Most Corrupt Administration Ever

            Trying to keep track of all the corruption in the Mump administration makes my head hurt, so I think I should start writing this before it explodes. Here’s just three headlines from the New York Times from the day I began:

·      “Trump to Accept a Luxury 747 From Qatar for Use as Air Force One.”

·      “Elon Musk’s tunneling firm, the Boring Company, is in discussions with the government to help with a multimillion-dollar Amtrak project.”

·      “The Trump family’s bitcoin company announced plans to go public.”

Let’s unpack each of those. Accepting a gift of worth $400 million from Qatar raises all kinds of ethical and constitutional questions. As far as Trump is concerned, ethics are for “losers” and turning down a gift is “stupid.” There is, however, something in the Constitution known as the “emoluments” clause. Although most of us don’t know what emolument means, Article 1, section 9 is quite straightforward. It explicitly bars federal officeholders from accepting “any present” from a foreign country. It would be one thing if the plane was a gift to the country, but after Trump leaves office, it’s going to his presidential library for his personal use. Indeed, to be used as Air Force One, the plane will require massive modifications that will likely not be completed by the end of his term. The reason for this constitutional prohibition is precisely to prevent the corruption of our leaders by foreign countries, and it should be noted that the deal comes on the heels of a $5.5 billion deal that Qatar recently made with Eric Trump to build a resort and golf course.

As for Musk, this latest headline might be just what it sounds like – boring – if it didn’t fit a pattern. Musk is the beneficiary of at least $38 billion in government contracts, and the power and influence he wields since giving enormous sums to the Trump campaign creates numerous opportunities for self-dealing. SpaceX in particular continues to cut new deals with NASA, the Air Force, and the Space Force. Moreover, although DOGE is supposedly going after waste, fraud, and abuse, it seems to place a higher priority on shutting down the 32 open investigations that federal agencies were conducting into his companies. One report found that Musk “has had a direct business interest in over 70% of the agencies and departments targeted by DOGE.” A notable target is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has benefited American consumers to the tune of over $21 billion but poses a threat to some of Musk’s companies. Even worse, DOGE operatives have been hard at work gaining access to every bit of sensitive personal information they can get their hands on and consolidating it all into one giant database. The danger of a bad actor getting access to that is mind-boggling.

All this corruption pales in comparison, however, to Trump’s crypto shenanigans. Trump used to oppose crypto, and for good reason. As economist Paul Krugman has written, “Money-laundering and scams that exploit naïve investors aren’t unfortunate behavior that taints a potentially useful enterprise. For crypto, they are the whole game, more or less the only reason cryptocurrencies exist.” Indeed, the $Trump and $Melania memecoins effectively bilked many small investors who bought the coins before their value crashed, while Trump raked in millions in fees. Since then, the involvement of Trump and his family with crypto has grown through the creation of World Liberty Financial and now their involvement with American Bitcoin, the subject of the Times article cited above. All of it has afforded Trump a lucrative opportunity for soliciting bribes. Last month Trump announced plans to reward top buyers of $Trump with a private dinner with him at one of his golf courses or, for the really big spenders, a tour of the White House. It has been an open invitation for wealthy foreigners and others to curry favor with the president.

It's not only shocking how extensive the corruption is, but how brazen. Trump clearly has nothing to fear from a supine Republican congress, the inspectors general have been fired, and the Supreme Court has given him almost blanket immunity. We must keep calling it out because only the outcry of an outraged citizenry holds any promise.

Paul Harris