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1. The Epstein Files Cover-Up The signature corruption scandal of the Trump
administration remains Trump’s association with one of the most notorious
child sex traffickers in history – and his administration’s refusal to turn
over all of the files about the case so we can be certain we have all
Trump-Epstein documents. The administration admitted it’s
refusing to disclose about 3 million files, despite a law requiring their
disclosure. The Department of Justice wants us to trust that it has good
reasons for all that, but the place is run by two of his former defense
lawyers, the FBI is helmed by an even bigger Trump loyalist, and they have
acted like it too often for us to give them any credence. This scandal is not
going away. Current Status: Democracy Defenders Fund filed a complaint this week with the Office of the
Inspector General about the missing documents, and we are litigating and
investigating on multiple fronts. We will continue to pursue all legal
avenues to ensure the complete release of all eligible files relating to the
Epstein investigation, as required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act. 2. Selling American Residency to the Super-Rich In September, Trump debuted the so-called “Gold Card,” a program that lets wealthy foreigners effectively buy permanent U.S. residency for a $1 million payment to the federal government. That’s bad enough, but consider this: Rather than asking Congress to create a new visa category, Trump simply ordered federal agencies to treat these massive cash “gifts” to the Department of Commerce as proof of eligibility for elite EB-1 and EB-2 visas. Those are categories Congress reserved
for Nobel laureates, pioneering scientists, and individuals whose work serves
the national interest. But these employment-based visas are strictly capped – so every Gold Card handed to a
millionaire donor necessarily displaces a qualified scientist, engineer,
physician, or researcher already waiting in line. (It is worth noting that
all available EB-1 visas were granted September 8, 2025, with the cap
resetting every year on October 1.) That means that Trump has effectively
transformed lawful permanent residency into a luxury commodity, letting
oligarchs buy into our country like they buy Ferraris and Picassos. We’re not letting Trump auction off our immigration
system without a fight. This week, we brought suit on behalf of a group of highly
accomplished professionals – people who followed the rules, only to find
themselves subject to being pushed aside by wealthy applicants who could jump
the line with a seven-figure check. And remember: Congress — not the
president — has the exclusive authority to set immigration eligibility and
raise federal funds. The Gold Card program overrides Congress’s choices —
both as to who qualifies for employment-based immigration and how and under
what conditions agencies may collect revenue. Current Status: We will see Trump and Commerce Secretary
Howard Lutnick in court (and in the Epstein files). 3. World Liberty Financial Trump’s crypto company, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), was near the top of our list when we debuted it in December – and things have only gotten worse. New reporting last week revealed that the “Spy Sheikh,” Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan — the United Arab Emirates’ national security adviser and one of the most powerful men in the Gulf – had quietly amassed a secret stake in Trump’s crypto venture through a web of investment vehicles designed to obscure his involvement. His hidden investment in Trump’s crypto
business created an extraordinary conflict of interest: a foreign national
security advisor with direct financial ties to the sitting U.S. president’s
private enterprise. And it may already be paying off, as, months later, the
UAE secured a deal for millions of the most advanced computer chips from
American company NVidia, a “coup” for the tiny nation. The White House has denied any impropriety here. Current Status: WLFI is flush with Gulf cash – but these
revelations may make Trump’s crypto conflicts so unpalatable that there are
consequences. Perhaps even the crypto industry PAC’s $193 million midterms war chest won’t be enough to
get uneasy Democrats to vote for legislation creating a market structure for
cryptocurrency without any checks on Trump’s ability to influence the market
to his benefit. 4. The Meme Coin Grift Trump’s meme coin represents perhaps his most brash self-enrichment scheme, one unlike anything we have ever seen from an American president. According to the website, the token is “intended to function as an expression of support for, and engagement with, the ideals and beliefs embodied by the symbol “$TRUMP“ — and not as an investment or security. But of course this slice of code was listed on various crypto exchanges and immediately surged in price. Since its
launch, the coin’s value closely followed Trump’s announcements, with wild
fluctuations. The president even hosted an exclusive dinner for meme coin
“investors” who spent tens of thousands to buy the digital token. This access
auction was a scheme so brazen — even for Trump — that it left ethics experts
like us stunned. The White House denies any conflicts of interest. Current Status: The Trump-dominated Securities and Exchange
Commission has shown zero interest in examining Trump’s meme coin activities.
