Trump Just Took Us Somewhere the Country Has Never Been Before
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Donald Trump has been thinking a lot about his place in history. That’s one of the reasons, according to recent reporting by The Atlantic and The Times , why he’s paying so little attention to his plummeting popularity and so much attention to remodeling Washington in his own image. But there’s no arch high enough, no ballroom gilded enough, to distract from the mountain of corruption he’s constructing.
This week’s announcement of a $1.8 billion government slush fund — ostensibly for victims of what Mr. Trump has called the Justice Department’s “weaponization,” but almost certainly destined for his allies — guarantees it. The president may wish to be considered in the same class as Napoleon or Alexander the Great, but he is in danger of turning himself into the next Mobutu Sese Seko or Mohamed Suharto: a kleptocrat remembered not for his ideas, not for his power, but for his greed .
Mr. Trump has devoted a large portion of his second term to enriching himself and his family with foreign and private funds: the crypto deals, the rapid-fire stock trades, the Boeing 747 he accepted as a gift from Qatar. But until recently, there was no evidence that his most brazen capers involved taking actively, directly from you and me. That changed when he, two of his sons, and the Trump family business sued the U.S. government for $10 billion over the leak of their tax returns.
In effect, Mr. Trump, the private citizen, was suing President Trump, the head of the executive branch. He didn’t bother to pretend it made sense: “ I’m supposed to work out a settlement with myself ,” he quipped to reporters. Surprise, surprise, that settlement was really sweet. The 10-figure “ anti-weaponization fund ” is a new low: Mr. Trump plunging his bruised hands into public accounts and scooping out money.
Trump supporters convicted of crimes connected to the Jan. 6 riots could get large spoonfuls . But the Trump clan looks to be the biggest beneficiaries of all: As part of the settlement, the U.S. government is barred from prosecuting or further auditing the taxes of the Trumps or their family business. That saves the Trumps from penalties that some estimate could have reached as high as $100 million or beyond. More than that, it functionally puts the family beyond the reach of the law in these tax cases. The order is intended to last, according to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, “ FOREVER .”
“Just in terms of sheer dollars, this is the most corrupt action in American history,” says Brendan Ballou, a former Justice Department special counsel. He’s representing a pair of police officers injured during the Capitol riots who are suing in federal court to stop the fund. “This may be the most infamous thing that Donald Trump does beyond Jan. 6, 2021.”
Mr. Trump is the defining political figure of the last decade. But despite his enormous influence, he’s had relatively few legacy-making accomplishments. As the Times Opinion columnist Ezra Klein has noted , Mr. Trump has preferred, especially in this second term, not to enact sweeping policies, but to make small-bore deals — especially if those bargains require the other side to bend the knee. He’s bullied specific schools, rather than remaking the educational system; and cut bargains with a few drug retailers, rather than recasting the U.S. government’s relationship with Big Pharma. He hasn’t been able to break NATO, not yet. And thankfully, his administration is a long way from millions of deportations. (So far, only Mr. Trump’s Supreme Court appointments and their warped decisions have amounted to truly historical changes.)
But openly monetizing the presidency — that’s a true Trump innovation. You have to go back at least a hundred years, to the administrations of Warren Harding or Ulysses Grant, to find anything remotely similar. And no one ever accused President Harding of minting memecoins. “This isn’t the ‘honest graft’ of Tammany Hall — corruption as the price paid for public improvement,” the Times’ Jamelle Bouie noted. “ It is petty theft .”
This new slush fund — set up with minimal guardrails, not even a definition of what constitutes “weaponization” — could take all the ethical disasters of the pardon market and multiply it by, well, 1.8 billion. Just think what people might be willing to do to get this money, and what Mr. Trump might get in return.
This fund would institutionalize that ethical disaster. Forget the one-off deals or the handshakes at the 18th hole. This would make cronyism an official function of the federal government, a U.S. Agency for Corruption.
MAGA die-hards like the election-denying MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindel l and the political operative Michael Caputo are already expressing interest in cash from the kitty. Some of Mr. Trump’s most dangerous supporters are likely to jump in behind them.
