What’s been built is a parallel revenue structure where sovereign wealth funds, defense contractors, and crypto exchanges pay into the same family enterprise that controls regulatory and military policy. The price of access to the U.S. government is now denominated in investment stakes and jet donations.
The mechanism is more Gulf than Roman. The line between sovereign and personal wealth dissolves, and the state becomes a vehicle for dynastic accumulation.
The silence from the opposition isn’t surprising. “Everyone does it” is the most powerful immunization against accountability ever devised. Once it takes hold, exposure becomes irrelevant. That belief wasn’t organic, it was cultivated.
The coins are the tell. That’s a statement of permanence.
If there is a bigger grift in the history of this country’s presidents, we have never heard about it. Previously, we saw pure power grabs. This is both blatant stealing and abuse of power. Adam, are there people outside of our equally corrupt justice department preparing for the departure and arrest of these criminals? Meaning the day after they leave, will they be prosecuted? The case against them just from an outsider’s perspective, appears very clear cut. The evidence is staring us all in the face.
Sadly i expect a cry of partisan lawfare against the great trump family at the first mention of accountability. It will be difficult to choose what the people go after. I don’t think it’s going to be easy.
Would it be possible to claw back some of that stolen money to tear down the ballroom and rebuild the East Wing? Take his horrendous name off the buildings in D.C. and restore some sense of normalcy? And God help anyone who tries to give me one of those horrid $1 coins, chances are I'd throw it back in their face.
Trump has turned the once-respected (and once dignified) office of the US presidency into a game show, or a reality TV show, depending on the day you're watching. Everything is about "making a deal" -- for Trump's ego or personal gain -- and many of us find it vulgar and disgusting, not to mention corrupt.
but 78 million voters and 80 million non-voters were ok with the gamble....and chose not to research his very public history of racism, corruption, sexual predation, hatred of unions, business failures (where he was not financially impacted - others he conned were the big losers) and excessive ego maniacal behavior.....
it seems our perception of this travesty is definitely a small minority perception.
But he only won by 1.6% and a lot of those voters NOW realize they were fooled.
— Musk money, Musk & Barron’s online appeals to young men, ‘the price of eggs’ low-info consumers who didn’t realize there had been big chicken culls due to avian flu etc. etc. Plus the slackers who ‘sat this one out’ because they couldn’t vote for a woman, esp a Black one! — many of them NOW realize the price to be paid.
I hate to sound like them but 2024 was absolutely stolen. He could NOT afford to lose. Nor could all of his billionaire toadies. What an absolutely despicable country we have become.
yes, our country has been raped by the wealthy and the powerful. i don’t agree the election was stolen, i think that after trump 1.0 many independents thought they’d try dems again to see if anyone could get the economy going and make life better. covid as a trump co-conspirator made things worse (and people conveniently ignored the fact that trump did not take covid seriously nor the power it would have on damaging our economy…and the world’s). the modern day scourge of human ‘extreme’ short term memories meant that 4 years later those same people flipped again thinking trump was better than biden and the dems at economics (he was alos better at propaganda as well as being a corrupt liar). now that those people are once again having economic pain, they’ll switch again to the dems in the mid terms…who will not be able to fix the economy in the short 2 year span until the next prez election…so who knows what the fickle/idiotic/flea-brained voters will do next?
our political system leaves everything in the hands of politicians (choosing how to spend our tax $, where they spend it, and who to favor) so we will go through this mess quite often….until one of the parties devises a way for ‘we the people’ to be involved in how we want the budget spent….. yes there are ways/ideas, but the politicians won’t consider any of them because anything that takes power away from politicians and gives it to ‘the people’ will be rejected.
in this day and age, young people decide how to live their live’s app-by-app….and even the starbucks generation insist on the opportunity of deciding ingredient-by-ingredient….but in politics it’s still one-size-fits-all in terms of the policies and promises. if ‘we the people’ don’t think outside-the-box, the politicians will never derail the lucrative congressional gravy train they ride (paid for by our tax $).
I am not implying millions didn’t vote for him, but Elon helped get him the win. And the apathy of 70, 80 million eligible voters in this election is also to blame.
But all of your points are well made. Until we get a FDR Democrat (along with a sprinkle of DDE) again, this country is screwed. The Dems MUST de-corporatize themselves.
