I’m driving down the interstate, following a pick up truck with an unlatched tail gate. The truck bed is stacked with all kinds of shit, rusty auto body parts, a couple of dented up home appliances, some red gasoline containers, paper lawn bags and plastic garbage bags that are for the most part unsealed, everything precariously perched and nothing tied down. Debris is starting to fly and a glob of leaves ricocheted off my windshield. WTF! Where are the cops when you need them? This guy driving is an irresponsible maniac.
That’s probably a common experience for a lot of us. It’s just not reality in this paritcular case. It’s just how I feel. It’s my metaphorical experience of dealing with Trump 2.0. Every day is new drama. I live in dread, waiting for the next thing to fall out of the truck. We knew there would be a lot of “number two” in Trump No. 2. But the stink is quite quickly becoming overwhelming. Name what offends you the most. Defying judges orders, deportations without due process, pardoning hundreds of Jan. 6th criminals? How about demanding judges be impeached or the suggestion he might make U.S. citizens “disappear? Maybe DOGE cuts to essential services and the attacks on health and science and the environment? A bipolar approach to tariffs or incompetent, unqualified cabinet memebers possibly? Third term anybody? The non-stop corruption, graft, and damage to our democracy and economy is mind-numbing and that is an advantageous adjuvant of Trump’s “flooding the zone” strategy- public complacency. I’ve always wondered how late night comedy programs, like Late Night with Seth Meyers, keep up with all the bull shit. They must go through a half dozen rewrites an episode.
But, really, where are the cops? Is there not somebody, some institution in government that will stand up to him. The only bullwark so far is the lower courts, but I hold my breath anytime there is a Supreme Court ruling on the horizon. More than anything their ridiculous immunity ruling enabled Trump’s unfettered pursuit of his autocratic agenda.
I can’t say that I’m actually a “lib”, but nevertheless the MAGA crowd can say they own me. Trump world is insanely depressing and provocitively infuriating. How I deal with it is by doing this. Writing. But adressing all that is Trump has to be accomplished segmentally. Otherwise you’re writing a book. I’ve been concentrating on Trump’s Middle East trip and already it’s a 6 page essay and old news. Suing Bruce Springsteen and Bayonce is apparently Trump’s current project. However, just in case you are not a mainstream media consumer but still inclined to desire some basic understanding of Trump’s recent corruption endeavors, here is information that I have accumulated.
The latest- a 400 million dollar jet. It’s a “gift” to Trump from the government of Qatar. Four or five days after the Middle East trip the White House spat out a spin claiming there was some kind of request from our government that initiated procurement of the plane. But that seems a bit far fetched in light of how Trump reacted to inquiries by the press. When an ABC reporter asked him if he thought the gift might be a conflict of interest, he reacted like a spoiled child, claiming he would be stupid not to accept it. And most revealingly he invoked the image of golfing legend Sam Snead nonchalantly accepting the gift of a “gimme” on a golf course green. His mind can only process in a basic, insular manner of privelged familiarity. If he wants something, obtaining it is all that matters. Interests of the country do not matter. The fact that Trump is open to receiving this gift but also argues that it is a prudent move clearly shows he is more than willing to accept more. How many things are wrong about this is probably longer than what comes to my mind, but here is what is obvious, It’s a fucking BRIBE! It’s pay for play from a country that in his first term Trump accused as being a “high level” funder of terrorism, specifically, Hamas. Trump’s pivot not only underscores the fact that to Trump what is important is his bottom line, not the interests of the country, but also the hypocracy is egregious. Trump is emboldening an antisemetic organization, something he has withheld federal funding from our universities for. It’s also a display of just how craven Trump is. Interests of the country do not matter. Nevermind what he calls free would cost taxpayers close to a billion dollars to strip it down and retrofit it to security and operational standards. That’s ok with him because he gets to keep it and he’s not paying for it.
My guess is all but the most entrenched MAGA supporters have to question this particular example of Trump’s unbridled avarice. For me, it is best explained by his underlying psychological processing. There is a strong link between narcissism and greed. Look it up. Narcissists often equate their self-worth with financial success, using greed as a way to self-validate. In short, he is fucked up in his head and when confronted with the temptation of materialistic gratification he can not controll himself. HERE is a great Times article about Trumpian grift. To help you out, below is a compressed list of the recent shiney objects of self-interest mentioned in the article.. All involve more money in Trump’s pocket and potential for foreign influence or even extortion.
Trump buildings contracted or being built in the Middle East:
>A luxury hotel and golf complex in Oman being built on government land
>A new deal to build a luxury golf resort in Qatar
>New Trump Tower in Dubai, UAE
>New Trump Tower in Jeddeh, Saudi Arabia
>New Trump Tower in Riyadh, Saudia ArabiaTrump has several other developments progressing in other foreign countries, at least a half dozen new ones in India. But what is going on in the Middle East is particularly eye catching in light of Arab favors granted to Trump and his family in the past. Trump netted at least 10 million dollars from Saudi purchases and visits to Trump properties during his first administration, and who can forget Qatar’s billion dollar bail out of Jared Kushner’s 5th ave 666 building. Kushner recently scored a 2 billion dollar investment from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund controlled by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. That relationship might have been strategically forged by Trump’s unconscionable defence of MBS, who according to the CIA was responsible for the brutal death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor and U.S. citizen.