“The primary risk is that this money is going to be used to fund paramilitary organizations that are loyal to the president,” Mr. Ballou said. “The financial support for violence, that is going to be the most important thing, and it’s fundamentally new and different from, say, the Qatari jet.”
That could include the five members of the Proud Boys who sued the government for $100 million last year, claiming “ political persecution ” after their conviction for their role in the Jan. 6 riot in which 140 law enforcement officers were injured. It could also include the heads of the Oath Keepers, a group with an even longer record of violence .
The self-described “ American terrorist ” Andrew Paul Johnson was convicted of his role in the Capitol riots, pardoned by Trump and subsequently found guilty of molesting two children . To silence his victims, he is said to have promised them a share of the millions he said he was about to get from the federal government for being a “ Jan. 6er .”
On Tuesday, Democratic senators asked Mr. Blanche for assurances that an abusive felon like Mr. Johnson or an extremist group like the Oath Keepers would be barred from receiving payments from the $1.8 billion fund. Mr. Blanche declined, saying the decision would be up to a five-person commission. (All five members will be appointed by him, Mr. Blanche noted, and Mr. Trump has the power to fire any at will.)
If political violence committed in the president’s name is not only tolerated but actively rewarded, it could take this already bleak timeline somewhere much, much darker.
What could stop such a scenario from coming to pass is how legally questionable it all appears to be. As a former deputy assistant attorney general, Harry Litman, has pointed out, federal lawsuits require a conflict between two parties , a hurdle the “conflict” between Mr. and President Trump wouldn’t seem to clear. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution bars the government from paying “any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States,” which would appear to bar payments to people who attacked the Capitol in an effort to overturn an election. The Hyde Amendment of 1997 allows for people who have prevailed against malicious charges by the government to sue and recoup funds , but “it can’t apply to the insurrectionists who were all rightly convicted,” said Jason Manning, a former Justice Department prosecutor who tried both Jan. 6 and fraud cases. Hence the value to Mr. Trump, Mr. Manning said, of “a slush fund divorced from law.”
So maybe this particular scheme gets blocked by the courts. Either way, Mr. Trump’s scheming will define him and his family. When he leaves office, the Trump name will most likely be stripped from the Kennedy Center. The challenge coins he’s affixed to the White House doors will no doubt be stripped away. His “enhancements” to the Oval Office may eventually be remodeled away. All that will be left is his reputation. Mr. Trump has made that synonymous with corruption forever.
Tags
Who is online
77 visitors
Trump was only mentioned 31 times ... that makes him off-topic ... /s
I doubt we will get a single "conservative" on NT that will come on this seed and give a decent defense for what Trump is doing.
I don't consider myself to be a conservative or to be a liberal, but because I have individual personal feelings for all issues I don't feel bound by what is considered "correct" depending on political loyalties. In fact, on a test I was determined to be a "centrist", so my comments can be criticized by both sides on such issues. Proof? After voting conservative for more than 40 years (Liberal Pierre Elliott Trudeau was my previous hero) I voted liberal again for Carney.
IMO, an attempt to change the Iran regime was NOT a mistake, and in fact I consider it to be a necessity. However, as I often do, borrowing a line from a movie, in the movie Across the Universe Jude said "It's not what you do, it's the way in which you do it." Trump BLEW it, he blew it SO BAD. He told the Iranian people to revolt and he would support them. So they DID revolt, and Trump was nowhere to be found. So what happened, many were killed, nany arrested, and the regime continued. The Great Leader was assassinated, and the regime continued. Now it doesn't matter how many leaders are assassinated, because Trump will never be trusted by the Iranian people again.
MAGA King Trump can look at his own ideology that he and his subjects are pushing to see why what he is attempting with Iran is not working. . . so far. Iran has an ideology and as such that won't change unless the national leadership there decides to move away from its ideology. If Iran is 'stuck' in an ideological frame and state of mind. . . as MAGA king is stuck. . . this is truly going to get worse or go nowhere good.
Why? Because the evident is clear (think North Korea President Kim Jung Un), Trump has not forgotten President Kim and he won't be attacking him or threatening to replace President Kim either on any of those "trumped up" charges he is getting know for writing in order to invade sovereign nations! Nuclear weapons in one's storehouse makes a tyrant rethink his goals.
