Trump Corruption Inc., Part 10

Trump is massively abusing his office to rip off billions of dollars for personal enrichment. In gathering this personal fortune, Trump is a walking, talking, acting conflict of interest.

For example, according to The Washington Post, “President Donald Trump’s sprawling family business empire has become increasingly intertwined with the boom in artificial intelligence.” The Post reported that Trump himself holds investments in AI-related companies, including Dell, Micron and GE Vernova, while ventures linked to his sons are invested in data centers and other AI infrastructure.

There are growing reports that AI leaders have called for slowing down AI’s development considering the serious potential dangers of AI, including the potential for AI to advance beyond the control of human beings. Some leading AI CEOs have called for slowing AI’s development and stronger government oversight.

In a session at the White House this week, however, Trump gathered the billionaires developing AI and took the completely opposite position. Trump called for full speed ahead in developing AI and had the AI leaders sign a voluntary pact “pledging” to engage in “self-regulation.”

Self-regulation has rarely worked in this country. It is unlikely to work here.

Leading AI developers have been talking about working together on safety while slowing down AI development. At the same time, the leading AI companies are fierce competitors with each other, with tens of billions of dollars at stake, and this is why self-regulation could be a fundamental problem.

Trump has also supported full speed ahead on data centers, which are essential to the development of AI. He has even proposed building them on public lands.

This sharply contradicts the views of the American people. Earlier this year, a Gallup poll found that by 71 percent to 27 percent, the American people opposed building data centers in their areas.

According to a recent Pew Research poll, 54 percent think data centers are mostly bad for the environment, 50 percent mostly bad for home energy costs and 49 percent mostly bad for the quality of life of the people nearby. Only 4 percent think data centers are mostly good in each of these areas.

The reality is that we do not know at what point Trump is making AI presidential decisions in the interests of the American people and at what point he is making AI decisions to increase his personal wealth.

We do know that Trump has an infinite thirst for advancing and protecting his personal wealth.

We have seen this, for example, in the unprecedented volume of securities trades made on Trump’s behalf, with almost daily conflicts of interest built in.

According to CNBC, “The president’s 2025 annual financial disclosure showed more than 21,000 securities trades across eight accounts holding at least $858 million, compared with 86 stock transactions disclosed during his first year in office in 2017.”

CNBC also reported that in July 2026, Trump “disclosed 1,156 securities transactions made on his behalf in July, totaling between roughly $79 million and $270 million.” The transactions included the largest sales “of between $5 million and $25 million each of Microsoft and Amazon.”

Another example of Trump’s infinite thirst for money can be seen in his ripping off American taxpayers by using tax money to pay for his potentially illegal taxpayer-funded ads that serve to glorify Trump. The ads are running now to try to influence the coming congressional elections.

Trump is reportedly going to spend $20 million in government funds on these ads, with the money being siphoned off from the federally appropriated funds for the Department of Homeland Security.

Trump has billions of personal resources and had more than $400 million in his MAGA Super PAC as of the end of August 2026.

This illustrates that Trump is not only willing to rip off taxpayers and to improperly take appropriated funds to pay for illegal taxpayer-funded political ads, but he is also a big-time cheapskate – refusing to use a penny of his vast resources to pay for the ads.

And speaking of Trump cheapskates, there is the case of Donald Trump Jr.

Playing off his name, Don Jr.’s personal wealth increased sixfold to some $300 million in the first year of his father’s second term. Yet, like father, like son, Don Jr. showed his cheapskate genes by reportedly accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments for his wedding expenses from Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin. Kremlev reportedly attended the wedding, held in the Bahamas, with a large group of Russians.

This was a massively inappropriate gift to Don Jr., leading him to be called by some a “useful idiot.” This is a term defined by Merriam-Webster as “a naïve or credulous person who can be manipulated or exploited to advance a cause or political agenda.” President Trump has claimed, “As I understand it, he paid him back,” referring to his son.

Trump’s never-ending thirst for money covers all amounts – small, medium, large or gigantic. It matches his obsession with self-aggrandizement as he acts to remake Washington – albeit temporarily.

________

Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s newsletter, and other recent editions, here. And subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.