The Art of the Con.

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.
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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 bride 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.”

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​​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.
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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.
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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. 

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Thanks,
Armchair American