North Korea is not threatening the existence of Israel, nor are North Koreans being led to call America "The Big Satan" and chanting "Death to America".
North Korea has threatened to to use nuclear weapons against the United States and South Korea (where America has troops). I believe the wording was, "Sea of fire." Granted, they are proverbially quiet this term like a church house mouse, or we should wonder what they are up to that intelligence and satellites are not telling us. Yet, no mention by Trump of his "friend, Chairman Kim" whatsoever. Yet, the US taunts every other nation (including its long-term allies in Europe).
Why?
No "trumped up" charges rendered to facilitate and serve as justification for attack?
Plainly: Nuclear weapons. Nations that have them do not get attacked.
To be clear, I am not for Iran. I am only making a point as to why Iran' ideology highly probably can not AFFORD stopping reaching for nuclear weapons.
If Iran did not continue threatening other nations and using its proxies to continuously attack Israel as it has been doing there would be no reason for it to NEED nuclear weapons to protect itself from attack by others,
Friend Buzz, that is a presumption. Ukraine, has been 'attacked' for multiple years now by a nuclear power since it gave up its nuclear weapons in 1994. Now, I can't prove it. . .still, it strikes me that their 'siege' may not have been attempted and their resolve tested this long had they kept what they 'had.'
Again, I am not arguing on behalf of Iran. I am pointing out just how hard it is for any nation to change its ideological worldview! We can never say what somebody else will never: "do," "get," or "start." It is a poor student that never learns to not believe in what other people can accomplish if they concentrate their efforts.
Our president, MAGA King Trump, is taunting Iran leader and by extension the Iranian people with his 'fits and starts' of war action and rhetoric. People throughout time memorial have learned to work 'in the gaps' - when they feel they are being 'toyed with' by another.
Just look at the so-called "free-est nation-or one of them anyway-the United States as it strives to bring back its complicated past conservative worldview. A worldview that it apologized to victims, and children of victims, only to manifest itself through this president.
How many years has it been, and how many years will it be to see who will actually end up the winner of the Ukraine conflict, notwithstanding who has nuclear weapons and who does not. Sometimes it's good enough to have friends who are willing to defend you.
Although you have been taught to believe that the USA is the "free-est" nation, I doubt that everyone in the USA agrees these days that it is. Maybe it actually IS a good thing for America to have a "Second Amendment" - especially when its leader seems to be trying his best to provoke it.
Hmmm, I wrote: ". . . so-called "free-est" nation-or one of them anyway. . . ." I realize that freedom is relative. . .and, especially these days in the United States. . .our nation ain't as free as we think. Furthermore, the more freedom/s we lose to this present conservative "movement" it INFORMS me of one thing I never really thought about before: The citizens of the United States were not truly free in the early 200 conservative years of our history.
Why? Because conservatives CONSTRAIN themselves to fit into a cultural frame. . . which they create and persist in keeping. And make vain and substantive attempts and actions to compel liberals to CONSTRAIN their liberties to match.
Like MAGA King Trump's "on today - maybe tomorrow" approach? We do know and can agree that when leaders are 'wishy-washy' about war. . .it creates 'gaps' where more people can and do die that otherwise would occur.
Thought question: Would Russia have attacked Ukraine had it kept its nuclear weapons capacity?
An interesting descriptive concept.
There is only one who knows the answer to that...
The Shadow looks agitated. . . can you ask him for me?
Here's what we do know (without the Shadow): Nuclear countries do not attack each other—including North Korea and South Korea's facilitated nukes (U.S. nuclear "umbrella" covering it).
The problem is that most nations are surrounded by other nations that could be allies of the one that would launch the nukes. Japan was fairly isolated. If a nuke were aimed at Iran it would affect a lot of other nations. But my concern, and apparently Trump's, is there are some who are known to consider death by another's fire to be the entrance to a heaven where there are 72 virgins to satisfy every man, maybe the those men aren't so concerned about retaliation and their own lives.,
I was watching a movie (can't recall the name right this moment) and in it - the 'joke' was: The man taking away the life of a terrorist explained to him he was going to "heaven" and 72 men are waiting for 'the Virgin' ( him ) to arrive!
