CORRUPTION, MAGA STYLE

Abstract: The relatively modest net worth and extensive charitable activities of the Bidens and Obamas contrasts markedly with the significant and controversial financial gains of Donald Trump and his associates. Trump’s unprecedented increase in wealth, his refusal to divest from personal business interests, and his use of cryptocurrency ventures, luxury auctions, and foreign gifts to enrich himself and his family are breathtaking. The analysis underscores the dissolution of the Trump Foundation for legal and ethical violations, in contrast to the ongoing philanthropic work of the Obama and Biden foundations. The essay also addresses the global perception of Trump’s presidency, noting widespread criticism from international media and concerns about the impact of his actions on American democracy and the economy. The scale and brazenness of Trump’s self-enrichment and acceptance of lavish gifts far exceed those of his predecessors, raising serious questions about corruption, governance, and the future of American political integrity.

Cor·rup·tion

/kəˈrəpSH(ə)n/

noun

1. dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power,

2. Trump, Trump family

3. decay; putrefaction:

Word Origin Middle English: via Old French from Latin corruptio(n-), from corrumpere ‘mar, bribe, destroy’ (see corrupt).

I am sick and tired of the MAGA drumbeat that the Biden and Obama families were “more corrupt” than Donald Trump, as if that were possible. Forbes says the Biden family currently has a net worth of $10 - 15 million, which also factors in Jill Biden’s lecturing income and includes whatever Hunter Biden allegedly accumulated by trading on Joe’s name and fame. The Obamas have done much better and now have a net worth of about $70 million, including book and media contracts representing about 90% of that. They are definitely what we would call rich. Corrupt? Sadly it seems Democrats just weren’t very good at it. While Obama was president the family couldn’t refinance the mortgage on the family home in Chicago because it might have appeared his status was influencing the market. The Biden family is the least wealthy among ex-presidents in modern history. Should have read The Art of the Deal.

Trump? The Guardian has estimated that his family’s wealth has increased by more than $3 billion since he was elected, almost doubling his previously estimated net worth. Plus there’s the future value of Trump-branded properties for which he and his sons cut deals right and left as he travels the middle East supposedly on behalf of America. Moreover he is the first modern president not to divest his investments before taking office but instead has his sons and other family members or family-controlled businesses running the enterprises while he presides, with daddy peering over their shoulders. It’s also impossible to place an accurate present valuation on such things as the $2 billion long-term UAE commitment to Trump’s crypto currency or the value of favorable future deals for development of Trump properties in Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE -- countries he visits on the public dime as U.S. president. I won’t even delve into the hundreds of millions Don Jr and Eric pull in while daddy sits in the White House. Don Jr has created the Executive Club which offers access to daddy and cabinet members and charges a $500,000 initiation fee; there allegedly is already a waiting list for ultra-rich tycoons to join.

Trump presently nets hundreds of millions from his fake crypto coin sales to gullible loyalists (via Trump-owned Cryptocurrency Initiatives which controls 80%(!) of the coins issued to his believers) and pretty plainly manipulating the markets by announcing rapid fire conflicting Executive Orders which drive stock prices up or down, often increasing the value of his holdings. With millions of dollars bid, he moreover literally auctioned off the rights to dine with him or visit the White House, requiring that the bidding be done in the family digital crypto currency, generally viewed as a “novelty investment” rather than something with intrinsic value, and charges of $1 million per seat at dinner. “It is a Mount Everest of corruption,” said Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon. The man is so inherently corrupt that he openly uses the U.S. government as personal property: he is the government, and the government is his. He has even threatened ex-co-president Elon Musk with “serious consequences” if Musk were to consider donating to Democrats -- clearly a brazen and patently illegal abuse of power to disrupt the American political process.

According to a May 17th editorial in The Economist, “Crypto has become the ultimate swamp asset.” I don’t pretend to understand the legerdemain of crypto, but I do know that the $US is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States so a buck will always be worth 100 cents, while the $TRUMP is backed by the full faith and credit of . . . Donald Trump; it gyrates from thousands to almost zero -- but the Trump family gets paid for every single crypto $T buy or sell and has already netted an additional hundreds of millions in U.S. dollars (not $TRUMP, mind you), plus the auction proceeds for dinner and visits presumably go into Trump’s pocket. More significantly it’s a sly conduit to collect vast unreported foreign donations which would otherwise without question be breathtakingly illegal.

Fawning dignitaries foreign and domestic are anxious to stay in Trump hotels (which charge Trump’s secret service details top premium rates for rooms!) and install major golf tournaments at Trump resorts. He is receiving and enjoying lavish gifts from foreign kings, sheikhs and plutarchs. Now the Emir of Qatar, out of the goodness of his heart, gifts an ultra-luxury aircraft which Qatar unsuccessfully had been trying for years to sell and which Trump claims he will be donating, gold toilets and all, to the Trump Presidential Library upon leaving office -- that is, when Trump isn’t claiming the gift is to the Department of Defense and not the president. According to the New York Times, “ it could cost $1 billion or more to retrofit that Qatari plane to get it ready for use as Air Force One, a process that former Air Force officials said may take longer than finishing the job Boeing is already doing to deliver the first two planes.”

The slime runs deep since Trump has become notorious for failing to declare most foreign gifts as required by the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act, so we may never know exactly what’s buried under the orange hair. And don’t overlook how Trump is also enriching his minions, like the billions that will accrue from recent favorable deals for Peter Thiel (Palantir) and the 13 billionaires appointed by Trump to cabinet and other high administration positions. Can you believe (as reported in The Hill) that “former Fox News host Tucker Carlson agreed with a guest on his podcast that the timing of the Trump Organization’s business ventures in the Middle East — just as the Trump administration announced new deals with those foreign governments — ’seems like corruption.’” Wow, Tucker!

