An unprecedented presidential cash grab
Trump at top of pyramid scheme of public fraud
Columnist: Trump sits at the top of a pyramid scheme of public fraud
Donald Trump has staked his presidency on a series of trade wars that are coming home to roost. With economic ruin looming over farmers, a key constituency, he refuses to change course. Instead, he’s mulling a policy of clientelism — a $12 billion cash handout to the victims of his own bad ideas.
It’s a natural fit for a White House that encourages corruption, exploitation and fraud in exchange for loyalty. As with his Cabinet officials, Trump expects that the allure of taxpayer-funded kickbacks will be enough to keep farmers from holding him accountable. It’s not an accident; it’s a strategy.
Trump and his coterie of grifters, fraudsters and co-conspirators have filled in the swamp and divided it into personal fiefdoms to exploit. The result has been an open season for public funds, private payoffs and abuses of office. It’s almost quaint to remember that Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was fired for using private jets. The now-resigned Environmental Protection Agency Director Scott Pruitt exclusively travels in first class, while Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is fond of chartered flights.
It isn’t just about luxury. Zinke’s involved in a land deal with Halliburton that is likely to benefit him directly. Pruitt reveled in petty grift, taking discounted rent from lobbyists and using his government security and employees as personal servants. Pruitt even used his position to try to find his wife a job. Following Trump’s lead, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has been less than honest about divesting his assets. The man helming Trump’s global trade war is profiting from it, even short-selling his stocks in a Kremlin-backed shipping company when he learned reporters were writing a story about it.
The taxpayer-backed cash grab radiates even outside government. Former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski opened a business selling his access to the president, even potentially to foreign governments. Trump lawyer Michael Cohen traded a direct connection to Trump for six-figure checks.
All of this is not only permissible to Trump, it’s encouraged. That’s what makes our situation unprecedented. This is an orchestrated effort to enrich the president, his family and his friends. That’s why the Trump hotel in Washington is now a favorite location for foreign emissaries, reaping tens of millions of dollars from those seeking audience with the president. Membership at Mar-a-Lago doubled in price, because lobbyists and influence peddlers will pay anything to catch the president’s ear. And Trump condos are flying off the market as foreign governments pay exorbitant prices to gain the president’s favor. Even his own party pays the piper. The GOP and affiliated groups have spent over $3 million at Trump properties since he took office.
In short, Trump has built a clearly organized machine for largesse and corruption. It’s a pyramid scheme of public fraud, and the president gleefully sits at its top, reaping the rewards and doling out the shares.
The president and his defenders deny anything is wrong. Many throw up their hands and say, “Washington has always been this way.” That’s certainly what Trump would have us believe. In truth, this level of corruption is rampant in dictatorships across the globe, but unprecedented here.
It’s disturbing to see Trump ripping this page from the authoritarian textbook, though entirely in character. He has traded his blessing of corrupt dealings for a weakening of the agencies that might hold some check on him. Now, as key voters threaten to rebel over his policies, it’s only natural that he’d seek the same bargain with them.
But Americans aren’t so easily bought. We’ve already waged and won numerous battles against the president’s corruption, but our fight is far from over. We must reinvigorate transparency and accountability in our government. We must hold our leaders to an even higher ethical standard. And, especially when it starts to feel fruitless, we must do so with Trump.
Mindy Finn, co-founder of Stand Up Republic and founder of Empowered Women, ran for vice president with independent Evan McMullin in 2016 and worked for the 2004 George W. Bush and 2012 Mitt Romney campaigns.