Seriously , a funny thing happens on the path to nuclear 'mass destruction' - many nations participating in nuclear weaponization realize. . . they have a lot to live for once proliferation abilities are achieved. That is, weapons of mass destruction - nuclear class-ironically or seriously makes nations do a 'reality check' of their heart, soul, and livelihood! We have the 'receipts' in that will all the nations such material knowledge and weaponry has been shared. . .only us the 'founder' nation has exploded them on a 'neighbor.'
A NEIGHBOUR???? The leader of that "neighbour" wants now to join the nuclear club, notwithstanding that her nation passed laws after WW2 about remaining peaceful, and her people are demonstrating about STAYING peaceful. She pays tribute at the memorial for the soldiers of The Rape of Nanjing and the "medical" (as in Mengele) perpetrators at Unit 731.
Not sure what to discuss about Japan's 'wants' in the present as that was not the point being expressed. (It is a separate point which can be considered at some other time.)
Not that it matters in the present,. . . The United States shared nuclear technology (for civilian usages) with Iran during the Shah of Iran years in office-hoping to 'contain' its ambitions for nuclear bombs by doing so. After the Shah's deposing by the Iranian people. . . nuclear research and development for military purposes started on its own.
Still, such historical matters are 'spilt milk' and can not be put back as before.
When MAGA King Trump talks about Iran not getting a nuclear weapon. . . he can only be talking about during his second term. . . as it is the only time he will have control over the government to try to make it manifested as so.
Nations old as Iran play a long(er) game than in four-year increments. Don't they?
Buzz, what I am sharing is this. . . whether we like it or not. . .experience has taught both you and me I am sure that when the human mind conceives a desire. . .the same human minds, plural, set about to make it reality. Therefore, Iran, odds show will ultimately have what it desires in nuclear weaponry. . . one way or another.
The question for the world at that time will be will it use it to destroy or as defense from national attack. Only time can tell us what the answer to such a question will be. That is, the world will have to 'wait and see' what the thought process will be in the end—no pun intended.
A good conclusion. Thanks for the discussion. Now I'll return to posting articles that are of little interest to the members here.
all I'll really care about is the ongoing and relentless harassment of his immediate family members and friends that will deservedly suffer for the rest of their lives, when eventually that traitorous bag of shit croaks and hopefully begins composting inside a block of concrete, placed inside a shipping container, and then sunk somewhere at the bottom of the mid-atlantic. although the idea of the wannabe mob boss being part of one of the foundations in one of his forthcoming monuments to himself, strongly appeals to me as well and would be hilarious poetic justice.
This is not a legal settlement. Already we have one group suing to stop disbursement of funds and most of Congress grumbling about how it was done. I don't think it will stand, especially if the GOP loses the House in Nov.
Mike "Pillow Man" Lindell is applying for reparations from the Justice Dept. based on Trumps slush fund.
SMH.
Same for that woman being commuted in Arizona that breached all of those voting machines.
tina peters in colorado probably figures she's a shoe-in for the traitor bonus too, now that her 9 year sentence was commuted.
My favorite sentence from the article -
I want that stupid thing about trmp never having to be audited ever overturned. With extreme prejudice!
I do believe that is coming.
Then he will re-sue the Irs for the records leak.
I hope it goes to trial and the IRS is ordered to pay him $1.00 .
If it actually goes to trial I hope he loses and is ordered to reimburse the government for their litigation costs. And attorney's fees (potentially payable if it is determined that the losing party acted in bad faith).
AI Overview
This article discusses the costs that a losing party in federal court might be obligated to pay:
I heard the Kars-For-Kids jingle might be free! They can start running the ads for Kash-4-Konservative-Karens!
"1-877-Kash-4-Karens"
"K-A-S-H Kash for Karens"
"Donate Your Kash Today!"
I think it would be a wonderful idea to rename cities and towns for the Dear Leader all over the country.
Trump New York
Trump Los Angeles
Trump Chicago
Trump Boston
Trump Miami
Trump Atlanta
Trump Seattle
Or even states--
Trump Texas
Trump Oklahoma
Trump Ohio
The possibilities are endless.
