Armchair American Blog

The Art of the Con.

5/17/2025

While the press and most Americans have been distracted by President Trump’s assaults on the federal workforce, freedom of the press, free speech, universities, private law firms, and the rights of citizens and non-citizens in this country legally, Trump and his family have been busy enriching themselves. The recent news that Trump plans to accept a Boeing 747-8 jet valued at $400 million as a gift from the government of Qatar is a reminder that Trump is not constrained by the norms and ethics of past presidents.

It is no surprise that Trump is using the vast apparatus of the executive branch to reward his friends and punish his enemies. What is surprising is the extent to which he is abusing his position to generate billions of dollars for himself and his family and using the office of the presidency to legitimize it. If you care to look into the facts, it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in U.S. history.

The checks and balances built into the Constitution to prevent the abuse of power by a president are not working to restrain the corruption of Trump. His handpicked loyalists in the Department of Justice are more than willing to carry out his every wish and the Republican controlled House and Senate are loath to cross him. With a seemingly compliant Supreme Court and not having to face the voters again in a general election, Trump is falling prey to his worse instincts. Just a few months into his second term Trump has resorted to extortion to force compliance with his agenda, accepted bribes from entities wishing to curry favor, and softened regulations to enhance his business interests.

Below is a list of some of Trump’s most blatant corrupt acts. But I encourage you to dig deeper into this aspect of the Trump presidency and spread the word. Corruption will define the second Trump term!

Shakedown of Law Firms: Since taking office in January Trump has issued a series of executive orders targeting specific law firms that support his political opponents or have taken part in any legal actions against him. The executive orders threaten to revoke security clearances held by the firms' lawyers, barring the firms from government contracts, and preventing the firms' employees from entering government buildings. Several of these law firms have struck deals with the Trump Administration and have collectively pledged nearly a billion dollars in legal work to Trump approved causes. executive orders. This is extortion, plain and simple.

Accepting Bribes:

Amazon: Amazon is paying $40 million to license a new documentary on Melania Trump. She will be the executive producer of the documentary and receive the majority of the money. Jeff Bezos is the executive chairman of Amazon and is the head of the aerospace company Blue Origin. Blue Origin is dependent on government contracts to sustain its business, and Bezos has gone out of his way in recent months to curry favor with Trump.

Qatar: The oil rich country of Qatar has offered to gift the president a $400 million luxury jet, and it appears that Trump is going to accept it. In recent days he has said, “only a stupid person would say no”. This is an obvious bribe by the Qataris to garner good will with Trump. The problem is that it is a violation of Article 1, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution, which states in part, “no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall without the consent of Congress, accept any present, emolument, office or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince or foreign state.” Once Trump is out of office the ownership of the jet would transfer to his presidential library, so it will in no way benefit anyone but himself. To make the case of accepting the jet even more damning, it would cost an estimated $1 billion to retrofit the jet to the standards of an Air Force One.

Elon Musk: Books will be written about the conflicts of interest between Elon Musk and the Trump Administration, but I will narrow it down to a few. Musk contributed an estimated $250 million to Donald Trump’s reelection campaign and has recently disclosed that he will put $100 million into entities controlled by Trump’s political operation. Is this largess just another example of Musk’s altruism? Hardly! Trump is now going out of his way to support Musk personally and his many business ventures. We all remember the embarrassing episode with Trump and Musk hocking Tesla vehicles in front of the White House. But that is small potatoes in comparison to the billions that will be flowing Musk’s way in the form of government contracts, many of which are no-bid.
Musk’s work in the government as the head of DOGE has given him unprecedented access to the agencies that regulate his various companies and has provided him with inside information on the various contracts that he is vying for. Musk’s SpaceX will be awarded billions in new contracts this year from NASA and the Pentagon, as will his satellite company Starlink.
Now it appears as if the Trump Administration is strong arming foreign governments into signing contracts with Starlink to get more favorable trade deals with the U.S. According to Senate Democrats who are investigating the matter, “Suggesting that a foreign government adopt Starlink in exchange for relief on tariffs appears to be a textbook case of corruption.”

Paying for Access to the President: A new exclusive club will soon open in the Georgetown section of Washington D.C. headed by lead investor Donald Trump Jr. The club is aptly called “Executive Branch” because its members will have access to West Wing officials, cabinet officials, and Trump family members. Membership fees start at $500,000 and will require members to pass a loyalty test before being accepted. Expect to see Washington insiders, tech industry tycoons, Fox News celebrities and foreign dignitaries on the member’s list. I have to hand it to the Trump’s, they make the “Biden Crime Family” look like a bunch of amateurs.

Real Estate Deals with Foreign Countries: Working on behalf of the Trump Organization, Trump’s sons have been busy leveraging the Trump name across the Middle East by striking lucrative real estate deals. The Trump family gets hundreds of millions of dollars in upfront licensing fees and future revenue streams worth much more. In return these countries curry favor with the Trump family, particularly the man who owns the Trump Organization, President Trump. Let’s look at some of the deals that we know about.

