He's stealing from us.

“No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up.”

Lilly Tomlin, 1985.

Let’s enjoy a happy thought:

We will look back at this era of Trump as a strange, wild, short-term aberation. A mistake. An idea that went very bad. Like Prohibition.

That happy thought embeds a premise that the changes Trump is making to our system of government and our norms and values reverse themselves. It presumes that voters decide they won’t tolerate from anyone else the level of crony capitalist grift that Trump does openly and proudly.

It could happen. Voters seem to keep a close eye on self-serving behavior of state and local politicians, and they get in trouble for it. The big, flagrant self-serving corruption -- the financial grift, the sale of pardons, the open conflict of interest in the billions of dollars -- is mostly a Trump phenomenon, trickled down to the federal agencies, but stopping there. And since Trump has his secure base of support, and appears to be impeachment-proof, Trump can get away with things that neither a blue-state nor red-state governor or state legislator could. Maybe our federal system has a stop-loss provision. That is a comfort.

But guest post author Bruce Van Zee sends up a warning that I may be too sanguine. Trump-style fearless open grift is an infection spreading through the culture, he argues. Van Zee is a retired physician who, like me, writes a blog post from his home in Medford, Oregon. He is an insightful, self-described “Never Trumper.” He publishes three times a week. He writes less about the optics of politics than I do, and more about the big trends in our culture, and especially about medicine. He tends to show his work with links. Read him at:

Guest Post by Bruce Van Zee

Corruption is infectious

There is some evidence that during the Trump years, there has been an increase in sports betting, prediction markets, and insider trading (here). And it is obvious that crypto, markets that clearly are favored by unscrupulous traders and money launderers, have proliferated under his watch – in no small measure because the Trump regime has favored them and even started crypto markets of their own (here). We learned last week that Trump’s meme coin, $TRUMP, has earned he and his family millions at little to no risk (because he profits from either sale or purchase of the coin) while his investors lost 96% of their investments (here).

A further insult – 600,000 eager MAGA folks who put $100 down payment a year ago for a soon-to-be-released “gold-plated” Trump cell phone, are still holding the bag. Quietly, the release date has been deleted and there is no promised return of the down payments. Here’s a 30 second video by one of Trump’s victims explaining the con job. It’s sort of funny unless it’s your $100, but I’m not laughing – because it’s our president who is behind these schemes.

Instagram video

And that’s the point of this post. The cell phone scam is minor compared to the systematic grift and corruption that permeates Trump’s presidency. Mona Charen documents the details here. The list and shear amount of corruption is mind-boggling. The Trump family is at least $1.4 billon richer since 2025 because of some of these schemes. But because this con man is our president and leader, his grift and corruption rub off on those who follow him and those who have shaky moral compasses. Trump sets the stage for corruption. And if you’re part of his team or have something to offer, you can count on a pardon if you’re caught with your hand in the cookie jar.

Since the Iran war started, the crude oil futures market has gyrated like a yoyo. There have been well documented large purchases and/or shorts just before presidential announcements of events in the Middle East that would affect the market (here).

I’d be surprised if there is vigorous investigation into these occurrences, in large measure because Trump fired most of the Inspector Generals, internet watchdogs, consumer financial protection agencies, and other built-in governmental protection against fraud and abuse shortly after taking office in January 2025.

It all speaks to a dark moral center of Trump’s mind and what he values. Folks, it’s all about money and power – his, not yours. I really think Trump values little else than wealth accumulation and power. Altruism and empathy are for suckers. Patriotism is good to talk about to get votes, but no self-sacrifice for the Trumps. Remember “old bone spurs”? And Trump’s disparagement of wounded or dead soldiers. Speaking about John McCain who was shot down over Vietnam, captured and tortured, “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured”. And you can rest assured that Barron will not be enlisting anytime soon and that the “Trump Foundation” was not a philanthropic institution.

Unfortunately, his grifting and moral depravity have become infectious because he happens to be president; hence the increase in these dubious schemes – insider trading, crypto, sports betting, gambling, prediction markets like PolyMarket and Kalshi. Because he’s the leader, people think it’s okay. It’s the mantra of “get rich quick” schemes that is spreading. A little may not be so harmful to society, but when productive work is sacrificed for these schemes, society may suffer as well.

At his core, I don’t think Trump believes in the concept of white collar crime, at least not if he’s the one committing it. His pardons speak loudly to that belief.

Based on analyses of his two terms in office, President Donald Trump has used his clemency power extensively, with white-collar offenders making up a significant portion of his pardons and commutations. Reports indicate that over 50% of his 88 individual pardons during his second term’s first year were for white-collar offenses. This includes at least 27 individuals in his second term, with over 70 allies and donors with fraud convictions benefiting from clemency across both terms. (here).

We see this same mindset in our tech tycoons where wealth accumulation to an obscene degree seems the only value that matters. Mark Zuckerberg plans to lay off 8,000 Meta/Facebook employees in the name of “efficiency” while having the audacity to say, “People will be more important in the future, not less”. For more on Zuckerberg and the failure of his company’s once aspirational promise, see NYT , “Meta is Dying. It’s About Time.” And then there was Musk, decimating USAID, among other government agencies, all in the name of efficiency. Perhaps 500,000 children, mostly in Africa, have died as a result of the cessation of nutrition and medicine (here). USAID was less than 1% of the government’s budget and represented enormous good will and “soft power”. And the cruelty did not result in lowering of the national debt.

During the Trump era we have seen the uber wealthy move to the right politically. Maybe because it was politically and personally expedient, or because the stigma of being a modern-day robber baron was removed a bit by the cover of Trump’s favor. And we have seen “Christian Nationalism” adopt very unchristian tenets, like “empathy is a weakness”. Then there were the companies, previously proud to offer diversity, equity, and inclusion in their organizations until it became politically risky. All under the influence of our Grifter-In-Chief.

I am not an anti-capitalist. Like everyone else, I want to have enough income to live comfortably and not worry about my next meal or shelter or financial security. But, come on, this absurd quest for ever more wealth to where three mega billionaires own more wealth than the bottom half of American families has got to stop. There are other important values in life – kindness, empathy, compassion, fellowship, honesty, fairness, freedom, enjoyment of nature, health and wellness, art and music, and so much more. America needs a reawakening to the fullness of life. And ask yourself, do Trump, Musk, Zuckerberg, Theil, and others like them represent people you want your children to emulate? And do they seem happy, fulfilled individuals?

Ultimately wouldn’t it be nice if American capitalism morphed a bit to include other values than shareholder earnings? How about a little respect and value given to the employees and their service over time and that they are not easily discarded like yesterday’s trash. Japan, for instance, has a deeply-rooted allegiance between corporate employees and employers leading usually to life-long employment and good job security. Does that make Japanese companies less efficient than American ones? Possibly, but again, that is not the only, or even most important value that counts.