The third pillar of Trump’s presidency appears to be graft for himself, his cronies, and his family. Dana Mattioli and Rebecca Ballhaus of the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is planning to donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund in an effort to shore up his ties to the incoming president. Mark Zuckerberg of Meta handed over $1 million as well, as did both the chief executive officer of OpenAI and AI search startup Perplexity. Trump has refused to sign the paperwork that would require him to disclose the donors to the inauguration fund. Today, Jonathan V. Last of The Bulwark called the fund “a slush fund, pure and simple.” There is no required accounting for how the money is spent, making it, as Last says, “a way for rich people to funnel money to the incoming president that he can then use however he sees fit, completely unfettered and under cover of darkness. The inauguration fund is no different than feudal lords approaching the new king with gifts of rubies, or mobsters showering a new mayor with envelopes of cash.” There are other ways for people to buy influence in the new administration. As Judd Legum pointed out on December 2 in Popular Information, crypto currency entrepreneur Justin Sun, a Chinese national, bought $30 million in crypto tokens from Trump’s new crypto venture, an essentially worthless investment that nonetheless freed up about $18 million for Trump himself. In March 2023 the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Sun with fraud and market manipulation. Sun posted on social media that his company “is committed to making America great again.” Trump appears willing to reward cronies with positions that could be lucrative as well, tapping billionaire Tom Barrack, for example, to become his administration’s ambassador to Türkiye. Barrack chaired Trump’s 2016 inauguration fund and was accused—and acquitted—of secret lobbying for the United Arab Emirates in exchange for investments of tens of millions of dollars in an office building and one of his investment funds. Trump is also putting family members into official positions, tapping his son Don Jr.’s former fiancee Kimberly Guilfoyle to become the U.S. ambassador to Greece shortly after news broke that Don Jr. is seeing someone else. Trump is pushing Florida governor Ron DeSantis to name his daughter-in-law Lara Trump to the Senate seat that will be vacated by Marco Rubio’s elevation to secretary of state, and he has tapped his daughter Tiffany’s father-in-law, Massad Boulos, to become his Middle East advisor. Various newspapers have reported that Boulos’s reputation as a billionaire mogul at the head of Boulos Enterprises is undeserved: in fact, he is a small-time truck salesman who has nothing to do with Boulos Enterprises but permitted the confusion, he says, because he doesn’t comment on his business. And then there is Eric Trump, who announced yesterday that the Trump Organization has made a deal with Dubai-based real estate developer Dar Global to build a Trump Tower in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. When asked about potential conflicts of interest, Eric Trump said: “I have no interaction with Washington, D.C. I want no interaction with Washington, D.C.” So far, there has been little outcry over Eric Trump’s announcement, despite years of stories focusing on Republicans’ claims that Hunter Biden and President Biden had each taken $5 million from the Ukrainian energy company on whose board Hunter Biden sat. Yesterday the key witness behind that accusation, Alexander Smirnov, pleaded guilty of lying to the FBI and hiding the more than $2 million he received after that testimony. Early this month, President Biden pardoned Hunter, saying that he had been charged “only because he is my son,” and that “there’s no reason to believe it will stop here.” On December 5, Representative Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) told the Fox News Channel that House Republicans would continue to investigate Hunter Biden despite the pardon. If there is one major continuity between Trump’s campaign and plans for his administration, it is that his focus on shock and performance, rather than the detailed work of governing, still plays well to the media.
Interesting is an interesting word! When I hear talk about shutting down the FDIC, scared is more like it!
While driving through a distant part of our state yesterday I picked up a copy of "The Patriots Free Press" which included an article, "the top 12 priorities of Trump's America . . ." Priority #4 is "End medical tyranny and eliminate the FDA, CDC, EPA and USDA." "Slash their budgets to zero and send their employees packing. Shut them down and banish them from existence..... we don't need centralized government agencies deciding what is "medicine" or "food" or "pollution." Now these priorities might just be a author's and not Trump's, but it is a peek behind the curtain. But what happens when we allow, who? private industry? to define "food" and "medicine" and "pollution?" What sort of America do we get when we allow the billionaires to define these terms for us?
Just like there are left wing radicals, there are right wing radicals. So you believe everything you read now about Trump, or just the bad stuff. Do you believe Biden showered with his daughter? She admitted to it in her diary/book. Do you believe Biden lied thru most of his career? We have proof. If Hunter is so innocent why did Biden pardon him for any and/or all crimes committed for 11 years, not 9, not 10, precisely 11 years with specific dates. Do you think Biden's open borders letting 15 million unvetted illegals into our country was a good idea? Do you think the Biden Administration covering up his dementia helped our country? Do you think it's right to ignore N. Carolina people living in tents in the snow due to the hurricane while giving 1.5 BILLION dollars to Africa is good for the country? I could go on. January 20th can't get here soon enough. Couldn't keep his hands off his teen daughter, or any other little girls for that matter. Raw CSPAN footage: Biden touching girls compilation (RAW CSPAN FOOTAGE)
Again, the word for me is Scary! I guess just like we are going to have to sit back and see how the 2025 RCSC Board of Directors moves forward with the complex issues that it faces, we are just going to have to wait and see what will happen after Mr. Trump becomes president. I know one thing for sure.....I know more people who are really concerned than those who are confident in all that he said he would do.
Broaden your little circle of friends to include some conservatives. You do realize Trump won the popular vote as well as the electoral vote (312) vs Kamala (226), and conservatives have the house and senate. In 2024, Trump finished with the 7th highest share of the vote for an out-of-power party's nominee since 1932
Yes, I can't decide if I'll have more respect for Trump if he does what he said he would do or if he does not. it is also interesting to me that every somewhat negative discussion about Trumps winds up being a discussion about Biden, or more often Biden's son.