Yes, foreign nations often have made gifts to previous US. presidents for ceremonial purposes. The most expensive gift to Barrack Obama from a foreign nation or dignitary was a gem-encrusted horse sculpture from the Saudi king valued at $523,000; it was left with the National Archives when he left office. This gift stands out as the most extravagant ever received by a U.S. president, far surpassing the value of most other state gifts -- until Donald Trump became so popular with middle East potentates, that is. The next most expensive gift ever given by a foreign nation or dignitary to a U.S. president was a gold mechanical bird valued at $110,000 gifted to President Bill Clinton also by Qatar. (Apparently the bird "tweets, turns, and flaps its wings once per hour," according to archival records.) The most expensive gift Joe Biden received from a foreign nation or dignitary during his term of office was a $12,000 Russian pen and desk set presented by Trump’s ex-BFF Vladimir Putin in 2021; it too was deposited with the National Archives. Oh the Biden vice, the corruption.

So while Trump grows vastly richer, it’s fair to ask if perhaps the United States is profiting from having the great dealmaker negotiating for us. Sadly, no. His abrupt devastation of American foreign assistance programs has made us an international pariah and is costing thousands of lives by terminating vital food and medical programs. His hundreds of promised foreign trade deals haven’t produced a single useful final agreement. His tariffs, rather than enriching us, are damaging the economy, perhaps deeply and for the long term. Peace deals or stabilizing international agreements? Not for Ukraine or with Iran or China -- those are on the rocks. It seems the great negotiator is too busy stuffing his humungous pockets while the nation withers.

Before we finish condemning Trump for what looks plainly like classical graft, perhaps we should look at whether Trump perhaps balances the moral books by being generous in parting with his ill-gained riches. Joe and Jill Biden, for example, established the Biden Foundation in 2017, which focused on issues such as cancer research, equality, and military families. The Bidens contributed up to $499,000 of their own money to the foundation during its existence

While in office, Barack and Michelle Obama donated approximately $2.5 million to charities. In 2006, they gave $60,307 to various organizations, and in 2007, they donated $240,000 to charity. Barack Obama donated the entire $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize award he received to charitable causes and another $2 million to job-training programs for low-income residents in Chicago, funded in part by his post-presidency speaking fees. The Obamas founded the Obama Foundation in 2014, which has raised over $1.1 billion since 2017 and has net assets of $925 million as of 2022, supporting a range of initiatives, including the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, the Voyager Scholarship, and the construction of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.

Donald Trump did establish a foundation in 1988 to shelter the proceeds of his ghost-written book, Art of the Deal. However, the Trump Foundation was dissolved by court order in 2018 after investigations revealed multiple legal and ethical violations, including self-dealing and misuse of funds for personal and political purposes. As part of the court settlement, Trump was ordered to pay $2 million in damages to various charities, and the foundation’s remaining assets were distributed to court-approved charities; in settlement, he was compelled to agree to nineteen (19) admissions of personal misuse of foundation funds, and in the unlikely event he creates a new charity he is subject to ongoing reporting requirements, enhanced oversight and legal conditions set by a court. And of course we know how well he gets along with judges. In 2018 and 2019 he rebated a few hundred thousand dollars from his presidential salary to designated government agencies, but since 2008 not one single penny to a charity.

So while Trump plays with his gifted Arabian dagger ($24,000) and Japanese gold golf clubs ($3755) on his lavish Qatari 747 ($400,000,000), the rest of us can just wonder what will become of our retirement accounts while he diddles the stock market, or our groceries when the price of avocados, coffee, sugar, pineapples, or really good beer go through the roof with the tariffs tacked on, or the rich stop paying taxes entirely if the one big beautiful tax gift to the wealthy is adopted so the rest of us can carry the entire burden of what’s left of government services. And not surprisingly the U.S. has dropped to 43^rd in life expectancy despite being the richest nation in the world. The anti-corruption forces of the U.S. government are indeed being mobilized: not to slow Trump’s greed but to investigate Joe Biden and Barrack Obama, to purify American higher education Trump-style, to slash Medicaid -- anything to deflect attention from the Trump money machine.

What can one liberal-minded person do? Once again I invite those of you hoping to enhance and expand liberal dialog to invite others to our little discussion group. Pass this essay along, or write something of your own. Every little bit contributes to the process, but please don’t abandon the cause -- at least not yet0 Do something. RESIST!

Arne Werchick, after fifty years as a California litigation attorney, pro tem judge, law lecturer, former Presiding Arbitrator of the State Bar of California, and past president of the California Trial Lawyers Association, moved to Hawaii and lives with his wife Ruth and their rescue dog Topaz. His prior community service included two years as Special Counsel to California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR), Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law at Hastings College of the Law, Administrative Law Judge pro tem, Chair of the Palm Desert Rent Review Commission, and numerous professional and civic organizations, and he was frequently an invited lecturer at continuing education programs. He now writes and publishes OUT OF MY LIBERAL MIND to provide a progressive perspective on current politics and provide a forum for liberal conversation, WIDGETS by WERCHICK, an occasional comment on techie gadgets which might prove useful for seniors, and NJABCTCC -- Phileas Fogg Reports, the voice of the Not-Just-Another-Book-Club Travel Conversation Circle which Arne and Ruth created and moderated. Contact Arne at liberalmind@werchick.com or njabctcc@werchick.com