This makes defeating the new crypto market bill even more important. We have
been sounding the alarm, and our fight continues. 5. Tom Homan’s $50,000 With Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan back in the news as he took center stage in Minnesota’s ICE invasion, Democracy Defenders Fund this week expanded our investigation of his conduct. We launched additional FOIA requests about his alleged acceptance of a $50,000 payment from undercover federal agents posing as business executives. Homan has denied wrongdoing. But if Trump is going to thrust him into the country’s civil rights flashpoint, then we have to have transparency. A tape of the alleged payoff reportedly exists. Let’s see it.
The secrecy surrounding these meetings raises the same fundamental question
that follows so many Trump officials: Is government power being secretly
shaped by those with money and access? The American people deserve to know
what kind of person has taken control of immigration actions in Minnesota and
whether he can be trusted to wield that power. Current Status: If we don’t promptly get the materials we are
asking for, we are prepared to pursue all legal remedies. If Trump and Co.
don’t believe us, they should take a look at our 252 cases and matters. 6. The USD1 Binance-UAE Deal Less than two months after Trump’s WLFI launched
USD1, its stablecoin, a UAE state-backed investment firm announced that it
would use USD1 to finance a $2 billion investment in crypto exchange Binance,
which was then under SEC investigation. In May, Binance decided to list USD1 – and, days after the
announcement, Trump’s SEC dropped its securities case against the exchange.
And then there’s Trump’s treatment of Binance’s head Changpeng “CZ” Zhao. He
pleaded guilty to money laundering in 2023 and got a Trump pardon this past
October. The White House defended Zhao, criticized his prosecution, and
blamed the Biden administration for creating a “war on cryptocurrency.“ Current Status: With last week’s latest revelations of the UAE’s
crypto influence campaign with the “Spy Sheikh’s” role in WLFI (#3 above),
it’s worth keeping an eye on this while we wait for the next shoe to fall. 7. Trump’s Qatari Boeing In May, Qatar presented Trump and his administration with a $400 million Boeing 747, ostensibly to use as Air Force One — a present reportedly worth more than all foreign gifts bestowed on all former American presidents combined. As my colleagues and I noted in a legal complaint, the Trump administration is apparently illegally transferring nearly $1 billion from a nuclear weapons program at the Defense Department to retrofit the jet, a gross mismanagement of key federal funds. And it will barely have time in the air before Trump’s term ends and it gets “donated” to Trump’s presidential library for his continued use. Meanwhile, after the transfer, Qatar got a guarantee that the
United States will defend Qatar through “diplomatic, economic, and, if
necessary, military” measures and a new “military facility” for Qatar’s Air Force at the Mountain
Home Air Force Base in Idaho. Trump has defended the transfer of the plane as a legitimate
“gift,” and the White House said that “any gift given by a foreign government is
always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws. President
Trump’s administration is committed to full transparency.” Current Status: We’re waiting for the Government Accountability
Office to act on our complaint — but it’s hard to imagine a clearer conflict
of interest. 8. Melania’s Amazin’ Flop Amazon’s Melania film had its lavish Washington, D.C., premiere last week, and it went about as expected: a high-profile commercial event designed to elevate — and monetize — the Trump brand. Black carpets, media spectacle, and exclusive distribution through Amazon’s Prime Video platform were deployed to attempt to transform Melania Trump’s story into something in line with the $40 million Amazon paid for the rights. That was about $26 million above the nearest bidder, which raises
questions about what Amazon was really paying for here.
Unfortunately for Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Melania Trump, and director Brett
Ratner (who was already having a bad day after surfacing in the Epstein files), the movie scored
a putrid 6% on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviewers describing it as, “primarily a film about a woman
walking into and out of rooms,” and an “unbelievable abomination of filmmaking.” Current Status: Melania’s 6% rating leaves it in the rarified air
of films like 1997’s Mortal Kombat Annihilation (4%), and
2010’s The Last Airbender (5%). 9. Trump’s Foreign Real Estate Boom Trump is set to more than triple his foreign properties during this term, as real estate developers are working on at least 23 Trump-branded projects. These projects are a global feeding frenzy for foreign governments looking to curry favor with the president. To take only a few examples, Trump is building a hotel, golf course, and residences in Oman on property owned by the government. A Saudi real estate firm (with close ties to the Saudi government) is the Trump Organization’s partner in various real estate deals, including a new Trump Hotel in Dubai and a residential tower in Jeddah. In November, the
Trump Organization announced a project in the Maldives with the same Saudi firm.