How long can this Congress/Administration remain silent? Will the conspirators (those who were in power and complicit) be brought to justice as well as The Felon, his administration and those in GOP power? When does this break?
I cannot understand how anyone in government who has a conscience can let all of this dishonesty happen and not act to end it. What will it take to bring him down? What is horrible enough to make Congress and the Judiciary sick enough to pull the plug? Thank you for your excellent coverage of what is going on.
When Trump says he is allowed to he refers to SCOTUS who he thinks says he is allowed to do whatever he wants without fear of prosecution. So we don’t have their help. But without the Congress complaining what we can do is replace the Congress. This is their job.
Right now, in terms of proper governance, it is hard to tell the difference between the USA and a third-rate Banana Republic, which is the way we we are going unless the current course is corrected with serious consequences for those who have engaged or allowed this kind of outrageous, wholesale selling out of the interests of the USA and its people.
an excellent 'summary' and complete mind fcuk - thank you!
unfortunately, american 'morality' has changed forever.
the fact that actual 'humans' voted for the most corrupt and immoral person in our history, really just shines the light on the voters lack of morality.
morality is something we learn from early childhood and into our teens, from family, friends, community....lying, cheating, bullying, theft, disrespect, violence, discrimination, corruption.
and then there are the laws that we learn should be adhered to (especially if we are so-called-supporters-of-law-enforcement-employees) like murder, kidnapping, torture, insider trading etc...
i really don't care how many excuses you make for trump repugnicans and their voters.....they all willingly suffocated their innate morality to 'believe' in trump's 'self-proclaimed' status as being good, honest, moral.
there is a percentage of the voting public who are as thick as a brick - about everything (we should have a law that bricks are not entitled to vote...only humans with functioning brains)...
the rest of his cult are just living proof that morality is non existent in a very large segment of our population.
morality is not based on who will give me the largest tax cut or the most 'free' benefits, but in modern american society, it seems to be one and the same.
once society has dug the hole of immoral and unethical behavior, it will continue to gain depth and width.....
this is where we are....and we should not fool ourselves otherwise.
trump opened pandora's box, let all the white supremists and the allied self-serving greed of billionaires of all walks of life, to be the example of what 'the rest of us' should aspire to.
as the saying goes, once pandora's box is opened and evil is let out, you can never put in back in the box and close the lid.
trump, putin, nyetan-yahoo are all catalysts for societies to be 'OK' with complete and utter immorality.
where does that leave the rest of us....naively hoping? cautiously optimistic? looking for somewhere else to live? i just don't know anymore....
hmmmmm. family may be the reason why so many independents and latinos voted trump 2.0….. and those who listen to trump ‘mouthy-shit-stirer-podcasts’ actually have no idea of morality themselves, so they’ll just pass down the ‘new’ (im)morality to the rest of the family.
Adam, one small suggested edit. With the trumps' incessant grifting, we literally "cannot see the trees for the forest." Their mobster goal, IMHO, is to become so dense that light can never penetrate the darkness. You did an amazing job listing their many many many cons and steals. However, this is likely just the outside fringe of their relentless self-dealing corruption. Remember, trump embedded doge to scrape our most sensitive -- and enormously valuable -- personal data. 300,000,000+ people. Kaching!
I always thought the saying was, "We can't see the forest THROUGH the trees". Since editing is being mentioned, I didn't want to be that person but another suggested edit would be that this summer marks our 250th anniversary, not 275th 😉. If Adam sees this, we know what you meant. There was another one which says "the Trump"... Obviously meant to say "Trump" or "the Trumps". Again, we know what he meant... I certainly am not trying to be "that" social media user. No one likes a Grammar Nazi... 😅🫣
Thanks Adam for being brave enough going indepth of this corruption. I don't understand how magaites can't see that it is we, the taxpayers, are paying for this grift. The one thing that brings me comfort is that those chasing and scheming for the most wealth are never truly happy! God bless you and your family 🙏🏻! You truly deserve happiness!
