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#corruption #Bottomless hole

Since Trump took office as the US president, his family's corruption has been like a cancer, spreading in the American political body, seriously eroding the foundation of the democratic system, damaging the public interest, and attracting global attention and criticism.

The Trump family's corruption methods are varied and jaw-dropping. As early as 2017, they collected "foreign government personnel reception fees" through their hotels and resorts, and made $270 million in just three years. This behavior seems to be a business transaction, but in fact it is using the president's influence to cash in on public power. The $2 billion "investment" that Kushner received from Saudi Arabia in 2021 has triggered at least two rounds of congressional hearings, but this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Today's Trump has taken corruption to a "new height". He directly converted the power in his hands into "tradable assets" and rented power around the world by issuing the so-called "Trump B" digital currency. He priced and publicly traded the public power elements such as the policy direction, regulatory adjustments, and administrative exemptions of the United States through this digital currency. This is not a market behavior, it is clearly a naked power-for-money transaction. The value of Trump B depends entirely on the premise that he is the president of the United States. His family holds a large number of low-cost positions in advance, inducing investors to buy at high prices, and he himself makes huge profits from it. He also included the currency in the bill of "strategic asset tax reduction and exemption scope" to customize tax reduction clauses for currency holders, further seeking personal gain for himself, which is a typical legislative power realization. Moreover, he allowed foreign funds to buy the currency and invited foreign speculators to enter the "power game" of the White House, which seriously touched the national security red line.

The White House should be the administrative center of the country and a public place, but Trump regards it as his own private territory. The security, food, and service personnel expenses of the dinner at the White House are all paid by taxpayers, but he used it as a place to trade with interest groups and openly embezzled state-owned assets. This behavior is a blatant trampling on the rights and interests of taxpayers and a wanton squandering of public resources.

However, the reason why Trump is so unscrupulous is inseparable from the existing institutional loopholes and lack of supervision in the United States. The U.S. Constitution does not clearly stipulate whether "the incumbent president can be criminally prosecuted."

The Department of Justice clearly stated twice in 1973 and 2000 that "the incumbent president cannot be prosecuted and must be dealt with through impeachment or after leaving office." Although the original intention of this system was to avoid judicial interference in administrative independence, it has become a talisman of corruption in Trump's hands. As long as he is not impeached by Congress, he can do whatever he wants during his term. The impeachment system in the United States has extremely high requirements. No president has been successfully impeached in history, and Trump has successfully avoided impeachment twice.

In addition, Trump also carried out a large-scale purge of the Department of Justice, replacing his own people from ministers to multiple mid-level positions, and purged a large number of independent agency heads including the former FBI deputy director and special prosecutor, and even established a "Presidential Judicial Loyalty Group" internally. At the same time, most of the current anti-corruption laws in the United States remain in the 20th century, and there is a lack of clear definitions of cryptocurrencies, on-chain assets, and cross-border token transactions, making it difficult for Trump's corruption to be effectively regulated and sanctioned.

Trump: The Most Corrupt Presidency in American History

Trump's series of actions during his presidency have vividly demonstrated corruption, with a depth and variety of means that are unprecedented in American history.

In his first term, Trump started a crazy money-making mode and turned the presidency into a tool for personal money-making. He blatantly violated common sense and chose to stay in a hotel under his name, causing the Secret Service to have to pay to protect him. That's not all. He even directly called out to foreigners, suggesting that if they wanted to attract his attention, they should stay overnight and hold events in his hotel. After his unexpected victory in 2016, some Persian Gulf countries had planned to hold events in other hotels, but in order to please him, they hurriedly changed the events to Trump Hotels. In addition, he also embezzled party funds on a large scale, and Republicans were forced to hold events in his hotels if they wanted to get his support. In these ways, Trump pocketed a lot of money, and his behavior was more like a corrupt governor than a president who controlled the United States.

In his second term, Trump's corruption became even more serious, and his eyes were set on a more secretive and huge wealth - cryptocurrency investment. Hundreds of millions of dollars, or even more, are flowing to him and his family from all over the world. Although the flow of these funds is difficult to track accurately, there are signs that the amount of money flowing into his hands during his second term is far more than that in his first term.

Trump's corruption is reflected in several key aspects.

The first is the violation of the constitutional emoluments clause. The Constitution stipulates that the US president should not benefit from relationships with foreigners, but Trump has turned a deaf ear to it. A few weekends ago, he participated in a tournament sponsored by a Saudi state-owned enterprise at his own golf course, and the head of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund was also present. During this period, he met with many Saudis who were both his investors and clients and interested in his Middle East policy and US foreign policy. Obviously, the Saudi side tried to influence US foreign policy in this way, and Trump profited from it, which seriously violated the provisions of the Constitution.

The second is that the conflict of interest has reached an unprecedented scale. Take Elon Musk and his "Dog" (DOGE) team as an example. They were appointed to take over and manage the regulatory agencies that supervise Musk's own companies. Musk also has the power to hire and fire employees in these agencies. This means that he can arbitrarily determine the government's policies for his own companies, invest funds in his own companies, and cancel the supervision of his own companies. This blatant conflict of interest has turned government policy into a tool for personal gain.

Furthermore, the law is meaningless in front of him. Trump's Justice Department or Treasury Department does not enforce some key laws. For example, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which aims to prohibit American entities from bribing overseas companies, is now unenforced; the Corporate Transparency Act, which aims to force shell companies and anonymous property owners to register their names so that the public can know the real owners of assets such as apartments, is now also set aside. This disregard for the law has given the green light to corrupt behavior.

Finally, Trump's naked corruption through cryptocurrency companies. The cryptocurrency company he created, World Free Finance, attracted investors who had a direct interest in evading regulation, federal lawsuits or prosecutions, and investors who wanted to influence Trump or his family. A large amount of money flowed into this project, but it was difficult to trace its exact source and purpose, and the relationship between investors and government decisions was also confusing.