 During the first month in office President Trump has taken 108 Executive Actions: 73 Executive Orders, 23 Proclamations and 12 Memorandums. During this time the president has empowered Elon Musk and the recently formed Department of Government Efficiency to engineer the firing of thousands of federal employees and the dismantling of government agencies created by Congress. If all this activity has got your head spinning, you are not alone. The Democrat leaders in the House and Senate seem helpless to stop the onslaught of Trump 2.0. Short of throwing up their hands in resignation what are ordinary Americans to do? Here are some actions that you can take to shake off that feeling of helplessness without having to wait for the next election.  Immediate Term ActionsJoin National Boycott: A nationwide economic blackout is set to take place this Friday, February 28, 2025. The boycott is being organized by The People’s Union in response to President Trump’s dismantling of DEI programs. According to the website, “If we disrupt the economy for just one day, it sends a powerful message”. For a 24-hour period consumers are asked not to make any purchases either online or in brick-and-mortar stores. If consumers must make purchases, they are asked to buy local and pay in cash, not credit cards. Major retailers such as Amazon, Walmart and Target, who have already announced plans to roll back their DEI programs, are targets of the boycott. Donald Trump is particularly sensitive to a weakening economy, so I suspect that there will be more boycotts in the future, including those being scheduled in March and April by The People’s Union.  Call and Write the White House: You can call and write the White House to let the president know your views on his actions and policies. The president will never read these comments, but they are tallied, and the president’s team keeps track of the tone of the comments and the ratio of positive to negative comments. To leave your comments for the president you can email at https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ or if you prefer to call and leave a comment you can do so at (202) 456-1111, Tuesday-Thursday from 11AM-3PM EST. I plan to send daily comments to the president to let him know my opinion on his latest action. Call and Write Congressional Leaders: Go to the website of your elected representatives to get their contact information. They need to hear from you routinely to help them gauge the mood of their constituents.  Boycott Elon Musk’s Companies: If you are unnerved by the unchecked power of Elon Musk to slash and burn government agencies, cut thousands of federal employees doing jobs he knows nothing about, and dig through your private data, then it’s time to boycott his companies. Don’t purchase any vehicle, solar energy generator or battery storage equipment from Tesla, and avoid using his social media platform X. Many of us own Tesla stock in mutual funds or the S&P 500 index. Write to Tesla’s Board of Directors to let them know your dissatisfaction with their CEO, and ask when he has the time to manage the company.  Support Independent Journalism: Without independent journalists the American electorate will be kept in the dark of what is happening behind the curtain in Washington D.C. Since 2005 the United States has lost nearly 2,900 newspapers, and we are on pace to lose more than 100 this year. Independent news outlets and journalists need our financial support to survive. Here are some of the news outlets and journalists that I support:
Long Term Actions Longer Term Actions: The midterm elections are not until November 3, 2026, and the primaries will be heating up about a year from now. It will be difficult for the Democrats to regain control of the Senate in the next election cycle, but the House of Representatives is within reach. According to the Cook Political Report the most vulnerable House Republicans are David Schweikert (Arizona), Juan Ciscomani (Arizona), Gabe Evans (Colorado), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa), Tom Barrett (Michigan), Don Bacon (Nebraska), Ryan Mackenzie (Pennsylvania), and Scott Perry (Pennsylvania). The Democrat challengers in these districts will need financial support and help with their ground game. Pay attention to these vulnerable Republican districts as well as those in your home state. Presidents usually lose House seats in the midterm elections, but this is no time to be complacent. Make it happen. Things coming out of the Trump White House are very unsettling these days, but we are not helpless. Let your voices be heard, support independent journalists, and never miss an opportunity to remind family, friends and acquaintances that Trump is not keeping his promise to lower your costs or improve your life in any material way.  Don't Be This Guy, Take Action.If you enjoy reading this type of commentary, please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 American @gmail.com.
Thanks, Armchair American
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 Donald Trump’s propensity to profit off the presidency knows no bounds. He has made millions of dollars from the sales of Trump branded merchandise, used his campaign to fund raise and pay for his personal legal team, and has enriched the Trump Organization by holding government and political functions at his various properties. Foreign governments spent over $8 million at Trump properties during his first term, and various special interest groups use the same tactic to curry favor with him. Trump routinely overcharges the Secret Service for accommodations at his resorts while there to protect him and his family. The House Republicans hosted a retreat last month at Trump’s Doral resort in Miami as a way to pay homage to their party leader, and line his pockets, setting the example for any other group or individual looking to gain access to Trump.