The very next day, Trump met with Saudi Crown Prince and Jared Kushner buddy
Mohammed bin Salman and announced an “Economic and Defense Partnership” with the kingdom. Hard
to come up with better reasons why the Constitution prohibits the president
from accepting foreign emoluments. When asked about possible conflicts of
interest in the context of Trump’s then-upcoming trip to the Middle
East, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that it was
“ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump
is doing anything for his own benefit.” Current Status: Each individual property may
constitute an emoluments clause violation. We at Democracy Defenders Fund
include leaders of the team that won multiple emoluments cases against Trump
in his first term, and we ain’t playing. Watch this space! 10. Trump’s D.C. Renovation Racket In the middle of the longest government shutdown ever, as federal workers were going without pay and standing in bread lines, Trump ordered the destruction of the historic East Wing to build a massive, $300 million-plus ballroom. And that’s only one of his Washington, D.C., personal vanity projects, which also include renaming the Kennedy Center after himself. When that caused artists and audiences to hemorrhage, Trump
suddenly announced he planned to close the center for supposed renovations.
We can’t help but wonder if it’s to avoid the additional embarrassment of no
one showing up. Trump says he’s raised private money for both these
renovations, but the ballroom donors include corporations that have received
billions in federal contracts – and about a dozen facing federal enforcement
actions. Current Status: We and partners are litigating the Kennedy Center renaming on behalf of Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), with the government’s filing due on March 1. nd we are considering all legal steps to address the closing if it moves forward. Others are litigating the ballroom case, and initial signs point to a tough ruling for the White House. -Norman Eisen and Gabriel Lezra, The Contrarian |
Guess who made that lawsuit possible? You did, Contrarians! All profits from your paid subscriptions go to help support that and our other 251 cases and matters–like our huge win at the Supreme Court this week defending California’s Prop. 50 and counteracting Trump’s attempt to steal congressional seats. If you’re not a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one and joining the fight. I cover the Gold Card case and nine other outrages in my updated top 10 list of Trump and his cronies’ worst corruption scandals – and of the pushback in the courts of law and of public opinion. There is nothing the American people hate more than corruption, and it has contributed to Trump’s historic unpopularity. Since we published our first list in December, new schemes have emerged, and old ones have metastasized or featured shocking additional revelations of abusing power for personal or financial gain, corrupting the rule of law, and more. What follows is an updated list, reflecting both brand-new scandals and new developments in cases we flagged before. After you give the list a look, please keep on reading for our usual roundup of all our great Contrarian coverage this week. |
Normally I wouldn’t post such a disgusting, racist image that originated on Elon’s social media sewer, but it’s important for the historical record for Americans to see what the President of the United States reposted last night on his own site — as your and my representative — for the entire world to see. (Screengrab / Truth Social, per Raw Story)
I’ve been talking into microphones since I did the
morning news on WITL in Lansing Michigan in the late 1960s, and I’ve seen a lot
of ugly moments in American politics. But every so often something happens that
still takes your breath away, not because it’s surprising, but because it’s so
painfully revealing.
This latest racist stunt by Donald Trump — reposting
a meme on his Nazi-infested social media site in
which the Obamas’ faces are superimposed onto the bodies of primates in the
jungle set to the 1961 song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by The Tokens — is
one of those moments.
That a popular pro-Trump account on X created this video
and it has lived on that platform without consequence is disgusting in and of
itself. But Trump — as our president, speaking in our voice —
made it infinitely worse last night by promoting it to millions
around the world.
Promoting a video that depicts Barack and Michelle Obama
as non-human primates isn’t a joke. It isn’t satire or an accident. It’s the
oldest racist smear in the book, dressed up in a cheap meme and now blasted out
by a man who once swore an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the
Constitution of the United States.
When the president of the United States does something
like this, it doesn’t just insult two people. It tells a story about who,
according to the most powerful man in the world, belongs in America and who
doesn’t.
For centuries, racism in this country has relied on the
lie that some people are less than human. That lie has been used to justify
slavery, Jim Crow, lynchings, and mass incarceration.
