So You Want to Bribe the President
A user's guide.
For the first time in American history, a convicted felon has been elected president of the United States. Some call that a disgrace. I call it an opportunity!
There has never been a better time to bribe an American president. The culture of impunity surrounding Trump, which was never subtle, is significantly more conspicuous than it was eight years ago. Trump’s indebtedness is in the hundreds of millions. With the stock price for the money-losing Truth Social accounting for more than half Trump’s net worth, the man’s personal finances are more dependent than ever on the kindness of strangers. And the Supreme Court (i.e., the Trump Court) has, through various rulings on bribery and on presidential immunity, made it so very easy to buy a president that you risk insulting Chief Justice John Roberts if you don’t take advantage of them. We are entering a golden age of baksheesh.
My latest for the New Republic is a Swiftian tour d’horizon of the many, many avenues to shove cash down the president-elect’s pants, reviewing both the ethical squalor of his first term (remember the Emoluments Clauses? They might as well not exist) and assorted frontiers newly opened for his second. You’d be crazy not to get in on the action. Please read my piece here.
I would add as an overlapping issue will be selected targeted enforcement and non-enforcement based on who is considered an enemy and who has bent the knee (and also paid off): There should be more attention paid to the likely future that federal law and regulatory enforcement will be a transactionally politicized protection racket. Support liberal democracy and you will be scrutinized in all ways. For example, the workplace immigration raids already being publicized by Trumps designated lead Tom Homan comes with the acknowledgement that they will have to selective in whom they target given reality of limited resources (just as Obama did, which they condemned; but whatever). Therefore it is obvious that employers that show any support for democracy or Democrats will be the first to be targeted. And employers that bend the knee and support Trump/Repuglicans in all other ways, will be given protection and bypassed. Workplace raids will be another Trump/Repuglican protection racket.
It's not that there wont be any enforcement of pollution or worker safety or everything else progressives do want from government... it is that it will be selective on political grounds.
As will everything government... Support liberal democracy democrats and have regulatory oversite enforced on your means of earning money and expect extra IRS audits. Organizations that support any unapproved opinion or group (directly or even just their right to free speech) will lose their tax exempt status, being prosecuted as an enemy within, for terrorism etc. And their supporters should expect IRS audits, TSA checks etc.