Trump’s latest scheme to enrich himself and his family is the most insidious because it exists in the unregulated and shadowy domain of the crypto world. On January 17, 2025, just a few days before his inauguration, Trump announced to his millions of followers on Truth Social that he was releasing his own crypto meme coin. Not to be left out of the latest Trump family scheme, the incoming first lady released her own crypto meme coin two days later.  DogecoinMeme Coins: Also known as meme tokens, meme coins are a type of cryptocurrency based on a meme or image. They have been around for about ten years. The first and best-known meme coin is Dogecoin, inspired by the popular meme of a Shiba Inu dog. Meme coins can be bought and sold on cryptocurrency exchanges alongside other digital assets, or cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. But unlike Bitcoin meme coins are not used as a form of currency and have no intrinsic value. Consider them as collectables such as trading cards or beanie babies in digital format. As with other collectables there are speculators who buy meme coins with the expectation that they will increase in value. But they are highly speculative, so buyer beware. Anyone can create their own meme coin and start selling them to the public for a very modest fee. If you are interested in creating your own meme coin, Pump.fun is a popular website to get started. For more on cryptocurrencies you can refer to my 2022 blog on the subject.  Trump Meme Coin: Trump Meme, sometimes referred to as Official Trump, has the trading symbol $TRUMP. Trump Meme is marketed with an image of Trump, fist raised in the air with the words “Fight, Fight, Fight” splashed across it. $TRUMP can be purchased through most cryptocurrency exchanges or through the Trump Meme website. According to the website one billion $TRUMP coins were created and so far 200 million have been released for sale in the open crypto market. The remaining coins will be released for sale over the next 36 months. The ownership of Trump’s meme coins is hidden behind limited liability companies controlled by the Trump family. Fight Fight Fight is the company that owns the official website for the meme coin, and Fight Fight Fight is owned by Trump’s CIC Digital and Celebration Cards. These two companies own the 800 million Trump coins yet to be sold. As of this writing the $TRUMP coin is trading for $18.89, bringing the value of the remaining coins to approximately $16 billion. The creators of the Trump meme coin receive a share of the trading fees, which can be quite lucrative. In the few short weeks that the coin has been trading the Trump controlled entities behind the coin have made an estimated $100 million in trading fees.  Influencing the Regulation of Cryptocurrencies: Currently there are no federal regulations governing the issuance and trading of meme coins, and federal regulations surrounding other cryptocurrencies are in flux. The Biden Administration attempted to build a comprehensive strategy for regulating digital assets like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies through Executive Order 14067: Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets. Three days after taking office President Trump revoked Biden’s Executive Order 14067 with an executive order of his own, titled “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology”. This executive order puts into motion Trump’s promise to make America the “Crypto Capitol of the World”. Its purpose is to create a friendly regulatory environment in which digital assets and related technologies can grow across all sectors of the economy. Trump’s new treasury secretary will oversee all provisions of this executive order.  True to his vision to make America the crypto capitol of the world, Trump is stacking his cabinet with crypto friendly secretaries. The new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is a former hedge fund manager with pro-crypto views. Paul Atkins, Trump’s pick to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, is a strong backer of cryptocurrencies, and his department will take a leading role in establishing regulations for digital assets. Howard Lutnick, Trump’s pick to head the Commerce Department, is the current CEO and principal owner of Cantor Fitzgerald, a New York Investment Bank with extensive dealings in the cryptocurrency space. Trump will essentially be selecting all the leaders whose agencies will be tasked with enforcing existing laws as well as developing new regulations for the cryptocurrency industry. Trump’s recent entry into the meme coin business is nothing short of a massive conflict of interest, one that could benefit him and his family handsomely.  Money Grab or Something More? The Trump family gets a cut of the fees generated from the buying and selling of every Trump meme coin. All information surrounding these transactions is encrypted and stored on the block chain. This means that there is absolutely no transparency surrounding the sale of these coins. There are no searchable transaction ledgers, no ownership certificates, no public records, and no way to trace the money flows in and out of any account holding Trump meme coins. As one investigative reporter from Bloomberg put it, “the Trump family crypto business offers anyone seeking favor with the new administration a legal way to send money directly to the president”. In a January 22, 2025, letter to the acting directors of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Jake Auchincloss detailed the inherent conflicts of interest and potential for foreign influence and corruption that the Trump meme coin creates. Their letter points out that Trump’s meme coin “opens the door to secretive foreign buyers seeking to curry influence with the administration, and the possibility of foreign emoluments clause violations”. I doubt that Senator Warren will ever have her letter answered or concerns assuaged.  As more and more Trump meme coins pour into the market there should be a ready source of buyers: individuals, companies and foreign entities looking to curry favor with the president. As a Washington Post reporter put it, “This meme coin has become the easiest, most convenient way to do that. The Saudis no longer need to stay at one of Trump’s hotels to line the president’s pockets, they can flash their digital wallet to show how much they boosted his net worth. After all, every dollar they put into propping up the value of Trump’s meme coin will effectively add cash to Trump’s bank account, emoluments clause be damned”.  The issuance and sale of the Trump and Melania meme coins are just the latest examples of how Trump and his family are using the presidency to build vast wealth. The conflict of interest that these meme coins present are glaring and the potential for corruption has enormous implications for the prestige of the presidency as well as for national security. Ordinarily a president’s team of lawyers and advisors would have steered him clear of such blatant conflicts. But Trump’s team of advisors was hand picked to rubber stamp any of his directives, legal or not.
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AuthorThe Armchair American. 
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