Trump Corruption Inc., Part 2
As detailed in Part 1, President Trump and his family have enriched themselves by extraordinary amounts – billions of dollars. This is unlike anything that has happened in the 237-year history of the presidency. 
Trump’s obsession with money and his lifelong habit of treating relationships as transactions have produced widespread corruption during the first 16 months of his second term. It has also produced enormous financial gains for Trump and his family while rewarding select foreign governments and political benefactors.
The country is well aware of Trump’s corruption, with a poll showing that 54 percent of Americans view him as corrupt and as dishonest.
Those seeking favorable treatment from Trump’s presidency have no shortage of ways to direct money or other benefits to him and his family.
The channels are everywhere: foreign and domestic business deals, presidential-library money (including $50 million from SoftBank), inauguration funds, super PACs, litigation settlements, ballroom donations, pardons, and corporate interests seeking favorable treatment.
Trump family crypto interests and the UAE
Just before Trump was sworn in for his second term, “lieutenants to an Abu Dhabi [UAE] royal secretly signed a deal with the Trump family to purchase a 49% stake in their fledgling cryptocurrency venture for half a billion dollars,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
In May, a UAE sovereign wealth fund said it “would deposit $2 billion into World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency start-up founded by the Witkoffs and Trumps.”
Two weeks later, “the White House agreed to allow the UAE. access to hundreds of thousands of the world’s most advanced and scarce computer chips, a crucial tool in the high-stakes race to dominate artificial intelligence.”
A coincidence? NOT LIKELY.
Trump, the Boeing 747, and his “library”
Qatar gave Trump a Boeing 747, valued at $400 million, to serve as Air Force One. It will cost an additional $400 million in taxpayer money to refit the plane. The gift was technically made to the United States, but it will end up in Trump’s presidential “library” and under his control.
Trump has said, “I don’t believe in building libraries or museums. It’s most likely going to be a hotel with a beautiful building underneath and a 747 Air Force One in the lobby.” In other words, Trump’s $800 million aircraft will serve as a loss leader to attract Trump hotel guests.
The gift airplane was delivered last May. Just four months later, according to POLITICO, “The White House published an executive order on Wednesday vowing to defend Qatar in the event of an attack from another country, a remarkable security guarantee for a single country akin to NATO’s Article 5.”
A coincidence? NOT LIKELY.
The almost AI executive order
Trump recently pulled an executive order, at the last minute, which was intended to begin regulating AI. This occurred after Silicon Valley advocates of AI with gigantic financial interests in its development, including Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, called the White House to object to the executive order.
Musk spent over $270 million through his own super PAC to help elect Trump. Zuckerberg’s company, Meta, gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee. Meta and Zuckerberg also settled a lawsuit brought by Trump against them for $25 million, of which $22 million will go to the Trump “library” qua Trump hotel.
A coincidence? NOT LIKELY.
Trump’s $200 million, then $400 million “privately funded” ballroom
Trump pledged that it would all be private money when he tore down the East Wing to build a White House ballroom. The original stated cost of the ballroom was $200 million. Today, it is $400 million and counting.
And now, lo and behold, Trump is supporting legislation that contains an additional $1 billion in taxpayer money to pay for his entirely “privately funded” ballroom.
According to Yahoo! Finance, 37 donors have been disclosed by the Trump administration – but not the amounts they gave. The list includes Google, which settled a lawsuit brought by Trump for $24.5 million with $22 million going toward the ballroom costs.
According to a Public Citizen report on the ballroom donors, “two-thirds of the 24 known corporate donors have recent government contracts for projects, totaling $279 billion over the last five years.” And “Of the 24 corporate donors, 14 are facing federal enforcement actions and/or have had federal enforcement actions suspended by the Trump administration.”
A coincidence? NOT LIKELY.
A recent POLITICO poll found that “72 percent of Americans say there is too much money in politics, with just 5 percent disagreeing.” The poll also found that “Across parties, majorities say billionaires wield outsized influence over U.S. politics and that special interest spending is a type of corruption that should be restricted, rather than protected as free speech.”
Trump is the poster child for the reality that unlimited and unregulated political influence-money corrupt our democracy and government. It is imperative to fix our political money system and to prevent presidents from using the office to enrich themselves and their families.
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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.
