The President of Fear: A Tale of Corruption Starring Two Pump Trump
“The problem with fiction, it has to be plausible. That’s not true with non-fiction.” Tom Wolfe
“That’s right. I’m going to f**k the fear turkey.” Alucard
According to an October poll conducted by Chapman University Americans are afraid of three things above all else: 60.6% of Americans are afraid of corrupt politicians, 41% are afraid of Terrorist attacks, and 39.9% are afraid of not having enough money for the future. In the most recent election cycle Trump, the candidate who devoted the majority of their rhetoric towards addressing (or simply stoking) these fears, won the right demographics in terms of relative electoral power, and through well aimed bellicosity he took the White House. Unfortunately there is little reason to believe that Trump is adequately capable of addressing these fears without exacerbating their perceived omnipresence and possible consequences.
First on the list of All American Fears, and the subject of today’s article, is The Great Washington Swamp the worst hive of scum and villainy this side of Mos Eisley. This fear of corruption is totally valid. Everything from the shape and origins of the 2007 economic collapse, to insane overspending in the military, to the frequency of questionable wars, and the rate at which Washington has sought to prosecute whistle blowers for telling the people about their own government are manifestations of a profoundly corrupt Washington culture. Unfortunately Trump is poorly equipped to do anything about the swamp other than pump the water into a new and vile bog of his own.
Right now, as the Daily Beast reports, Trump has 75 lawsuits pending and has been involved in 4000 lawsuits in his career. The most recent high profile case involved Trump paying $25 million so he didn’t have to go to court over defrauding students. On a macro level this troubling in that the $1.3 trillion in student debt is nearly 10% of the American economy down the drain, and I see little reason to trust someone who combines the second worst debt in the U.S. and fraud to make a profit. This becomes even more troubling when one considers that the office of management and budget is part of the executive branch and it is responsible for spending your tax dollars. In light of the Trump University fiasco we can say with certitude that Trump is comfortable taking your money and giving you nothing in return. This problem is made even more ludicrous knowing that Trump has openly bragged (as opposed to bragging on a bus while being recorded) about how tremendous he is at evading taxes.
Even worse yet is Trump’s refusal to move his holdings in 111 companies into a blind trust. The most ethically sound behavior would be to sell his holdings, but I won’t hold him to that standard, so a blind trust will have to do. He’s claiming that by moving his business dealings into the hands of his children he is avoiding any substantial risk for conflict of interests. Sorry, but keeping it in the family sounds much more like Vito Corleone than Charles de Montesquieu. India Times even reports that since Trump has been elected he has still conducted business meetings with Indian real estate developers. Post election private business dealings are among the most obviously corrupt behaviors a politician can engage in.
Unfortunately, Trump’s goal appears to be to surround himself with as many corrupt people as he can get his hands on.. The best phrase by which to characterize many of Trump’s closest confidants and appointees can be found in Hunter S. Thompson’s eulogy to Nixon, “so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning.” Trump’s chief strategist is Steve Bannon. Steve Bannon said “Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That’s power.” Steve Bannon has had a former employee call him, “a scorched-earth personal opportunist.” Possibly the most troubling feature of Steve Bannon is that he, along with Steve Mnuchin Trump’s chief fundraising strategist and likely pick for head of the Treasury, are former executives at Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sachs is a company that has been hit with at least 20 criminal fines and penalties since it went public in 2000. There are leaked internal emails (Thanks Guardian for another solid article) in which Goldman traders refer to their clients as Muppets. In those emails Goldman employees brag about their ability to fleece the people lining their pockets. Goldman Sachs was instrumental in shaping and creating the 2007 crisis, and when their CEO was questioned about his and his bank’s behavior he said “We’re doing God’s work.” The last high profile Goldman Employee in government was Hank Paulson, a man who left the Fed in disgrace largely because of his incompetence and conflicts of interests regarding Goldman. This is not a pedigree a President serious about stamping out corruption should be actively courting.
This line of corruption from Goldman to Trump’s real estate developments is already materializing. Trump is a real estate developer who refuses to remove himself from his private dealings. He appears to be making real estate deals as he’s transitioning into The Oval Office. He is a admitted tax evader. His primary economic stimulus plan is a trillion dollars in infrastructure development that will largely consist of tax breaks and financial incentives for banks and private developers. He is a private developer and his staff is full of bankers with a pedigree for corruption. His banker bros work for Goldman Sachs whose stocks just so happen to be booming largely as a result of Trump’s proposed infrastructure plans. This is beyond comically corrupt. This is the sort of corruption that would be ill suited to silver screen because no audience would believe the perpetrators could get away with it.
As far as I can tell Trump’s only serious problem with The Washington Swamp is location, location, location. He bought one pump to drain the swamp, and appears to be using another to move the fetid water into a moat around Trump Tower. American’s have good reason to be afraid of corrupt officials, and they had good reason to be afraid of Hillary (largely because of her own Goldman ties), but Trump’s staff seems to be aiming for a level of corruption unrivaled by any president in the history of the republic. JFK could have been the CEO of a contraceptives company and his dealings would appear less suspicious than Trump’s current setup. Trump looks like he is deliberately manipulating our fears to mask his own wild corruption. The only appropriate refrain for Trump and his administration may be from Pink Floyd. Shine on you crazy diamond.
Next time on The President of Fear we take a look at Terrorism, the likelihood that it kills you, and whether or not Trump is likely to decrease those odds.
Photo by Darron Birgenheier from Reno, NV, USA,