From Salon. Image by (ESB Professional via Shutterstock)
This is number thirteen in a series illustrating how Trump’s MAGA movement is the new American fascism. We use a template laid out in an article published in 2003 by historian Lawrence Britt, which analyzed seven fascist regimes and the common threads linking them. You can read last week’s blog here.
Week XIII. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
Wow! Where to begin? During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump promised voters that if elected, he would assemble a team of the "best" and "most serious" individuals, despite his questionable associations with fraudsters and unscrupulous figures throughout his career in business. However, it soon became evident after his election that Trump intended to govern akin to his business practices: appointing family members to prominent roles and surrounding himself with loyalists in the White House. This approach led to clear evidence of corruption, displays of incompetence, and a total failure to meet the standard of being the "best" or "most serious."
In 2018, the New York Times published a piece entitled “Trump’s Corruption: The Definitive List.” The Times wrote: “President Trump, his family and more than a few of his appointees are using his presidency to enrich themselves. They are spending taxpayer dollars for their own benefit. They are accepting sweetheart deals from foreigners. And they are harnessing the power of the federal government on behalf of their businesses…… Compiling the list made us understand why some historians believe Trump’s administration is the most corrupt since at least Warren Harding’s, of 1920s Teapot Dome fame. Trump administration officials and people close to them are brashly using power to amass perks and cash. They are betting that they can get away with it. So far, Congress has let them.”
And that was only half way through the term. For an update, read here, in a compilation that includes the breath-taking announcement of a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund in Kushner’s newly formed private equity firm. That in spite of a recommendation by the Saudi due diligence team NOT to invest - a recommendation overturned by the fund’s board, which was led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself. Payback for Trump’s unwavering support for a man who had a U.S. resident and journalist killed and hacked to pieces with a bone saw. As the excellent review of this saga highlights, it was not just Kushner who made out like a bandit by cosying up to a killer. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin raked in “$500 million commitments from the Emiratis, Kuwaitis and Qataris, plus $1 billion from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, within months of his time at the Treasury Department ending.”
What does it all mean for a second term? More of the same grift, with much more to be added through Trump’s plans to curb the independence of Federal agencies, granting himself and his cronies the ability to fire civil servants at will and replace them with loyalists.
Remember why an “independent” civil service was created back in the late nineteenth and early 20th century - it was intended as a buffer against a system of patronage, in which loyalists would be rewarded with comfortable government jobs, producing corruption and incompetence in equal measure. Trump wants a return to patronage, and an elimination of corporate responsibility in favor of boosting profits. The benefits of Trump’s plans to those who are subject to the rulings of regulatory agencies would be enormous. Take Trump’s plans to gut the EPA. The intent is to eliminate any attempt to curb climate change, and instead cozy up to the oil-and-gas industry and “drill, baby, drill”. No surprise, the oil and gas industry are massive donors to the Trump campaign.
It is all part of a push to deregulate the economy, and bring back the “good old days of the “Robber Barons.” Did they ever go away?
Next week we end this series with a piece on Fraudulent Elections - how Trump and MAGA plan to ensure victory in 2024 - and in perpetuity. As foreshadowed in this piece from Rolling Stone, from which this graphic comes.
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