picture really is worth a thousand words.
“Widespread ignorance of the laws–of America’s so-called “guardrails”–has allowed Trump to violate all manner of constitutional and statutory rules without generating an appropriate amount of concern.”
Aren’t they using freedoms and rights provided to them by that same Constitution to violate the Constitution???
MSNBC tries to expose this criminal enterprise on a daily basis. There’s so MUCH of it even our corporate and somewhat compromised media has to report it. Newsprint only exposes this global grift in limited amounts.
Sure, the white collar criminals need to be held accountable, but will there be enough honest lawyers available to prosecute them when the time comes? What about all those fired prosecutors? I’ll bet they’re honing their skills as we speak.
MAGA quickly excused the Epstein Ballroom addition since they weren’t paying for it and told liberals to quit whining. I don’t think the deals with the corporations were bribes, nor is Sleepy Don a mobster. He’s not smart enough. However, he is a narcissist and extortionist – he’s running an extortion racket in Washington. I don’t think Donny the Rapist went to Russia and offered to clean money for them, but Russia’s oligarchs came to Donny and his family.
Trump likes to tell how he ended his relationship with Epstein. It had to do with Epstein and Maxwell taking employees from Mar-A-Lago. They were doing that, and that’s where the young Virginia Giuffrey came into the picture, but Epstein actually ended the relationship after Trump betrayed him on a Palm Beach estate. According to Michael Wolff, a journalist and author, Epstein had put in a bid on an estate and gave Trump a tour, telling him specifics. According to Michael, Donny then went behind Jeffrey’s back and outbid him. Then, two years later, he nearly tripled his money by selling to a Russian oligarch (money laundering). Apparently, Donny has been doing this for years with his condos in Manhattan.
One last point on the gaudy addition to the White House: it hasn’t been the “People’s House” for a very long time, as we are, in fact, an oligarchy. Once the “Donald J. Trump Ballroom” is built, it will truly reflect our country: a giant palatial ballroom for the oligarchy’s parties, hovering over a tiny residence/office building for the symbolic people’s president.
p.s. If one of the Epstein/Trump pictures is released to the public, as Michael Wolff describes, Trump won’t have anywhere to hide. It is a Polaroid of Trump at Epstein’s house surrounded by half-naked teen girls pointing at a stain on Trump’s pants (near the fly) and laughing. The pictures from that day were kept in Epstein’s safe.
When Nixon had Watergate in full swing, the average voter didn’t need to know that there was something illegal going on, because the average congressman is not your average voter and they were all smart enough and moral enough to stand up because they were our elected representatives. They were there to look out for the country’s best interest, and not just the party
It’s true, though, that if the voters were a little better educated, the current congressman and senators would be on their way out. But in today’s fragmented media/propaganda environment at least 37% of the voters think things are going great.
I recently heard that since the destruction of the White House was done in such a reckless and rushed manner, the Orange Monster has set free Asbestos that will be killing people working in the white house for decades going forward. Since he is judgment proof, who will all those asbestos victims sue?
Trump is betting that the US can survive four years of non-productive governance while he focuses on evening the score with everyone who has ever disagreed with him and making money for his mob. That is a common illiberal belief. We had too much governance, so killing it off would free more money to redistribute away from the workers who create all wealth as citizens/taxpayers/consumers/families.
That hasn’t, doesn’t, and will not work because everything is connected. What he will leave in his wake is a second-world country, while China will continue becoming a first-world country.
He doesn’t care what happens. Why should he?
“Tear it down, build back better” would be an possible alternative chant for future rallies, if we are fortunate enough to ever have them.
The U.S. is no longer in any way a real 1st world country . We gave that status away when grievance and racism put him in the Presidency, not once but twice, aided by the wealth of the greediest sociopaths, ruthless in their pursuit of even more power.
Hubris, excess and willful ignorance are the stuff of fallen empires as history has shown over and over.
More than half the people did not elect him. Those who chose to abstain are as culpable as those who actively chose him. Elections have consequences. Will we ever have another one that is truly democratic? If the people running this administration continue to restrict, oppress and manipulate qualifications and access for voters, then, no, we won’t.
It seems futile to push back in a state where the governor, the lt. governor and the General Assembly are all in thrall to a mob boss, through fear or self-interest.
All of this makes me wonder if those who lived at the end of great empires saw what was coming but could not find any way to stop the destruction and pain to follow.
Protest actions put a stop to redistricting in Indiana this month. Don’t let doom and gloom prevent you from RESISTing. We didn’t get into this situation overnight and it’s going to take years to fix it.
The Orange Don acts like a mobster, as best as he knows how, whatever that is. The countries that were about to vote to limit the pollution of large ships were, as I believe I mentioned yesterday, threatened in gangster mode, by the Trump admin., and did not do it.
Grifting is what Trump does best, always has been, back to Trump University, and beyond, and his sickness allows of no bottom…that simple.
Aren’t those corporate contributions tax deductible? Does this mean that we taxpayers are indirectly paying for this monstrosity?
Various questions come to mind –
Is it possible to extend the statute of limitations on the corporate crimes by four years due to a corrupt administration?
Can Trump be prosecuted for his defiance of the Constitution and various illegal acts because breaking the law and defying the Constitution are not “official acts”?
How much can we claw back from Trump, his family, and his cronies?
Just trying to think ahead – Maybe a new Democratic President should act against Trump by fiat (aka Executive Order) and let the courts walk it back?
Sorry, my evil side is showing. 8)>