The Iran war orchestrators for profit: The Saudi crown prince, dumb Trump and his 2nd in command con man Jared. No doubt in my mind. The Saudis are paying the Trumps huge billions to attack Iran, ostensibly support Israel, who was conducting ongoing attacks to Iran anyways, with or without the US, all the while increasing Saudi oil value. The crown prince is the puppeteer, and quite a lethal, violent one at that. And so easy to bring on Kegseth, stupido and incompetent, as well as the rest of the Cabinet idiots. We taxpayers are forking over our hard-earned dollars for the Saudis, who stole our aircraft, killed 3000 of our citizens, and blew up our financial buildings on 9/11. Does Trump care? Absolutely not, as long as the billions are flowing into his offshore bank accounts. Treason all the way, and the GOP Congress does nothing.
Adam - great series - very helpful to have the grift and graft accounted for in one place since it is so overwhelming. However, I wonder about your quote: “… astounding is the silence of the Democrats, much of the press, and most of the public.” What? I hear Dems talk about the Trump graft all the time. Please don’t reinforce the sense that nobody cares. Lots of people care. Lots of people are taking account. Lots of people are hoping we’ll have oversight power in 2027 and will be able to hold them accountable, somehow, in 2029.
Yes, agreed. Just out of interest, I did a quick search on WaPo to see if I could find a smidgen of criticism of Trump’s corruption and the results were dire. 5 or 6 years ago you could find articles. In the last year there is almost nothing or it hedges or makes light of the corruption.
The republicans have accepted taking corruption to extreme levels because they were accustomed to the modest corruption that existed before trump. The lavish presents (bribes), insider stock trades, future high paid jobs, the I scratch your back and you scratch mine attitude that has progressively gotten worse over sooooo many years. The democrats will fight to roll back some of the corruption, but they only want to return to the more modest level of corruption that has been the oligarch's Washington. Professors Martin Gilens (Princeton University) and Benjamin I. Page (Northwestern University) looked at more than 20 years worth of data to answer a simple question: Does the government represent the people? the answer was no
What’s been built is a parallel revenue structure where sovereign wealth funds, defense contractors, and crypto exchanges pay into the same family enterprise that controls regulatory and military policy. The price of access to the U.S. government is now denominated in investment stakes and jet donations.
The mechanism is more Gulf than Roman. The line between sovereign and personal wealth dissolves, and the state becomes a vehicle for dynastic accumulation.
The silence from the opposition isn’t surprising. “Everyone does it” is the most powerful immunization against accountability ever devised. Once it takes hold, exposure becomes irrelevant. That belief wasn’t organic, it was cultivated.
The coins are the tell. That’s a statement of permanence.
If there is a bigger grift in the history of this country’s presidents, we have never heard about it. Previously, we saw pure power grabs. This is both blatant stealing and abuse of power. Adam, are there people outside of our equally corrupt justice department preparing for the departure and arrest of these criminals? Meaning the day after they leave, will they be prosecuted? The case against them just from an outsider’s perspective, appears very clear cut. The evidence is staring us all in the face.
Sadly i expect a cry of partisan lawfare against the great trump family at the first mention of accountability. It will be difficult to choose what the people go after. I don’t think it’s going to be easy.
He’s escaped everything else. Why not this? I blame all the complicit Republicans who laugh and nod and go along with all of his illegal follies.
They are cowards, and thieves. Shame on them.
Would it be possible to claw back some of that stolen money to tear down the ballroom and rebuild the East Wing? Take his horrendous name off the buildings in D.C. and restore some sense of normalcy? And God help anyone who tries to give me one of those horrid $1 coins, chances are I'd throw it back in their face.
I'd be happy to pay my own way to bring my tools and help dismantle the "bullroom."
Count me in, Skepti!
i'll paint.
I’ll spackle!
Trump has turned the once-respected (and once dignified) office of the US presidency into a game show, or a reality TV show, depending on the day you're watching. Everything is about "making a deal" -- for Trump's ego or personal gain -- and many of us find it vulgar and disgusting, not to mention corrupt.
but 78 million voters and 80 million non-voters were ok with the gamble....and chose not to research his very public history of racism, corruption, sexual predation, hatred of unions, business failures (where he was not financially impacted - others he conned were the big losers) and excessive ego maniacal behavior.....
it seems our perception of this travesty is definitely a small minority perception.
Sadly, you're right. I wonder about that too.
But he only won by 1.6% and a lot of those voters NOW realize they were fooled.
— Musk money, Musk & Barron’s online appeals to young men, ‘the price of eggs’ low-info consumers who didn’t realize there had been big chicken culls due to avian flu etc. etc. Plus the slackers who ‘sat this one out’ because they couldn’t vote for a woman, esp a Black one! — many of them NOW realize the price to be paid.
