You want to be on Trump’s Board of Peace? That’ll cost you one billion dollars! And that money will go to… oh! Imagine that — Trump hasn’t said where it will go. Into an account managed by Trump? Like the oil money from Venezuela?
Major donors reap influence and material benefits, ethics experts argue, as money and governance intertwineThe GuardianPeter StoneFri 23 Jan 2026Donald Trump’s “pay-to-play” governing and fundraising style is helping forge a new gilded age where many super rich donors to Trump’s Maga Inc Pac and other top Trump causes are reaping big political and financial gains, including lax regulations, federal contracts and other benefits, say scholars and analysts.The transactional style of the US president has been a financial boon to cryptocurrency, AI and fossil fuel interests, among others, which have showered seven- and eight-figure donations on Trump’s Super Pac, inaugural committee and pet projects such as his oft-touted mammoth White House ballroom.According to public filings and Trump’s statements, the president’s Super Pac hauled in a stunning $300m in 2025, which analysts expect will mainly be spent on the 2026 midterm elections to help the GOP keep control of Congress, and Trump’s lavish ballroom project has raised $350m.
Cha Ching!
Over the past year, Trump’s herculean fundraising with its “pay-to-play” approach has reached “unprecedented” levels, say experts and scholars.“Trump’s unprecedented fundraising for his Maga Pac and his White House ballroom vanity project from wealthy donors and corporate interests who stand to benefit from his administration’s decisions are among the most recent examples of how he views governance as a pay-to-play business,” said Larry Noble, a former general counsel at the Federal Election Commission who now teaches law at American University.
We’d have to talk to former members — because Trump fired them all and put in his cronies!
2. Pardons & White‑Collar Crime
Many of the president’s recent pardons violate Justice Department policies designed to ensure fairness and public safety.The Marshall ProjectBy Joseph NeffJuly 28, 2025Their cases were different. One faced a four-year prison sentence in a $675 million fraud case for marketing an electric truck that wasn’t drivable. Another tried to overthrow the government. A tax cheat avoided prison and $4.4 million in restitution after his mom donated $1 million to the president.Their cases have two things in common. President Donald Trump pardoned them all in the early months of his second administration. And those pardons violated long-standing Department of Justice policies that reward people who show remorse, pay restitution and can contribute to society. Since returning to the White House, Trump has pardoned more than 1,600 people and at least two corporations in his first six months in office. Many of those pardons have violated standards designed to ensure fairness and to protect the public, attorneys and legal experts say.The changes began immediately. Hours after taking the oath of office, Trump pardoned more than 1,500 rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. That included men who used bear spray, bats, batons and poles to assault police officers.[...]In March, actor Mel Gibson, a friend of Trump, sought to have his criminal record cleaned up so he could own a gun again. Oyer declined to recommend a pardon due to Gibson’s history of violence against women. She was fired several hours later, with no reason given. She is suing to get her job back.
Cha Ching!
Trump’s pardons have proved costly for taxpayers and crime victims. Besides the group pardons of Jan. 6 defendants and anti-abortion protestors, the president has pardoned 46 individuals. Of those, more than half have been freed of fines and restitution.Oyer, the former pardon attorney, has set up a “pardon tracker” on her website that tallies the price of Trump’s pardons of people and companies that owed restitution and fines. As of July 23, the cost to taxpayers and crime victims is more than $1.3 billion.
Money talks — nobody walks!
Trump got very good at saying “You’re fired!” on The Apprentice.
3. Ethics Oversight / Watchdog Removal
Trump fired independent inspectors general, and the removal of ethics watchdog leadership undermined nonpartisan oversight critical to exposing fraud, waste, and abuse.
Center on Budget and Policy PrioritiesNovember 6, 2025By Cristin Dorgelo, Kathleen Romig, Nia Law, and Devin O'ConnorSince the start of President Trump’s second term in January, the Trump Administration has consistently sought to evade accountability. It has engaged in a series of unprecedented, irresponsible, and often illegal steps — reversing long-standing bipartisan commitments to integrity and transparency through actions that will increase the risk of fraud and make it more difficult to impartially determine when the Administration is taking illegal or imprudent action. This hostility to oversight has been on display as the President has removed Inspectors General (IG) and the Administration has defunded operations supporting IGs’ work, undercutting independent agency oversight.Last month, the President removed a Senate-confirmed Inspector General, in flagrant violation of legal removal procedures, for the 17th time this year.[3] Since firing many of these IGs in January, President Trump has kept most of these positions vacant for over eight months. (See Figure 1.) The President has continued active interference in IG offices, reportedly removing the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency's acting Inspector General early this week in retaliation for seeking to provide information to Congress and federal prosecutors consistent with the statutory responsibilities and duties of the office.And at the start of October, the Administration defunded the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), which supports the operations of more than 70 IGs across the federal government. This defunding brought down CIGIE’s website, which is a repository for tens of thousands of reports with IG findings on waste and fraud, as well as more than two dozen other IG websites run by CIGIE that provided whistleblower resources.
