<
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/27/trump-corruption-autocracy>
"As his mentor Roy Cohn counseled, Donald Trump never admits wrongdoing or
apologizes. But he occasionally evinces something resembling a qualm. In
October, considering renewing claims against the government for $230m in
compensation for federal investigations against him, he reflected on his own
appointees deciding on the payout and him signing off on it. “It sort of looks
bad, I’m suing myself, right?” he said. “So, I don’t know.”
That month, when he demolished the White House East Wing to build his ballroom,
he made it sort of look good by vowing that the now $400m project would be
privately funded. It went without saying that the donors would expect gratitude
in the form of government contracts or favorable regulatory rulings.
The desecration of the people’s house was a kind of theft – of our shared
architectural heritage. Still, like the billions the Trump family has earned in
cryptocurrency trading or the $400m jumbo jet the president received from the
emir of Qatar after the Trump Organization decided to develop a $5.5bn luxury
resort in that country, the ballroom deal was business-to-business. The
taxpayer wasn’t out a dime – or so Trump promised.
Trump, his family, his companies and his administration have always been more
concerned with the appearance of conflict of interest than with conflict of
interest itself. Indeed, conflict of interest is White House Inc’s business
model.
But something has changed in the last few months. They’ve given up even caring
about appearances. The president is pilfering money directly from the US
treasury – that is, picking our pockets. And he is doing it in plain sight."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
