Making America Corrupt Again
“For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.” — Peru’s General Óscar Benavides
We’ll get to the bizarre scene of Muskian humiliation of DJT in a moment.1 But, first, we need to take note of this week’s cataract of corruption.
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Surely, you are not surprised that a convicted felon, who tried to overthrow an election, called for terminating the Constitution, and who wears his own corruption like a coat of many colors is now making America safe for corruption again.
Surely,2 you are not gobsmacked that this chronic fraudster, surrounded by a cloud of grifters, charlatans, blackguards, and cretins; who was granted sweeping immunity by the Supreme Court; and who showed the world last year that he is, indeed, above the law… is now behaving in a lawless manner.
You can be shocked as Donald Trump dismantles the guardrails, shatters the norms, fires the watchdogs, and hands out pardons to seditionists, rioters, and crooked pols like skittles. But you cannot say that you are surprised.
Even so, what happened Monday was… really something.
Thank you for getting the word out, because it’s not easy these days with our enshittified social media ecosystem.
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A Cataract of Corruption
On Monday, there was undoubtedly some joy (or at least grim satisfaction) in the far reaches of Hell Purgatory, where Warren Harding and Richard Nixon could be secure in the knowledge that they would never again be remembered as “the most corrupt president ever.” To be sure, Donald Trump had long since usurped that crown, but on Monday he stood in the middle of Fifth Avenue and said Fuq It.
Let’s quickly review.
Trump fired the head of the Office of Government Ethics, who had just recently begun his five-year term.
Trump also fired the head of the whistleblower-protecting Office of Special Counsel (who was at least temporarily reinstated by a federal judge).
On Wednesday, we learned that Trump’s DOJ had also dropped a criminal probe into WWE boss and Trump crony Vince McMahon. “The revelation comes as appeals judges on Friday revealed that a grand jury had considered whether the 78-year-old billionaire broke the law by hiding allegations of sexual misconduct from two female former employees, whom he ended up paying $10.5 million to keep quiet.”
Trump ended enforcement of the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the law banning bribery of foreign officials. And speaking of bribery…
Trump pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who went to prison for eight years for trying to sell Barack Obama’s senate seat.
He also shut down the federal bribery case against NYC Mayor Eric Adams. The NYT described the directive from Acting Deputy AG Emil Bove to the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office as raising “urgent questions about the administration of justice during Mr. Trump’s second term and the independence of federal prosecutors.” But actually, there are no questions…. because we just got the answer.
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But let’s take a moment to talk about the Adams case. Author Garrett Graff posted: “This might be the most nakedly corrupt document I’ve seen on DOJ letterhead — and I wrote a history of Watergate!”
The quid pro quo in the Adams pardon was not subtle.
“Adams to Top Officials: Don’t Criticize Trump, Don’t Interfere with ICE”
Mayor Eric Adams gathered his top commissioners and officials early Monday to give marching orders under the new administration: don’t criticize President Trump, don’t interfere with immigration enforcement and trust the mayor, multiple sources told THE CITY.
In Rolling Stone, Noah Shachtman wrote, “The deal to spring Eric Adams caps a broad effort to functionally legalize bribery and covert foreign influence.”
Adams was indicted in late September for allegedly doing favors for the Turkish government as payback for illegal campaign donations and travel perks. Almost instantly, he started floating Trump-friendly conspiracy theories that the prosecution was a Joe Biden revenge plot. He stood up for then-candidate Trump when his opponent dared to call him a fascist. Adams has now reportedly directed his subordinates to only say nice things in public about the president — anything, really, for the Don.
On Monday night, Trump returned the favor, when his Justice Department ordered prosecutors in Manhattan to drop their charges against the mayor, two months before he was set to go to trial. This get-out-of-jail card isn’t free, though. It practically demands that Adams implement Trump’s deportation agenda, and it leaves open the possibility that Adams could be charged again if he doesn’t go along with the program.
Once again, attention ought to be paid, because none of this is remotely normal. Wrote Shachtman:
Legal observers tell me they’ve never seen a deal quite like it before. And while Adams may have been the most obvious and immediate beneficiary, he’s not the only one. If you’re a foreign government or a corrupt company trying to turn a public official into your toady, Monday’s move sends a powerful signal — one of many — that America is open for business. Everything and everyone is up for sale. Just name your price and start the negotiation.
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Daniel Drezner put all of this into context: “It's Open Bribery Season in Washington!”
The point is that an administration that performatively claims to be interested in rooting out fraud has taken a series of steps to enable the mother of all corruption seasons to start inside the Beltway.
The idea that Musk can self-police his own conflicts of interest is hilariously funny, as is the fact that Musk will not be required to publicly file a financial disclosure form.
Indeed, the floodgates for foreign and domestic actors to bribe US officials are now wide open.
“I have never seen a presidential administration care less about real or perceived conflicts of interest,” writes Dezner. “They are operating in an environment in which Congress is quiescent and the Supreme Court is also corrupt friendly. They don’t care if they are violating the law, because they don’t care about the rule of law.”