With no one watching the chicken coop the foxes have free run!
CNBC NEWSDilanianJune 3 2025For decades, the FBI and the Justice Department have been the main enforcers of laws against political corruption and white-collar fraud in the United States. In four months, the Trump administration has dismantled key parts of that law enforcement infrastructure, creating what experts say is the ripest environment for corruption by public officials and business executives in a generation.Trump aides have forced out most of the lawyers in the Justice Department’s main anti-corruption unit, the Public Integrity Section, and disbanded an FBI squad tasked with investigating congressional misconduct. They have issued a series of directives requiring federal law enforcement agencies to prioritize immigration enforcement. And they have ended a 50-year policy of keeping the Justice Department independent of the White House in criminal investigations.All of that came after Trump fired most of the inspectors general — the independent agency watchdogs responsible for fighting corruption and waste — and the Justice Department dropped a corruption case against the mayor of New York in what a judge said was a “breathtaking” political bargain. And it came after the Trump administration Justice Department pulled back on enforcement of foreign bribery and lobbying statutes, as well as cryptocurrency investigations.
[...]
Finally, one of the most impactful moves the Trump administration has made was to slash the size of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, which has dropped from roughly 35 lawyers to four to five, according to two former members of the unit. Lawyers who work in the Public Integrity Section consult with U.S. attorneys around the country on official corruption matters. Their role is twofold — to assist in cases when needed or when U.S. attorney’s offices’ prosecutors faced conflicts of interest and to ensure politically appointed U.S. attorneys followed the rules in some of the most politically sensitive cases the government brings.
4. Business Ties & Foreign Influence
The president’s hawking of $Trump memecoin has sparked a firestorm of criticism over potential influence buyingThe GuardianPeter StoneSun 25 May 2025Donald Trump’s push to sharply ease oversight of the cryptocurrency industry, while he and his sons have fast expanded crypto ventures that have reaped billions of dollars from investors including foreign ones, is raising alarm about ethical and legal issues.Watchdog groups, congressional Democrats and some Republicans have levelled a firestorm of criticism at Trump for hawking his own meme coin, $Trump, a novelty crypto token with no inherent value, by personally hosting a 22 May dinner at his Virginia golf club for the 220 largest buyers of $Trump and a private “reception” for the 25 biggest buyers.To attend the two events, the $Trump buyers spent about $148m, which will benefit Trump and partners, according to the crypto firm Inca Digital.Further, the Trump family crypto venture World Liberty Financial that launched last fall, which his two oldest sons have promoted hard, was tapped this month to play a key part in a $2bn investment deal by an Abu Dhabi financial fund in the crypto exchange Binance, which in 2023 pleaded guilty to US money laundering and other violations.
But wait — there’s more!
Trump’s term 2 corruption by the numbers: More golf trips, more foreign visitors and more profitsCREWBy Rebecca JacobsJuly 21, 2025In the first six months of Trump’s second term, his corruption is worse, marked by a dramatic escalation of his presidential profiteering.
- This term, Trump has made 99 visits to his properties, including 62 visits to his golf courses, a 37% increase from last term.
- Foreign government officials from ten countries have made 19 visits to Trump properties this term, with state government officials visiting 17 times in the last six months.
- Special interest groups, political committees and foreign governments have held 49 events at Trump properties, 16 more than this time in Trump’s first term.
- In the first six months of this administration, Trump has promoted his properties by mentioning them 57 times, a 78% increase from the first six months of his first term
During his first term in office, President Donald Trump racked up thousands of conflicts of interest, stemming from his decision not to divest from his real estate empire. Through visits and promotion of his properties and handouts for his customers, Trump sent a message that access to his administration was for sale through his businesses. In the first six months of Trump’s second term, his corruption is worse, marked by a dramatic escalation of his presidential profiteering. Trump not only once again failed to divest from the businesses he owns and profits from, he has launched numerous new businesses to monetize the presidency on a scale orders of magnitude greater than the corruption of his first administration.Trump’s business empire has grown considerably since the end of his first term, offering more lucrative and secretive ways to buy access and seek influence. Over the past few years, he has expanded his portfolio to include a publicly traded social media company, cryptocurrency ventures, new international developments and, most recently, a wireless service provider.The Trump Organization’s core real estate properties remain open for business to those looking to ingratiate themselves with the president. Since day one of this administration, CREW has tracked the conflicts of interest stemming from Trump’s real estate empire. CREW’s tracking falls into three main categories:
- Visits to Trump properties from foreign dignitaries, state government officials, cabinet members and Trump himself
- Events that special interest groups, foreign governments and political committees hold at Trump properties
- Instances in which Trump, members of his cabinet and government websites mention Trump business interests
Trump is putting to shame the Tea pot Dome and Tammany Hall scandals!
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