"Corruption Front and Center"

 

If you were watching any of the voter-on-the-street interviews Tuesday, you might have been surprised to hear how many Americans are deeply disturbed, furious even, about Donald Trump’s bulldozing of the White House to make way for a garish $330M donor-paid ballroom. It may not be the most egregious offense of the Trump regime (which has kidnapped people off the streets, sent them to foreign hell holes, and cut off SNAP benefits, among other outrages). 

It is not even the worst case of corruption, given the estimated $5B or so in wealth Trump and his family have hauled in from (among other sources) foreign buyers of crypto. But the ballroom is the most visible, easily explained, and visually disgusting evidence of Trump’s destruction of our democracy and the public’s ownership of our institutions.

For anyone who doubted that corruption—of the presidency, of the Justice Department, of the Supreme Court, of pay-to-play government—is not an animating issue for voters, Tuesday should be a wake-up call. Democrats would do well to lean into the ballroom debacle and expand the attack on corruption from there.

Providing the perfect starting point, Public Citizen this week released a report that neatly captures the stomach-turning effort to transform the White House into a monument to private greed and public corruption. The report found:

• Two-thirds of corporate donors—16 out of a total of 24—have entered into government contracts. Lockheed is the largest of these government contractors, having received $191 billion in contracts over the last five years. Altogether, the corporate donors benefited from nearly $43 billion in contracts last year and $279 billion over the last five years.
• Most of the corporate donors—14 out of 24—are facing federal enforcement actions and/or have had federal enforcement actions suspended by the Trump administration. These include major antitrust actions involving Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and T-Mobile; labor rights cases involving Amazon, Apple, Caterpillar, Google, Lockheed and Meta; and SEC matters involving Coinbase and Ripple.
• The companies and wealthy individual donors have invested gargantuan sums in combined lobbying and political contributions, totaling more than $960 million during the last election cycle and $1.6 billion over the last five years.

The bottom line is that companies with a “stunningly wide array of interests before the federal government” from industry specific items to all-encompassing interests (e.g. tax policy) have feathered the president’s nest by indulging his pathetic Louis XIV aspirations to construct a garish ballroom that substitutes a Trump monstrosity for a piece of American architectural history.

That may not be the worst of it. For one thing, we do not know exactly how much each is giving. Far worse, some of the donors remain anonymous. Are they pardoned felons? Lawmakers? Foreign governments? We do not know.

Reflective of the utter docility and sloth of House and Senate Republicans, we have heard no outrage, and certainly no calls for a single hearing. They are content to play courtiers (or is it jesters?) in the knock-off Versailles ballroom—at the very time they refused to keep full SNAP benefits flowing to Americans. (Let them eat cake…off gold plates in the grotesque Trump conference room!)

Democrats need not remain silent. In the wake of an election in which Republicans’ corruption and scorn for the average American people launched a blue tsunami, they can help set the stage for the midterms.

Democrats could devise a series of proposals, bring votes to the floor, and lay down markers both to embarrass Republicans and to make clear to the donors that when Democrats come to power the influence-peddlers’ participation in the selling of American government with come with serious, expensive consequences.

For starters, Democrats at every turn should demand hearings or use existing oversight hearings to ask critical questions to uncover the identities of all donors, the amounts given, the means by which regulatory controls were sidestepped, the historical and environmental damage, the means by which funds were solicited (and what promises/conditions were placed on them), the costs of demolition and maintenance, and any other pertinent facts (e.g., how is the bidding on the project to be conducted?). Any evidence of illegality can be fully investigated and prosecuted in the next Democratic administration.

Beyond that, Democrats’ proposed legislation could range from a simple halt of the project to a ban on donors’ contracts with the government to conversion of the facility into a museum on modern totalitarianism. Once Trump leaves office, they can demand repayment for the cost of reconstructing the existing structure (followed by a suit to recover monies).

Certainly, any 2028 Democratic candidate worth his or her salt would need to advance a mammoth anti-corruption plan to tackle not only this outrage (“Tear it down, rebuild democracy!” would make a lively campaign chant) but to severely regulate crypto, recover unconstitutionally acquired foreign emoluments, restore prosecution of foreign bribery statutes and other white collar crimes, and undergo an exhaustive investigation and prosecution of any bribery that took place in the Trump regime.

As with other autocratic atrocities, the corruption issue is too important to leave solely to the politicians. Shareholders of these companies could demand a full accounting and pursue shareholder suits if appropriate. Consumers can organize public campaigns to expose and embarrass these companies or conduct targeted boycotts (e.g., cancel Amazon Prime, do not patronize Hard Rock Casinos and restaurants). And further No Kings events should keep corruption front and center.

In sum, Democrats would do well to craft their plans to shovel out the Augean Trump Stables to eliminate opportunities for self-dealing, the extensive conflicts of interest, the noxious role of dark money, the pay-to-play practices, and the politicization of the Justice Department (as well as the Pentagon and other government departments) that has engulfed the federal government. The hideous Trump ballroom can be the trigger for a full-scale effort to remove the stench of corruption that has flourished under Trump. MAGA Republicans may regret letting Trump mar the People’s House.

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