The most corrupt administration in U.S. history
Headlines across the country declare the end of the longest government shutdown in history: 43 days. Donald Trump signed the spending package bill late Wednesday night. The deal releases funding for whatever of the government is left after MAGA Republicans had their way with it. The White House is once again open for griftness.
NBC News summarizes:
The legislative package includes a “minibus” of three appropriations bills providing funding through next September and keeps the rest of the government open at current levels through Jan. 30.
It includes full funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, which will keep the program afloat through September. More than 40 million Americans rely on SNAP. Some people told NBC News that they ran out of food as the shutdown cut off money for the program, and the Trump administration fought in the courts against having to shift money around to fully fund it for the month of November.
The legislation also provides limited protections for federal workers who’ve been under assault since Trump’s inauguration. It reinstates thousands of government employees who were laid off during the shutdown and ensures there are no more reductions in force (known as “RIFs”), at least through the end of January. And it provides back pay for workers who were furloughed or working without pay these past six weeks.
But in a major concession from Democrats, the bill does not include an extension of enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, after Republicans held firm against extending those funds beyond 2025. That means more than 20 million Americans could see their premiums spike next year.
Spike is putting it mildly. A friend of mine, 29, reports that her ACA premiums will skyrocket from “about $88/month” to “over $750/month” beginning next year, over eight and a half times. “That’s not just unaffordable, that’s cruelty,” she writes. She’ll likely go uninsured. People much older and with the greater medical needs that come with age will be put at even greater risk.
That’s not a problem for Trump and his cronies. Nor, Sen. Cory Booker reminds us, for the money men and businesses dropping contributions into the coffers of “the most corrupt administration in U.S. history.”
A Financial Times team reported back in October:
At least 30 individuals or companies that have collectively donated more than $116mn to Trump’s causes have received benefits or advantages from White House moves, according to FT analysis. Sometimes, the administration acted just days after donations were made.
The donors range from crypto and tech billionaires who have developed close ties to the first family and been granted access to the president, to big insurance firms, tobacco companies and even a manufacturer of bandages from human tissue. Funds were given both before and after his inauguration.
There is no evidence of bribery or illegal conduct, but the volume of favourable outcomes for donors raises the question of whether a culture of quid pro quo exists at the heart of the administration.
It’s not as if pay-for-play is not a Beltway tradition. It’s just that in Trumpish “like you’ve never seen” tradition, the grift is out in the open.
“Past administrations have confronted accusations that money buys favours,” says Bob Bauer, former White House counsel under Barack Obama. “What is unique about this presidency is the open transactionalism that characterises Donald Trump’s governance style.”
FT provides “a number of cases” where Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigations ended where “owners or backers have donated to Trump’s interests, sometimes soon after making their gifts.” Crypto businesses feature prominently in cases dropped by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Then there are the Trump pardons. Many of those pardoned for violence against the Capitol or against the 2020 election process are not rich. In The Godfather fashion, Trump may call on them to do him a service again in 2026 or 2028. Others got their pardons after large donations to Trump’s interests. FT has a long list of those and policy favors benefiting Trump donors.
FT does not even mention the $400 million jet gifted to Trump from Qatar or the Trump Organization’s business ties with the emirate.
He’s demanding $230 million in compensation from the government he heads for alleged harms done to him by legitimately predicated investigations into his wrongdoing. The bill Trump just signed provides for payouts of as much as $1 million to eight Republican senators over their having their phone records (not phone taps) swept up in the January 6 investigation (Salon):
House Republicans are going after GOP senators who stand to collect millions of dollars courtesy of a veiled provision within a bill seeking to end the government shutdown.
The provision would give members of the Senate the ability to sue the government for obtaining their phone records without notification by the Justice Department. In 2023, the department obtained the records of several senators as part of its investigation into President Donald Trump‘s actions on Jan. 6. The provision said that those affected could receive $500,000 per violation.
House Republicans may have complained. But they still voted for the bill including the provision. Sen. Adam Schiff clarified Wednesday evening that the floor is actually $1 million and maybe more. Republican senators could be “swimming in millions of dollars” based on how the provision is written. See above as MSNBC’s Chris Hayes’s mouth hangs open at that revelation.
Tokyo Rose Garden
But it’s not just Trump and his family. In September, a reporter asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt if Trump had asked the Department of Justice to quash an investigation into border csar Tom Homan’s accepting a $50,000 payoff allegedly received from undercover FBI agents.
“Well, Mr. Homan never took the $50,000 that you’re referring to, so you should get your facts straight, number one,” Leavitt replied. We still don’t know what happened to the $50,000 in the bag.
Leavitt’s failed congressional campaign reportedly has skeletons in its own closet (from January):
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed in amended campaign filings on Thursday that her unsuccessful 2022 congressional campaign owes more than $300,000 in unpaid debts, with Leavitt failing to disclose for years that her campaign took in hundreds of thousands of dollars in inappropriate donations and never paid the money back.
The vast majority of that debt, about $200,000, is owed as refunds to contributors who appear to have donated above the legal limits. Those excessive contributions went unreported for years — until Thursday — when Leavitt’s campaign amended every campaign filing she had ever made with the Federal Election Commission.
As of last month:
Leavitt’s campaign reported $326,370.50 in debt as of Sept. 30 — a balance that hasn’t changed since her campaign first disclosed the debt in January after years of failing to disclose any debt, as first reported by NOTUS.
Racketeer roll call count off now.
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