Donald Trump has granted pardons in a pay-for-play roulette during his first year in office. (Photo: White House)
Donald Trump‘s childish and nasty tantrum after losing the tariff case before the Supreme Court reminded me of his other defects.
One is the appearance of corruption that is absolutely gob smacking.
He has turned the White House into a pay-to-play whorehouse with him being the madam.
The latest example of the appearance of vast corruption and grifting is a report regarding the old bridge that connects Canada to Detroit.
This toll bridge is privately owned by Matthew Moroun whose family has operated it for decades. After a new (Gordie Howe International) bridge was built and paid for by Canada, Moroun met with Trump‘s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, to complain.
One month before this meeting, perhaps to give the check time to clear, Moroun donated $1 million to a Trump super PAC.
After the meeting, Lutnick called Trump, and Trump blasted the new bridge on behalf of Moroun, threatening to block the opening of the bridge claiming it was unAmerican.
In 2017, when the project was announced, Trump praised it.
Yup, pay-to-play. Get in line, baby.
There are many “dark money’’ contributions made by influential people and entities to super PACS whose origins need not be disclosed. No doubt they seek influence in this administration.
Trump’s inauguration received millions of dollars from donors. One was a Brazilian meat processing company that soon after received beneficial regulatory rollback.
In July, Sen. Elizabeth Warren released a report stating “Donald Trump may be using his presidential library as a tool for corruption and bribery, while still in office. We could be seeing giant companies like Paramount and Meta and foreign countries like Qatar pay Trump in plain sight.’’
Recall that Trump accepted a $500 million, luxury, Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the government of Qatar that is intended to be transferred to his “library “after his term ends.
This plane will receive millions and millions of dollars and upgrades paid for by the federal government with the approval of Congress.
At around the same time, Trump facilitated deals with Gulf states, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), that expanded their access to advanced U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) technology and chips. Pay-to-play.
The Gordie Howe International Bridge (background) and the Moroun toll bridge in Detroit. (Photo: DHS)
There are the numerous business deals with Mid-East interests that he and his family are engaged in.
There are the legal settlements of personal lawsuits he brought against ABC and CBS that resulted in a millions of dollars paid to him by companies his administration regulates, with one seeking merger approval. Legal know-it-alls have said there was simply no basis for his suits.
And who could forget the pardons that Trump has granted.
Soon after Paul Walczak’s mother made a $1 million contribution to a Trump fundraiser, Paul, a felon convicted of fraud, was pardoned. He did not have to repay $4.4 million in restitution he was convicted of stealing.
A lobbyist was paid $750,000 to secure a pardon for a Republican donor Parker Pettit, convicted of securities fraud and fined $1 million. These lobbyist are paid enormous fees to present their cases directly to the president.
It’s hard to believe they don’t also use some of that money to make campaign contributions. Of course they do. Some of these lobbyist have told The Wall Street Journal that their fees are in the range of $1 million. Pay- to-play.
And there are the pardons that are made without apparent pay, provided because the convicted person or someone close, supports Trump.
Qatar ‘gifted’ this luxury Boeing 747-8 jet to Donald Trump, who will keep it after the government spents $1 billion to refurbish it. (Photo: John Taggart)
Ross Ulbricht, a Penn State engineering student, set up his infamous “Silk Road” website on the dark web that facilitated drug sales and offered hacking services and forged documents. He was busted by the FBI in 2013.
In 2015, he was convicted of distributing narcotics, money laundering, and computer hacking, and was sentenced to two life sentences plus 40 years, without parole.
After serving nearly 12 years in prison, Ulbricht was granted a full and unconditional pardon on the day Trump was enaugurated as the 47th president.
Trump wrote on his social media site:
“I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross. The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me. He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!”
And, there are Trump’s legal claims against his own government, one seeking $10 billion from the U.S. Treasury; another $250 million for his legal defense expenses prior to the election. He even said he was “suing myself.”
Maybe some of the prior presidents also engaged in pay-to-play, but if they did, it was pretty much kept out of the public view because their corruption would’ve embarrassed them.
Or it would not have been tolerated by Congress and led to impeachement.
Trump, however, advertises to all who can see and hear that his office is open for business and if you can bring him money, have the right political affiliations, and a conversation with him or someone close to him, you can be “in like Flynn.”
The last time the White House was so corrupt in the 1970s was when Bud Hammerman brought then Vice President Spiro Agnew paper bags full of cash as payoffs for favors he did while he was Baltimore County Executive.
Spiro was charged, pled no contest and resigned the vice presidency.
Should the same thing happen to Trump?