The combined signal of these Trump measures is clear: ethics are for haters and losers. It’s a rough world out there, and if you need to bribe or be bribed to get ahead, that is a-okay so long as you support President Trump.
Corruption for me — waste, fraud, and abuse for thee!
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BONUS: “Senate Democrat says FBI nominee Kash Patel may have perjured himself.”
WASHINGTON – A key Senate Democrat said Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, “may have committed perjury” in testifying he didn’t know about the purge of top officials at the bureau.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said he hoped the information would dissuade Republicans from voting to confirm Patel in a vote scheduled for Thursday.
“I hope that what I reveal today from credible whistleblowers at the highest levels will give my Republican colleagues some pause before it’s too late,” Durbin said on the Senate floor. “If these allegations are true, then Mr. Patel may have committed perjury before the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
Will this be a problem? Of course not. Not in this Administration. Not in this Senate.
Meanwhile…
Over the years I’ve struggled to describe the mind of Donald Trump. But, for the moment, I think the best way to think about what passes for his thought-process is to think of a bag of ferrets and scorpions.
It helped me get through this:
“There’s nothing to buy. We will have Gaza,” Trump said, sitting next to Jordan’s King Abdullah II in the Oval Office. “We are going to take it.” Asked what authority he would use to take it, he said, “United States authority.”
"We're not going to buy anything," Trump replied. "We're going to have it. We're going to keep it, and we're going to make sure that there's going to be peace, and there's not going to be any problem, and nobody's going to question it."
"And we're going to run it very properly, and eventually, we'll have economic development at a very large scale, maybe the largest scale on that site," he continued. "And we'll have lots of good things built there, including hotels and office buildings and housing and other things."
"But it's going to be a wonderful thing. It's going to be wonderful for the Middle East."
Exit take: If you look closely at pictures of the Oval Office meeting, you can see what looks like what’s left of Marco Rubio’s soul leaving his body.
Nota Bene
The Pope vs. JD Vance: “Pope Criticizes Trump’s Deportation of Migrants, Calling It a Violation of ‘Dignity’ - The New York Times
In an open letter to American bishops, Francis said that deporting people who often come from difficult situations violates the “dignity of many men and women, and of entire families.”
The pope wrote that he had “followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” adding that any policy built on force “begins badly and will end badly.”…
Francis appeared to give a riposte to Mr. Vance, who recently talked about the “ordo amoris” — a medieval Catholic theological concept that established a hierarchy of duties that prioritized immediate obligations to one’s family or community over distant needs.
The pope wrote that “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups.” “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted,” he wrote, is “love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.”
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“Steve Bannon pleads guilty in border wall fraud case, avoids jail time” - ABC News
Steve Bannon, the confidant of President Donald Trump, pleaded guilty Tuesday to defrauding New Yorkers who donated to "We Build the Wall," an online fundraiser for Trump's signature project during his first term, in exchange for a sentence without prison time.
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“Trump Migrant Deportation Numbers Compared to Obama, Biden” - Newsweek
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Tuesday that in the first two weeks of President Donald Trump's second term, nearly 5,700 illegal immigrants had been deported.
If the new administration continues at that clip, one expert told Newsweek, then it would be on track to deport half the number of migrants removed during former President Joe Biden's last full fiscal year in 2024.
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BEYOND PARODY: “White House bars AP reporter from Oval Office because of AP style policy on 'Gulf of America'“
The White House blocked an Associated Press reporter from an event in the Oval Office on Tuesday after demanding the news agency alter its style on the Gulf of Mexico, which President Donald Trump has ordered renamed the Gulf of America.
Wednesday dogs
Auggie then:
Auggie now:
Rick Wilson describes it thusly:
A picture really does speak louder than words, and yesterday’s Oval Office briefing by President Elon Musk proved it in spades. There he was, in the most exclusive office in D.C., simultaneously manhandling the press while having one of his 11 spawn babysat by some poor subordinate. If Michelangelo were around, this tableau would be on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel—commissioned by a Medici who wanted to show off his power over the Pope.
Meanwhile, a slumped Donald Trump sat nearby, wearing the bored, empty stare of a man who wants nothing more than his afternoon pudding. You don’t need a body-language guru to see he’s thoroughly checked out: drooping shoulders, slack jaw, glazed eyes. His single moment of real engagement was with Musk’s kid, Glorbax_Rocketchild42069.¹
Musk—who has apparently given up even the faintest nod toward business casual—rocked a MAGA trucker hat, jeans, boots, and a T-shirt.
Please don’t call me Shirley.
To borrow one of Frederick Douglass’ amazing turns of phrase: “This Administration fills me with unutterable loathing.”
Our Constitutional Republic is dead. America is dead (1787-2025). As dead as the Holy Roman Empire. As dead as the trilobites. As dead as the pharaohs. Dead. What country or countries will replace it is an open question. Buckle up.
Trump is weak. He is not strong. He gives in to billionaires and dictators. The picture yesterday will haunt him for a long time, because it shows the world how weak he is. Now is an opportunity for elected Dems, grassroots and everyone else to mock him for it publicly. Nothing he hates more than when people are laughing at him. We should all be doing that right now to drive the inevitable wedge that is coming between him and Musk.