It’s the lie that made it easier for people to look away
while their neighbors were brutalized. It’s the lie that justifies ICE’s
brutal, racist behavior. When Trump shares imagery that taps directly into that
history, he’s not being edgy: he’s reopening wounds that never fully healed.
When the President of the United States signals that this
kind of racism is acceptable, it gives permission to others. It tells the kid
being harassed at school, the family being targeted by a hate group, and the
voter being pushed out of the polling line that the cruelty they’re
experiencing is justified. That it’s their own fault.
It tells the bullies and thugs of ICE as they do their
“Kavanaugh Stops” — targeting people based on their race — that they’re on the
right side of power. This isn’t just about harm to minorities, although that
harm is real and immediate.
It’s about what happens to democracy itself when the
presidency becomes a megaphone for dehumanization. Democracy depends on the
idea that we’re all political equals. Once you start suggesting that some
Americans are animals, that idea collapses. It becomes easier to justify taking
away voting rights, ignore court rulings, or shrug when violence follows hateful
rhetoric.
I remember a time, during the era of Eisenhower and
Kennedy, when the presidency stood as a kind of moral North Star. Even when
presidents like Nixon and Clinton failed to live up to it, there was at least a
shared understanding that the office itself mattered. That it should pull us
together, not rip us apart.
Trump has spent years doing the opposite, from the 1970s
when he was busted along with his father for refusing to rent to Black people
to his recent use of words like “vermin” and “shitholes” to describe Hispanic
and Black people and majority-Black countries. Last night’s post is
another brutally clear example of Trump’s deep, lifelong racism.
What’s even more chilling is the silence from Republican
leaders and elected officials. If you can’t bring yourself to condemn something
this overtly racist, where exactly is your line? Silence in moments like this
isn’t neutrality: it’s complicity. It tells people of color in America, already
dealing with the burden of centuries of institutional racism, that their pain
is irrelevant and their dignity a plaything in the hands of white people.
I know some people will say we should ignore it, that
reacting “just feeds the outrage machine.” Trump’s propaganda princess,
Karoline Leavitt, tried to downplay it by telling reporters this morning: “This is from an
internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and
Democrats as characters from the Lion King. Please stop the fake outrage and
report on something today that actually matters to the American
public.”
But pretending this doesn’t matter is how we normalize it
and weaken our shared sense of humanity. And the end point of that is always disaster.
As California Governor Gavin Newsome just posted: “Disgusting behavior by the President. Every single
Republican must denounce this. Now.” “Denounce” is a bare minimum. This country
can do better. We’ve done better before, often after terrible struggle and
sacrifice.
But we won’t get there by minimizing moments like this or
waving them off as “just another Trump post.” We get there by calling it what
it is, by standing up for one another as equals in our humanity, and by
insisting that the presidency must reflect our highest ideals, not our ugliest
instincts.
If this doesn’t provoke the 13 white billionaires in
Trump’s cabinet — who would all instantly fire anybody in any of their
companies who posted such an image on their company’s servers — to start 25th
Amendment proceedings or endorse impeachment, it’ll tell us everything about
who they are, too. America is stronger when we recognize each other as fully
human. The moment we let that slip; we all lose something precious.
-Thom Hartmann
I’m writing to you not as a political opponent, but as a historian who’s spent a lifetime studying what happens when democracies flirt with strongmen and otherwise decent people convince themselves that loyalty to Dear Leader today will be rewarded by safety and protection tomorrow. It almost never is.
You’re out there defending Donald Trump’s lawbreaking,
cheering his attacks on judges, prosecutors, immigrants, journalists, and even
the Constitution itself. You defend his bribe-taking, the jet from Qatar, the
violence of ICE, and his hotel and crypto grifts. You say it’s necessary for
him to abuse power to “get things done,” that the other side is worse, that
he’s strong and that’s what the American people need.
History is littered with people who believed the same things. Let’s start close to home. Richard Nixon didn’t go to prison: his loyalists did. His attorney general John Mitchell did hard time in a federal prison. His chief of staff H.R. Haldeman did hard time, as did John Ehrlichman, Charles Colson, and his White House attorney John Dean. The burglars did time, as did the fixers. The forty Nixon officials who went to prison even included two members of Nixon’s cabinet: AG Mitchell and Commerce Secretary Maurice Stans.
