There have been frequent instances of financial and political corruption in our federal, state and municipal governments since the birth of our nation. But President Trump makes past corrupt activities by officials appear minor by comparison. It seems as if every day, Trump and his family devise some new ways to extract money from their wealthy friends and the public. If their ventures are not illegal, they are certainly blatantly unethical. And the Republican controlled Congress has done nothing to constrain the Trump crime family with the president as don. Of course, his base does not seem to care about his actions, though some of his political moves will certainly hurt them. Most of the corrupt activities have been occurring in public view, as Trump is now so powerful he is unafraid of any legal or political blowback.
One of his more horrendous moves has been the use of his pardon power to immunize personal allies from the law and to pardon white collar criminals, some after monetary contributions to Trump or his allies. The pardons and commutations began in his first term when he granted “executive clemency” to 237 individuals of which only 25 came through the Office of the Pardon Attorney. Most of the pardons were given to people who had direct connections to Trump or his allies. Many of these individuals had been convicted on fraud or public corruption charges. Included in his pardons were Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort and Roger Stone. Seven Republican Congressmen who had been convicted of crimes were also issued pardons. A number of wealthy individuals who had lobbied Trump or his close advisors for clemency were pardoned as well. Charles Kushner, Ivanka’s father-in law and Jared’s father was pardoned along with Michael Millikan and Bernard Kerik. Several soldiers convicted of war crimes for killing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan were also freed.
However, his first term was just a warm-up for what he would do in his second term. In the few months since his inauguration, executive clemency was granted to over 1500 participants in the Jan 6 capitol riots including those involved with violent behavior. These included a number of white supremacists and those who attacked the police. Rod Blagojevich, former governor of Illinois who had been convicted of conspiracy, attempted extortion, false statements among other crimes, was fully pardoned in January 2025. Several other individuals who were guilty of securities fraud, money laundering, and wire fraud were also pardoned. Paul Walczak, who had been convicted of withholding Social Security, Medicare, and Income tax deductions for the employees of his company was pardoned after his mother gave $1 million to a MAGA PAC dinner fundraiser. A number of other white-collar criminals and MAGA supporters were also pardoned or granted clemency along with some murderers and common criminals.
Aside from the pardons and clemency, Trump and his family have been dealing in new cryptocurrency and meme coins since his inauguration as president, having started in crypto before. His business has made billions of dollars in cypto since he became president. In addition, his family has opened a club in Washington called the Executive Branch that costs $500,000 to join and suggests it will provide access to the president. His family has also obtained billions of dollars in real estate deals abroad to build hotels with the Trump name in Serbia and the Middle East. And there is also the $500 million jet that was donated to Trump by his admirers in Quatar.
What was listed above may just be scratching the surface of what Trump and his family hope to make personally from the Don being president. Amazingly, his base has ignored his various unethical and money-making schemes and his pardoning of criminals. But once he starts taking away their government benefits to fund his tax cuts for billionaires, they’ll be sorry.
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Tags: 2020, 2024 elections, corruption, crypto, money making schemes, pardons, real estate schemes, Trump, Trump family
Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020