Trump Is Saddling the GOP with a Load of Corruption to Defend in the Midterms

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We’ll know after the midterms whether America continues to march toward autocracy or whether the voters decided to come out in droves to check President Donald J. Trump’s power. 

So far, Trump’s second term has been more destructive than most people expected — except for those who read WhoWhatWhy, studied their Project 2025, or watched the crowd shout “Mass Deportations Now” at the last Republican National Convention. 

He is literally dismantling government agencies and programs, tearing down buildings, withdrawing from international organizations, and dramatically weakening the foundations of our democracy and our standing in the world. 

Meanwhile, he’s putting his name on everything, adorning every surface of the White House with gold-plated ornaments, and increasing his family’s net worth by billions of dollars. 

The level of corruption has not yet been communicated effectively to the voters. Democrats need to wield the sword of outrage to brand Republicans as the party of self-dealing liars, hellbent on resegregating, repolluting, and ripping apart the United States. 

It may be that all of these building projects are an integral part of the grift: Give a builder a contract with an inflated budget and later they can return the favor by doing work at no charge, or giving the Don a taste of the profits. And that’s before we even get to his effective personal control over the $1.776 (get it?) billion “Weaponization Victims” slush fund!

A partial list of Trump’s suspected corruption includes:

1. Prolific insider stock trading based on knowledge of coming government announcements.
2. The US Air Force signed a contract to buy interceptor drones from a Trump family– related company. 
3. A company associated with Trump’s sons took advantage of $1.6 billion in US government backing for a Kazakhstan tungsten mining project.
4. Financing and contracts for Trump’s ballroom and other projects never approved by Congress (to which the US Constitution explicitly gives “the power of the purse”). 
5. Awarding more than $13 million in no-bid federal contracts to Event Strategies Inc., which is staffed by Trump allies. 
6. Pardons appear to be for sale in the Trump administration, potentially reaping millions. 
7. Trump family hotel projects and golf resorts destinations around the world. Including: 
   • A Trump golf club and villa in Qatar
   • A Trump resort in Vietnam
   • Trump Plaza resort on the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia
8. Trump family crypto schemes brought in billions via World Liberty Financial, the $TRUMP Memecoin, “USD1” Stablecoin, NFTs, and various other unregulated products. 
9. Getting a $400 million jet from Qatar and having the US Treasury pay another billion to make it fit to serve as Air Force One. 

There is a lot of time between now and November 3, and even before the start of whatever early voting survives Trump’s attack on mail-in ballots. We can only hope the media and the Democrats will succeed in exposing the facts about this regime’s unprecedented corruption to the voters, despite the constant spew of lies and disinformation polluting the news environment. 

While you’re here enjoying DonkeyHotey’s latest cartoon, please take a moment to read these articles on related topics: 

• Federal Reserve’s Preferred Inflation Gauge Hits Highest Level in Three Years
• Using the Stock Market to Measure the Economy’s Performance Is Fool’s Gold
• Other DonkeyHotey cartoons

The cartoon above was created by DonkeyHotey for WhoWhatWhy from these images: Donald Trump caricature (DonkeyHotey / Flickr – CC BY 4.0), body (The White House / Flickr – PD), suitcase 1 (Sandrine Z  / Wikimedia – CC BY-SA 4.0), suitcase 2 (Sandrine Z  / Wikimedia – CC BY-SA 4.0), suitcases (James Petts  / Wikimedia – CC BY-SA 2.0), hatbox (Missouri Historical Society  / Wikimedia – PD), chest (Jens Mohr / Hallwyl Museum / Wikimedia – CC BY 4.0), paper (Sage Ross (WMF)  / Wikimedia – CC BY-SA 3.0), file (US House / Wikimedia – PD), rope (Engin Akyurt / Pixabay), seal (DHS / Wikimedia – PD), money (Tracy O / Wikimedia – CC BY-SA 2.0), DOGE (myCountrAI / Wikimedia – PD), ARCH (Hstoops / Wikimedia – CC0 1.0), Elephant (Vyacheslav Argenberg / Wikimedia – CC BY 4.0), and road (Lewis Clarke / Wikimedia – CC BY-SA 2.0).