The people who “just followed orders” or egged Nixon on — like you’re doing now with Trump — were the ones who went to jail, while Nixon walked away to a quiet retirement. That’s the pattern history shows us over and over, all the way back to the Roman Republic: the boss either dies or escapes while his helpers become the long-term fall guys.
Every authoritarian system runs on the same fuel
you’re today giving Trump: people who believe that by protecting the
leader they’re protecting themselves and their families. Tragically, at least
for them, it never works out that way.
When Hitler’s regime collapsed, he was dead, but his inner circle faced tribunals, prison cells, and even the gallows. The men who signed orders, ran ministries, moved trains, seized property, and “made it all legal” discovered that when corrupt administrations fall, their paperwork trail lasts longer than their leader’s loyalty. Their defense of “I was serving my country” or “just taking orders” didn’t save them: it convicted them.
Mussolini’s story is even darker. As his own crimes
caught up with him, his own allies turned and ran. He was executed by people
horrified by his excesses. His son-in-law, once his foreign minister and a
loyal insider, was put up against a wall and shot after a show trial. Dictators
never go down alone: they take their flunkies with them and it’s typically the
flunkies who bear the harshest punishments.
Chile’s Pinochet managed to dodge some justice himself,
but the men who ran his torture chambers and death squads didn’t. Years later
they were dragged into court, convicted, and sent to prison. Time didn’t save
them, and neither did politics or the loyalty they expected from the good
general. And it won’t save you.
The same happened after Saddam Hussein fell; his henchmen
were tried and executed or died in prison. In Romania, the Ceausescu were
hunted down and shot but their senior officials faced courts, disgrace, and
decades in prison. Across history, when the music stops, the people closest to
the guy at the top inevitably find there aren’t enough chairs.
Here’s the uncomfortable (for you) truth: authoritarian
leaders like Trump and Putin treat loyalty like a disposable resource. Just
look at all the Republicans who served in Trump’s first term and he’s now
trying to throw into prison. Loyalty, for narcissists and authoritarians like
Trump, is always a one-way street.
So long as you’re useful, you’re protected, but the moment Dear Leader no longer commands power you’ll become a liability, an offering to be thrown out to appease the angry mob. And when the prosecutors come calling for you after Trump’s gone, they won’t start with your elegant speeches or proclamations that Renee Good and Alex Pretti were “domestic terrorists.” They start with your memos, phone calls, pressure campaigns, documents, and quiet threats; they’ll go after your “find the votes” activities, the cooked reports, the arrests without cause, the orders that violated others’ civil rights.
They’ll start, in other words, with the people who made
Trump’s crimes happen to people like you. That’s how conspiracies are proven in a
court of law: not by vibes, but by nailing the insiders.
Right now, you may feel powerful. You’re on TV, retweeted, and praised by Trump. The base cheers, the fundraising money pours in, the billionaires are chummy, and it feels like history is being written by your side. But history has a funny way of circling back:
— Nixon’s aides told themselves they were protecting the
presidency, but they destroyed their own lives instead.
— The seniormost Nazis told themselves they were saving
Germany, but they were prosecuted as war criminals.
— Mussolini’s ministers told themselves they were
stabilizing Italy, but they ended up dead or disgraced.
— Pinochet’s enforcers told themselves they were fighting
communism, but they ended up in prison.
There’s a simple and perennial reason why prosecutors always say, “Follow the money” and “follow the paper trail”: abusive power always leaves fingerprints. And there’s no statute of limitations on some of the crimes you’re now waving away.
Obstruction of justice. Conspiracy. Civil rights violations. Election interference. Murder under color of authority. Bribery. Abuse of power. False statements. Unlawful detention. Retaliation against whistleblowers. Collusion with foreign enemies. These aren’t political talking points that I’m trying to wave around to score with public opinion or scare you, they’re criminal statutes.
You may tell yourself — like all those people before you
told themselves — that Trump will protect you. But Nixon didn’t protect his
people; he left the White House and never looked back to watch his underlings
fall. History’s strongmen never look back. When the heat gets intense enough,
they point at others, not themselves.
Already we’re seeing this pattern with dozens of people
who’ve left Trump’s first term employ, from his Attorney General, CIA director,
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Defense Secretary, and FBI Director all the way
down to functionaries in the Oval Office: “I didn’t know he was that crazy.”