I hate to sound like them but 2024 was absolutely stolen. He could NOT afford to lose. Nor could all of his billionaire toadies. What an absolutely despicable country we have become.
yes, our country has been raped by the wealthy and the powerful. i don’t agree the election was stolen, i think that after trump 1.0 many independents thought they’d try dems again to see if anyone could get the economy going and make life better. covid as a trump co-conspirator made things worse (and people conveniently ignored the fact that trump did not take covid seriously nor the power it would have on damaging our economy…and the world’s). the modern day scourge of human ‘extreme’ short term memories meant that 4 years later those same people flipped again thinking trump was better than biden and the dems at economics (he was alos better at propaganda as well as being a corrupt liar). now that those people are once again having economic pain, they’ll switch again to the dems in the mid terms…who will not be able to fix the economy in the short 2 year span until the next prez election…so who knows what the fickle/idiotic/flea-brained voters will do next?
our political system leaves everything in the hands of politicians (choosing how to spend our tax $, where they spend it, and who to favor) so we will go through this mess quite often….until one of the parties devises a way for ‘we the people’ to be involved in how we want the budget spent….. yes there are ways/ideas, but the politicians won’t consider any of them because anything that takes power away from politicians and gives it to ‘the people’ will be rejected.
in this day and age, young people decide how to live their live’s app-by-app….and even the starbucks generation insist on the opportunity of deciding ingredient-by-ingredient….but in politics it’s still one-size-fits-all in terms of the policies and promises. if ‘we the people’ don’t think outside-the-box, the politicians will never derail the lucrative congressional gravy train they ride (paid for by our tax $).
I am not implying millions didn’t vote for him, but Elon helped get him the win. And the apathy of 70, 80 million eligible voters in this election is also to blame.
But all of your points are well made. Until we get a FDR Democrat (along with a sprinkle of DDE) again, this country is screwed. The Dems MUST de-corporatize themselves.
How long can this Congress/Administration remain silent? Will the conspirators (those who were in power and complicit) be brought to justice as well as The Felon, his administration and those in GOP power? When does this break?
ooooo!
"The Felon!" A cartoon that writes itself, eh?
I cannot understand how anyone in government who has a conscience can let all of this dishonesty happen and not act to end it. What will it take to bring him down? What is horrible enough to make Congress and the Judiciary sick enough to pull the plug? Thank you for your excellent coverage of what is going on.
When Trump says he is allowed to he refers to SCOTUS who he thinks says he is allowed to do whatever he wants without fear of prosecution. So we don’t have their help. But without the Congress complaining what we can do is replace the Congress. This is their job.
Vote STRAIGHT BLUE IN NOVEMBER!!!
Right now, in terms of proper governance, it is hard to tell the difference between the USA and a third-rate Banana Republic, which is the way we we are going unless the current course is corrected with serious consequences for those who have engaged or allowed this kind of outrageous, wholesale selling out of the interests of the USA and its people.
an excellent 'summary' and complete mind fcuk - thank you!
unfortunately, american 'morality' has changed forever.
the fact that actual 'humans' voted for the most corrupt and immoral person in our history, really just shines the light on the voters lack of morality.
morality is something we learn from early childhood and into our teens, from family, friends, community....lying, cheating, bullying, theft, disrespect, violence, discrimination, corruption.
and then there are the laws that we learn should be adhered to (especially if we are so-called-supporters-of-law-enforcement-employees) like murder, kidnapping, torture, insider trading etc...
i really don't care how many excuses you make for trump repugnicans and their voters.....they all willingly suffocated their innate morality to 'believe' in trump's 'self-proclaimed' status as being good, honest, moral.
there is a percentage of the voting public who are as thick as a brick - about everything (we should have a law that bricks are not entitled to vote...only humans with functioning brains)...
the rest of his cult are just living proof that morality is non existent in a very large segment of our population.
morality is not based on who will give me the largest tax cut or the most 'free' benefits, but in modern american society, it seems to be one and the same.
once society has dug the hole of immoral and unethical behavior, it will continue to gain depth and width.....
this is where we are....and we should not fool ourselves otherwise.
trump opened pandora's box, let all the white supremists and the allied self-serving greed of billionaires of all walks of life, to be the example of what 'the rest of us' should aspire to.
as the saying goes, once pandora's box is opened and evil is let out, you can never put in back in the box and close the lid.
trump, putin, nyetan-yahoo are all catalysts for societies to be 'OK' with complete and utter immorality.
where does that leave the rest of us....naively hoping? cautiously optimistic? looking for somewhere else to live? i just don't know anymore....
