“But Donald Trump doesn’t even take a salary as president!”
How many times has one heard some MAGA cultist say this very thing while blindly deflecting from Trump’s ongoing corruption? I’ve certainly heard it plenty from a fair number of intellectually lazy, unquestioning sycophants to the point of self-satirizing. Setting aside the fact the United States president cannot actually refuse the salary Congress mandates, no president in history has monetized the office to the degree Donald Trump and his family have.
On Day One of his first term, Melania Trump’s commercially sold jewelry line was advertised on the official White House website, an unambiguous violation of federal ethics regulations, which states: “an employee may not use their public office for their own private gain; for the endorsement of any product, service, or enterprise (except as otherwise permitted by this part or other applicable law or regulation); or for the private gain of friends, relatives, or persons with whom the employee is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity, including nonprofit organizations of which the employee is an officer or member, and persons with whom the employee has or seeks employment or business relations.”
In hindsight, the use of the White House webpage as an advertising vehicle for personal profit seems quaintly benign now, given the degree to which “Trump and Co.” have since flaunted virtually all government regulations, including the emoluments clause, and made a stark mockery of the United States constitution. At this point, to apply or suggest any standard of “ethics” where Donald Trump and family are concerned strikes me as frankly ludicrous. The scope of the ongoing corruption is just that stunning, but what is even more distressing is that our collective outrage has become stagnant and mute from overload. The complicity of a GOP majority Congress along with corporate media monoliths financially beholden to this administration only contributes to the see-no-evil reality we now face. One keeps hoping the MAGA multitudes will gain some sense of the enormous costs we all face as a result of vast and unfettered corruption, but most are still enthralled in a cult mentality.
That said, even Donald Trump is aiming to outdo himself in a blatant con whose magnitude sets a new record, in a very literal sense.
In January of this year, after taking office for his second term, Trump sued his own IRS and Treasury Department over the leak of his tax returns to news outlets which occurred between 2018 and 2020. According to the suit, the leak constituted “reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump, and the other Plaintiffs’ public standing.” The “other plaintiffs” named in the suit are Eric and Donald Jr. Trump, along with the Trump organization as a whole.
Specifically, the leaks were made to the New York Times and ProPublica. Based on the information obtained, it was found that Trump did not pay federal income tax for many years prior to 2020, as reported by The Times, and could owe $100 million in back taxes on a single property, while ProPublica published a series of reports about “discrepancies” in Trump’s records.
Ultimately, the IRS contractor who leaked the information, Charles Edward Littlejohn, was sentenced to five years in prison for violating IRS code 6103 which relates to confidentiality, while the House Ways and Means Committee (then led by democrats), released six years of tax returns which further shed light on Trump’s efforts to offset tax obligations, during the years 2015-2020.
Based on the perceived “reputational and financial harm” suffered by Trump and sons, the suit sought the sum of TEN BILLION DOLLARS, or, in other words, nearly the entire IRS operating budget. According to the suit, Trump is also seeking a formal apology and the discontinuation of any audits of his finances, those of his sons, and the Trump business.
In perpetuity. For all time.
Trump is, literally, suing the government of which he is the head. Essentially he is suing himself, and potentially transferring money (yours and mine) from his own Treasury Department into his own pockets. What’s to stop him one might reasonably ask?
Trump doesn’t feel the need, apparently, to justify the amount he is seeking as “damages,” as it is only intended to increase his personal wealth by an unheard of degree. What is more, The Department of Justice is now led by Trump’s personal defense attorney, and essentially operates as his “Agency of Retribution” instead of the non-partisan justice-seeking entity it was always intended to be.
In fact there are a couple of ways the Justice Department could dismiss the suit if were it not lead by a flunky loyalist: according to IRS tax code, civil damage claims must be filed within two years of the discovery of any “unauthorized inspection or disclosure,” something Trump failed to do. It is also the case Littlejohn was a contractor, not a government employee, and code clearly dictates the suit should have no merit on that basis as well.
There is simply no context in which this makes any sense or might reasonably be justified. This is a self-dealing shakedown, and you and I will bear the expense. In the midst of budget cuts to essential services which have previously been available to those most vulnerable and needy, the outrage should be loud and wide.
As of today, there are reports the Trump organization is potentially willing to “settle” for a mere $1.7 BILLION to establish a fund to award money to people Trump decides were “wronged” by the Biden administration. This would likely include, according to the reports, those who participated in the infamous violent insurrection on January 6.
image: “Fox In the Chicken Coop,” by Angelo Maria Crivelli, 1660-1730
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