<
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/02/trump-republican-fraud-corruption-ilhan-omar>
"Donald Trump called me “crooked as hell” as he spread lies about the fraud
that occurred in Minnesota. Any keen observer will recognize the pattern of
inciting hostility against me and the Somali community whenever his own
failures and corruption catches up to him. He routinely reaches for the same
tired playbook of lies, racism and deflection.
This is not a new strategy. Lyndon B Johnson once said: “If you can convince
the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice
you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll
empty his pockets for you.” This is exactly what Trump’s doing: demonizing
Black and brown people so that we pay less attention to him picking our pockets
in broad daylight. He uses fraud as a political cudgel while protecting his
donor base and enriching himself.
The truth is Trump doesn’t care about addressing fraud. He has repeatedly
pardoned and rewarded some of the most brazen financial criminals. He pardoned
Philip Esformes, convicted in what his own Department of Justice described as
the “largest health care fraud scheme ever charged”.
He granted clemency to Lawrence Duran after a $205m fraud conviction. He
commuted Jason Galanis’s sentence and pardoned Devon Archer, who were both tied
to tens of millions in fraud, and also pardoned Joseph Schwartz for a $38m
fraud scheme, and reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley for multimillion-dollar
bank fraud. He’s now defrauding the American people further by creating a
$1.8bn slush fund of taxpayer dollars to compensate people he pardoned for
beating cops and ransacking the US Capitol on January 6 after they pleaded
guilty or were convicted of such crimes.
Fraud should be rooted out wherever it occurs. Anyone who exploited programs
meant to feed children or provide social services should be prosecuted. That
applies no matter who or where it happens. From the moment the
Feeding Our
Future scheme came to light, I publicly called for federal investigations and
supported prosecutions for everyone involved.
As someone who cares deeply about making sure children are fed, I was outraged.
I survived the agony of hunger as a child living in a refugee camp. I know the
sharp pain of an empty stomach, but even more haunting was the anguish in the
eyes of parents forced to watch their children starve while having nothing left
to give them. There is no greater helplessness than watching a child suffer
from hunger and being unable to stop it.
No child should ever endure that pain, and no parent should ever be forced to
witness it. That is why I have fought so hard in Congress to make sure children
have access to food. The fact that dozens of people, led by Aimee Bock,
exploited a program meant to eradicate child hunger is a level of depravity
that I have a hard time fathoming.
We should all collectively care about the damage that these criminals have done
to public faith in programs that save lives and feed children. But instead of
addressing the fraud equally and without exception, Trump and his cronies have
turned combating fraud into a partisan spectacle defined by a level of racist
vitriol that just years ago would have shocked most Republicans, not to mention
the American people at large."
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
