If Donald Trump has a primary skill set, it's keeping the American public distracted with other issues while he uses the White House to put millions of dollars in his wallet.
Trump shocked many Americans with a seeming regression into good ol' Yankee imperialism, talking about absorbing Panama and the canal, taking Greenland even if by military force, making our longest ally, Canada, the 51st state, turning Gaza into a Trump resort.
Meanwhile, Trump's mass deportation threats, fueled by his overt racism and white supremacist sympathies, not to mention his keeping a book of Hitler's speeches on his nightstand, has many Americans beside themselves, worried about the illegalities of Trump's moves, his disrespect for the Constitution and due process, the uncanny resemblance of ICE teams to Hitler's S.S. troops, not to mention how these deported workers will be replaced on America's farms, factories, road and house building crews.
So, while we've all been distracted, what's Donald J. Trump been up to?
A lot. Our challenge will be to put this story succinctly enough that the reader won't lose interest. Maybe just listing some of Trump's historic, mind-blowing corruption during his first 100 days in office will suffice. After all, Trump still has 3 years and 9 months of his term to serve.
1. On January 6th, before Trump was even sworn in, Amazon, planning on doing a bunch of business with the White House, gave the Trump family an extremely generous cash payment to do a "documentary on Melania Trump." $40,000,000! I kid you not! Obviously, Amazon was buying much more than the rights to the Melania Trump story.
2. Now, on January 17th, Trump probably did the most corrupt thing any U.S. President has ever done, creating the Trump meme coin. We don't know how much these coins cost or who buys them, but it's a backdoor way of the Trump administration buying influence, all in secret. An unregulated Chinese exchange firm launders the money for Trump. The President made a huge fortune right off the bat when an undisclosed person, likely from China, bought 6 million of these coins, skyrocketing the price and making Trump a ton of money.(Many MAGA folk don't realize the ethical conflict here and that NO Presidents ever did anything like this before the utterly corrupt Trump.)
3. Next a report from Mar-a-logo when visited by a group of oil and gas executives who promised Trump "a billion dollars in campaign contributions" if he'd play ball with them. The day Trump was sworn in he issued an executive order gutting environmental safeguards, enabling big oil and gas to make considerably more money. Cha-Ching!!!
4. The last thing someone engaging in corruption wants are nosy inspectors. On January 25th, Trump eliminated all the Inspectors General, ethics officials and whistleblowers. With those folks looking for corruption out of the way, Trump has an open field to engage in whatever the Hell kind of corruption he seeks. Oh, BTW, Trump didn't stop there, but also fired the Special Counsel, the person who not only oversees investigations into government corruption but also protects whistleblowers.
5. Next, Trump illegally fired Gwen Wilcox of the National Labor Relations Board. Why? Because at that time Trump cronies Elon Musk and Jeff Bezons were being investigated by the NLRB for massive workplace violations. Besides Bezos and Musk financed the Trump campaign and Trump owed them bigtime.
6. On January 31, Representative Andy Ogles, a Trumper, was being investigated for illegal loans to his campaign. On that very day, Ogles introduced a bill to allow Trump to serve a third term. With that kind of loyalty to Trump, the President made the investigation into Ogles go away.
7. Billy Long, the man Trump had nominated to run the IRS, had a little problem with an old debt, totalling beyond 6 figures. Long was able to locate several donors, all with ties to the IRS, to pay off his debt for him. Smart guy. Trump showed him how its done and he followed.
8. Another "deal" done by Trump involved the Professional Golf Association (PGA) and the LIV league, owned by Saudi Arabia. Trump brought the two entities together along with the announcement that tournaments would be held going forward at Trump's golf courses, again lining Trump's pockets.
9. On February 6th Trump ended enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act that requires people being paid by foreign governments to make that known and register. In the past, people have been arrested for not obeying this law. But, that's all in the past now as Trump can now get kickbacks from foreign governments and nobody is the wiser.
10. Four days later Trump eliminated the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency that stops big businesses, banks and other financial firms from ripping off consumers. Now, Trump has given them a free hand to rip off to their heart's content.
11. Now, the case of Eric Adams, the New York mayor with a multitude of corruption charges. Inexplicably, Trump's DOJ dropped the charges against Adams in exchange for his help rounding up illegal immigrants in New York City.
12. The same day Trump's Department of Justice paused enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, stopping American companies from bribing foreign companies to get business. Now, Trump's friends can start bribing foreign governments again.
13. Now, the State Department has decided to increase their order of armoured Teslas to $400,000,000, the largest actual government contract for the year. I guess that little Tesla commercial at the White House paid off.
14. That same day, February 12th, Musk gains access to Department of Labor and OSHA records detailing violations by his company and that of his competitors. Musk immediately fires FDA regulators reviewing one of his medical products, Neuralink. Musk, like a bull in a china closet, flexes his muscles to gain competitive advantage.
Well, that's about half way through Senator Chris Murphy's report on the mind-blowing corruption of theft during Trump's first 100 days in office. Here's the link to the full report: https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-slams-trumps-first-100-days-this-is-a-story-of-incompetence-theft-and-mind-blowing-corruption
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