Magas will love it!
Trump City
Leading to the Great Garbage Avalanche of 2505...
Trump, making garbage 'Great Again' since 2016...
From "Idiocracy"
Just watched that movie a couple of weeks ago
wtf? we're living it ...
... yeah, why confine his name to sewage treatment plants. /s
So MAGA supporters are finally getting MAGA King Trump abused! It is clear they do not like to be pissed on. . . so why were MAGA supporters so keen to let MAGA King Trump abuse everybody else?
Whatever MAGA King Trump giveth. . . MAGA King Trump taketh away (with interests)!
Karma!
Blocking the view of Arlington cemetery with a hideous archway that's a copycat of the Arc De Triomphe in France is just an assault on our Veterans.
That isn't making America great.
There should be nothing blocking the view of one of our National Treasures like Arlington.
Trump doesn't respect our troops and he made light of the lives lost in his Iran "war" that both is and isn't a "war".
At this point MAGA is a cult if they care so little for Veterans that they won't stand up and protest blocking the view of Arlington with a Trump vanity project.
Speak on it!
They are a cult whether they oppose the arch or not.
trump doesn't give a fuck about veterans and the veterans that support him now are proven traitors to their oath of service, period.
Amen!
bless you my child ...
Democrats have rewarded their allies with tens of billions in legal slush funds since Obama. They voted down a Republican attempt to ban them in 2017.
Trump is, once again, playing the game like a Democrat and they can't stand it.
Well, as you are fully aware not all things that LOOK similarly alike are the same: Think jellyfish and Portuguese Man of War. Think seals and sealions. Think single use plastic bags and multiple use plastic bags. . . shall I go on? Degrees matter. Positives matter. Negatives matter.
So to blanketly state that what a democrat does for a positive outcome can be blindly copied into a republican negative outcome is faulty reasoning. And yes, "we" are aware that MAGA King Trump and his minions are mimicking democrats actions for their own (negative) outcomes.
What you need to be aware of is. . .the game can't work as people will get harmed. . . on both sides from each perspective. . .and that is Morally Wrong.
The fact is if republicans want to utilize a 'slush fund' for ballrooms and 'reparations' it could go through a proper congressional Oversight review and vote in the House so we can all know who agrees and disagrees about it. So, whatsoever consequences are the outcome. . . we will all have had a say in it.
If only the Democrats had supported it 10 odd years ago, that would be the case. But they had billions to give away to their friends...
Well anachronistic thinking can distort the present REALITY, and it serves no good purpose to long for by-gone times. In "The Wizard of Oz" - the scarecrow wishes for a brain. . . Does MAGA King Trump and his minions wish for a Time Machine?
Considering how Trump is the first to break so many rules and just bulldozing the Whitehouse grounds and creating slush funds to pay off the hundreds of violent convicted criminals he pardoned who had attacked security officers and the capital on his behalf, how is this him "being a Democrat' when Democrats have never done ANYTHING like that in the history of our nation? Not even when the prior rightwing conservative Christian Southern Democrats were loud and proud of their prejudice did they do anything so egregious. I'm almost afraid to ask how far up Trumps ass one would have to be to imagine some sort of equivalence. But then again, many Trumplodytes are proud of how far they've climbed up their dear Leaders criminal colon, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
looks like magas have found their own safe space ...
Proclamation 179—Granting Full Pardon and Amnesty for the Offense of Treason Against the United States During the Late Civil War | The American Presidency Project
Okay, so I guess there was that one time...
as time has proven, letting traitorous confederate goobers off the hook was a grave mistake ...
except for firing on Ft Sumter and starting the Civil War.
There was no settlement. Trump et al. dropped the case before the court could rule on whether there was even a live controversy left to resolve. After that, Trump’s own Justice Department announced a $1.776 billion payout mechanism and called it a settlement.
Calling it a settlement does not make it one.
This is pure, bald-faced corruption. Your argument is a non sequitur buttressed by a whataboutism. Even if Democrats previously defended questionable settlement structures, that does not make this arrangement legitimate.