The rebuilding of morality is going to have to start in the FAMIlY
hmmmmm. family may be the reason why so many independents and latinos voted trump 2.0….. and those who listen to trump ‘mouthy-shit-stirer-podcasts’ actually have no idea of morality themselves, so they’ll just pass down the ‘new’ (im)morality to the rest of the family.
Yes it goes both ways
Adam, one small suggested edit. With the trumps' incessant grifting, we literally "cannot see the trees for the forest." Their mobster goal, IMHO, is to become so dense that light can never penetrate the darkness. You did an amazing job listing their many many many cons and steals. However, this is likely just the outside fringe of their relentless self-dealing corruption. Remember, trump embedded doge to scrape our most sensitive -- and enormously valuable -- personal data. 300,000,000+ people. Kaching!
I always thought the saying was, "We can't see the forest THROUGH the trees". Since editing is being mentioned, I didn't want to be that person but another suggested edit would be that this summer marks our 250th anniversary, not 275th 😉. If Adam sees this, we know what you meant. There was another one which says "the Trump"... Obviously meant to say "Trump" or "the Trumps". Again, we know what he meant... I certainly am not trying to be "that" social media user. No one likes a Grammar Nazi... 😅🫣
Can the White Hose Press Corps be dropped out of planes with no parachutes into the center of Iran?
Only if we send Chump's staff—apart from those doing actual jobs at the White House—along with them.
Excellent except it’s the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, not the 275th.
Thanks Adam for being brave enough going indepth of this corruption. I don't understand how magaites can't see that it is we, the taxpayers, are paying for this grift. The one thing that brings me comfort is that those chasing and scheming for the most wealth are never truly happy! God bless you and your family 🙏🏻! You truly deserve happiness!
The Iran war orchestrators for profit: The Saudi crown prince, dumb Trump and his 2nd in command con man Jared. No doubt in my mind. The Saudis are paying the Trumps huge billions to attack Iran, ostensibly support Israel, who was conducting ongoing attacks to Iran anyways, with or without the US, all the while increasing Saudi oil value. The crown prince is the puppeteer, and quite a lethal, violent one at that. And so easy to bring on Kegseth, stupido and incompetent, as well as the rest of the Cabinet idiots. We taxpayers are forking over our hard-earned dollars for the Saudis, who stole our aircraft, killed 3000 of our citizens, and blew up our financial buildings on 9/11. Does Trump care? Absolutely not, as long as the billions are flowing into his offshore bank accounts. Treason all the way, and the GOP Congress does nothing.
They, too, are exceptional traitors.
Absolutely.
Adam - great series - very helpful to have the grift and graft accounted for in one place since it is so overwhelming. However, I wonder about your quote: “… astounding is the silence of the Democrats, much of the press, and most of the public.” What? I hear Dems talk about the Trump graft all the time. Please don’t reinforce the sense that nobody cares. Lots of people care. Lots of people are taking account. Lots of people are hoping we’ll have oversight power in 2027 and will be able to hold them accountable, somehow, in 2029.
Good points. But legacy media has become a corporate America owned fear machine. It’s heinous and disgraceful.
Yes, agreed. Just out of interest, I did a quick search on WaPo to see if I could find a smidgen of criticism of Trump’s corruption and the results were dire. 5 or 6 years ago you could find articles. In the last year there is almost nothing or it hedges or makes light of the corruption.
Reprehensible isn’t it?
The republicans have accepted taking corruption to extreme levels because they were accustomed to the modest corruption that existed before trump. The lavish presents (bribes), insider stock trades, future high paid jobs, the I scratch your back and you scratch mine attitude that has progressively gotten worse over sooooo many years. The democrats will fight to roll back some of the corruption, but they only want to return to the more modest level of corruption that has been the oligarch's Washington. Professors Martin Gilens (Princeton University) and Benjamin I. Page (Northwestern University) looked at more than 20 years worth of data to answer a simple question: Does the government represent the people? the answer was no