United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.): The Trump Organization has inked a deal for an 80-story Trump Tower in Dubai.
Qatar: The country’s sovereign wealth fund is putting up $5.5 billion to build a Trump branded luxury golf resort in Doha.
Oman: The Trump Organization is partnering with Oman’s state-run tourism-development arm to build a Trump International Hotel and luxury golf course.
Saudi Arabia: The Trump organization is leasing its brand to two new real estate projects in Riyadh, the capitol of Saudi Arabia. Another deal includes the building of a Trump Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s largest city. Let’s not forget that last year Saudi Prince Mohammed invested $2 billion in the private equity firm of Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner.

Trump Crypto Businesses: Trump and his family have gone all in on crypto because this is where the real money is. Estimates of the current value of the Trump family crypto holdings are in the billions of dollars. Holding crypto currencies and starting crypto currency businesses is not illegal. But the use of the presidency to promote and benefit your personal business ventures is corruption. In addition to creating his own meme coins, Trump and related family entities have established several businesses in the crypto space, many of which have foreign investors. For his part the president has softened regulations on cryptocurrency and oversight has weakened sharply.

It is daunting to keep up with everything crypto related in Trump world, but here are a few recent developments.

Meme Coins: In a previous blog I wrote about the Trump meme coin ($TRUMP) and Melania meme coin ($MELANIA) as a convenient way to bride the sitting president. Since the launch of these meme coins in January, trading activity has generated over $324 million in trading fees, and the value of the coins controlled by Trump is over a billion dollars. Last month the president held a little contest to promote interest in his meme coin. The contest would reward the top 220 holders of Trump meme coins with a private dinner with Trump at a private club. The top 25 meme coin holders would also be able to attend a private reception with the president and participate in a VIP tour of the White House. In a matter of days buyers spent more than $174 million to buy $TRUMP coins, increasing its value by over 50%. Trump controlled entities own 80% of these coins, now valued at over $2 billion. Not a bad promotion for Trump. The contest winners paid up to $16.4 million to secure one of these dinner invites with the president. Many of the largest holders of the $TRUMP coins are foreigners or entities controlled by foreign governments. This blatant “pay for access” to the president is staggering in its audacity, even for Trump.
World Liberty Financial: This crypto company was established by the Trump’s in 2024 and is now valued in the billions of dollars. Justine Sun, a Chinese billionaire invested $30 million in World Liberty Financial soon after Trump started his second term. At the time Mr. Sun was under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a number of securities violations. The SEC dropped the case against Mr. Sun soon after his investment in World Liberty Financial. Justine Sun is now an advisor to the company. In Trump world following the rules is for suckers.
Middle East Ties: One of the U.A.E.’s state-backed investment firms recently purchased $2 billion of World Liberty Financial’s cryptocurrency, making this Arab nation the lead investor in Trump’s family-owned business. Would an investment of this size have been made if the president of the United States was not a party to the deal? I think you know the answer.

What’s to be Done? The president is on a tear to lock up as many lucrative deals for himself and his family while he still controls the reins of power. There are red flags everywhere with many of these deals, but can he be stopped? As Trump consolidates more power in the executive branch his abuse of power and corruption will only become more brazen. The main checks on the president’s actions lie within the Congress of the United States. The threat of impeachment was put into the Constitution to prevent a president from abusing his power and profiting from the position. But the Republican controlled House and Senate have turned a blind eye to Trump’s illegal and unethical actions. This makes them complicate in Trump’s corruption. Trump is free to continue to act without any constraints, and the American people and the reputation of the country will suffer as a result.

We must live with the current Congress for another year and a half, so Trump’s corruption will continue to go unchecked unless the American people say enough is enough. Most ordinary Americans yawn when you point out Trump’s unconstitutional executive orders, his illegal deportations, his attacks on colleges and universities or his vulgar behavior. But the issue of corruption is the thing that will bring Trump down if enough people know about it. This is the issue that the pro-democracy people and all American’s who are queasy about Trump’s actions should hang their collective hats on. It should be the rallying cry. All elected officials should be made aware of it, and of the consequences if they stand blindly by. Tell anyone you know about the corruption; the word needs to get out.

Donald Trump is schooling the American political class on the “Art of the Con”. He has gone where no U.S. president has ever gone and is enriching himself and his family at the expense of the American people and the reputation of this country. Trump is playing the American people for suckers, many of whom voted for him for very legitimate reasons. But they didn’t vote for him so they could be conned. They didn’t vote for him to become uber wealthy while they struggle with everyday expenses.

It's time for Americans to open their eyes to what is actually happening in Trump world and to spread the word. This can’t continue or the credibility and goodwill that America has built up over the decades will be destroyed and the country that we love will become another victim of Trump’s avarice.

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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Bribing the President has Gotten a Whole Lot Easier.

2/15/2025

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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.

Dogecoin

Meme 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.

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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The Art of the Con.

Bribing the President has Gotten a Whole Lot Easier.

Dogecoin

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