Trump is in his element in the afluent Arab countries of the Middle East. He’s surrounded by gold-plated pomp and circumstance and picking up pointers on how to be an autocratic monarch. Adding to the atypical sleaziness of this trip is his kloptocratic entourage. Following Trump on his official visit were a who’s who listing of U.S. CEO’s. It was a billionair booster event, and Elon Musk made sure he took advantage by scoring a major Starlink deal with the Saudi’s. It’s great these businessmen are out there hustling, but doing so during an official presidential visit smacks of crony capitalism and just adds fuel to the fire that this trip was one that amounted to a personal interest bazaar for the priveliged rather than a normal one representing the interests of the American public. Particulary troubling are conflicts with national security, especially regarding the sale of AI. Purchase agreement details concerning semiconductor sales to the Saudis and UAE from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices are still unresolved. An unstable Arab world could create conflicting interests that induce the sales of U.S. chips to China. Maybe the strangest deal of the whole trip is Trump’s agreement to partner with the UAE to build the world’s largest data center outside the U.S. in Abu Dhabi. So much for keeping business in America,
Trump’s involvement in crypto is even worse. Besides the information about cryptocurrency shenanigans mentioned in the Times article, here is another from the Verge. Pedaling the Peloton of Influence (Short cut below)
This is so fucked up and crypto is so polyonymous, and inscrutable, making any sense of this or cryptocurrency in general is kind of a futile task for me. But here is my best shot at a synopsis of Trump’s recent crypto adventures:
>The top 220 holders of his meme coin $Trump (also called Trump coin) get the privelege of joining him for an upcoming dinner. Net for Trump- over 140 million dollars.
>Trump can hardly loose with his Trump coin. He (the Trump Organization) and his partners (not sure who they are) rack up investment fees for every exchange. The big loosers are the over 800,000 general investors in the first few weeks of trading. Score: Trump and his partners- 100 million profit. 823,294 public investors- 2 billion in losses. The coin plummeted from $75 to $16 initially. What better way to snap that around than to have investors bid on dinner with the Prez.
>Shady crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun conveniently had an SEC lawsuit paused after he invested 30 million in World Liberty Financial, which is the Trump company that sells the coins.
>Trump signed an executive order deregulating the cryptocurrency industry just as his family launched digital currency ventures.
>The SEC chairman, Paul Atkins, is a crypto advocate.
>World Liberty is co-founded by Zack Witkoff, son of Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff
>A firm associated with the Abu Dhabi government purchased $2 billion in World Liberty
>Trump owns $5 million of Ethereum, a token 2nd in popularity to Bitcoin
>Trump disbanded the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, and ordered the Market Integrity and Major Fraud Units to stop cryptocurrency enforcement.
Of all Trump’s grifting his crypto involvement has got to be the most concerning. The industry is fraught with systemic problems . Fraud, risky loans, money laundering, daily hacks and other problems are frequent occurances, and Trump’s dinner invite is an in your face violation of the emoluments clause- people from every part of the world buying up Trump coins to compete for access to the president. “Crypto currency markets are full of fake trading orchestrated by insiders to boost tokens and prices arificially and cheat unsuspecting investors.” (from Mark Hayes, director for crypto and fintech at Americans for Financial Reform). Crypto is the ultimate swamp asset, and Trump has found in it a way to conceal much of his grift from the public.
Not that he seems embarrassed about his blantant avarice. Besides the stuff already mentioned, since he has been president he has branded and sold all sorts of things- bibles, watches, fragrances, digital trading cards, guitars. His LIV golf business gives him ample opportunity to mix pleasure with profit. (So far in his 2nd term, Trump has spent over 20% of his time on one of his golf courses). Of course the grifting is intertwined with all the other shit-flooding of the zone, so half the country probably has no idea of how flagrant it is. Likewise there’s a good chance the Maga crowd missed Trump’s cautionary suggesion that in light of his trade policies we should prepare to tighten our belts and watch our spending this Christmas while he contempltes flying around on a gilded 400 million dollar jet. Let them eat cake! The planet is juicing Trump bank accounts, but because all the grift and corruption is out in the open, House Speaker Johnson says everything is perfectly fine.
So the Republicans, who spent years and millions on investigations searching for the illusive corruption connection between Joe Biden and his son Hunter, see nothing wrong with Trump’s entangled corruption with his family business because he is so openly proud about it?
Where are the cops? They didn’t show up last time on Jan. 6th when he kept driving a full size sedan after the bunji cord that was securing an entire dining room set, old mattress and refrigerator on top broke and scattered all over the hi way creating a 50 car pile up that ultimately killed a few people and injured over a hundred more. So I guess we shouldn’t count on them to show up now.
Afterthought: If you get a chance, read “I Should Have Seen This Coming”- an Atlantic article by David Brooks. I think it is a great sumation of how half the country feels living in Trump’s USA nowadays. The George Orwell reference is particularly prescient. I am rereading 1984 right now- 75th anniversary edition. I would link the Brooks article but I think you have to subscribe. But I think you can google it.