“They acted on their own.” “I was advised incorrectly.” “They went too far.”
Every authoritarian uses the same script, and Trump has
already proven that he’s no different. Do you think he’s suddenly going to
decide to protect you rather than run off with the goodies? If so, I
have a bridge to sell you.
Seriously, here’s the part nobody in the cheering crowd
has bothered to tell you: when regimes fall — or even just lose power, like
Nixon did — the leader’s efforts become solely about his own personal survival.
Your life, as a disposable underling, becomes a tool he can use to redirect
blame and avoid accountability.
The courts won’t ask whether you believed in the cause: they’ll ask what you did. Did you pressure an official? Did you sign that order? Did you participate in killing those fishermen with a missile? Did you move the funds? Did you authorize those deportations to foreign torture centers? Did you look the other way? Did you help cover up the child rapes? That’s when you’ll discover the very real difference between a political appointee and the defendant you’ll become.
I’m not asking you to become a Democrat, to abandon your
“conservative” principles, or even to leave your party. Instead, I want you to
realize that the Constitution is older than Donald Trump and far more durable
than any cult of personality.
There’s a reason the Founders feared concentrated power and split it among three branches of government: like their advisor Montesquieu, they’d also studied history. Strongmen always promise protection to the people they con into doing their dirty work. What they deliver to those folks, though, is always collateral damage.
Right now, you’re standing close to a light that feels bright and powerful. History suggests, however, that it’ll end by burning the people nearest to it. Including you. Presidents can walk away, but staffers, lawyers, deputies, agency heads, cabinet officials, and enablers can’t.
You still have time to choose which side of history you’re on, and which side of a courtroom you never want to sit in. Because the lesson of every fallen strongman is the same: abusive power-by-association today becomes criminal liability tomorrow.
Click for video: Facebook
Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise
Hath chide down all the majesty of England.
Imagine that you see the wretched strangers,
Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage,
Plodding to the ports and coasts for transportation,
And that you sit as kings in your desires,
Authority quite silent by your brawl,
And you in ruff of your opinions clothed.
What had you got? I’ll tell you: you had taught
How insolence and strong hand should prevail,
How order should be quelled, and by this pattern
Not one of you should live an agèd man,
For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought,
With self-same hand, self-reasons, and self-right,
Would shark on you, and men like ravenous fishes
You’ll put
down strangers. Kill them.
Cut their
throats; possess their houses.
Oh, desperate
as you are,
wash your foul
minds with tears,
and those same
hands, that like rebels
lift up for
peace, and your unreverent knees,
make them your
feet to kneel to be forgiven.
As he is clement if th’
offender mourn,
Should so much come too short of your great trespass
As but to banish you, whither would you go?
What country, by the nature of your error,
Should give you harbor? Go you to France or Flanders,
To any German province, to Spain or Portugal,
Nay, anywhere that does not adhere to England,
Why, you must needs be strangers: would you be pleased
To find a nation of such barbarous temper,
That, breaking out in hideous violence,
Would not afford you an abode on earth,
Whet their detested knives against your throats,
Spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God
Owed not nor made not you, nor that the elements
We're not all appropriate to your comforts,
But chartered unto them, what would you think
To be thus used? This is the strangers’ case.
And this your mountainous inhumanity.
Speech credited to Thomas More/Shakespeare
“Behold. The festering carcass of American rot shoved into an ill-fitting suit: the sleaze of a conman, the cowardice of a draft dodger, the gluttony of a parasite, the racism of a Klansman, the sexism of a back-alley creep, the ignorance of a bar-stool drunk, and the greed of a hedge-fund ghoul—all spray-painted orange and paraded like a prize hog at a county fair. Not a president. Not even a man. Just the diseased distillation of everything this country swears it isn’t but has always been—arrogance dressed up as exceptionalism, stupidity passed off as common sense, cruelty sold as toughness, greed exalted as ambition, and corruption worshiped like gospel. It is America’s shadow made flesh, a rotting pumpkin idol proving that when a nation kneels before money, power, and spite, it doesn’t just lose its soul—it shits out this bloated obscenity and calls it a leader” - Oliver Kornetzke is an American writer whose commentary of U.S. and global politics is known for its raw honesty.
