Six weeks in, WH on way to being the most corrupt in US history
Last edited Mon Mar 24, 2025, 07:40 PM - Edit history (2)
From a YouTube featuring Sen. Chris Murphy D-CT
For those who don't like to click on links I have a transcription below. It's a long, but worth the read and worth bookmarking. I hope we can keep this timeline updated together. The link is at the end for anyone who wants to just watch and listen instead of read.
Transcription:
Trump and Elon Musk and their billionaire friends have engaged in a stunning rampage of open public corruption—not fundamentally different than what happened in Russia. These are efforts to steal from the American people to enrich themselves. And their strategy is to do it all out in the open … at such a dizzying pace that the country just gets overwhelmed or anesthetized or dulled into a sense that we just all have to accept the corruption or maybe more charitably that this is just how government works that government is just corrupt.
So here it goes …
🏧 January 17th Trump launched a meme coin--maybe the most corrupt of all the acts-- because what is the coin? It’s essentially a mechanism by which Russian oligarchs or corporate CEO's can literally send money privately directly to Donald Trump. Nobody knows who buys the meme coin and Trump makes money when people buy it. It is an open sewer valve for anybody who is trying to influence Trump to secretly funnel money. Trump reserves 80% of the coin and waits to release more when the price jumps again.
This essentially means he's waiting for people who want favors from him to buy a bunch of the coins inflating the value. He releases more and makes more money as it goes up. It's a disgusting kind of corruption because this is essentially Trump just posting his Venmo for anybody secretly to wire him as much money as they want.
We've never seen something like this before where anybody who has anything to gain from an Administration can funnel money directly to the president then whisper in his ear that was me that purchased all that coin.
🏧 January 20th he institutes a new energy agenda on the heels of meeting with the oil and gas industry who gave a billion in campaign contributions. They cut a deal that punishes oil and gas competitors--for instance it freezes permits on wind projects both for the land and the sea. And it hinders permitting processes that are not for oil and gas.
🏧 January 25th Trump fires 17 Inspectors General. What do Inspectors General do? They look for corruption in government agencies. What do you do if you are engaged in corruption, trying to steal from the American people? You fire the Inspectors.
🏧 January 27th Trump fires Gwynn Wilcox from the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board ) … (Wilcox is the first Black woman to serve on the Board since its inception in 1935, and also the first Black female Chair..)
When she's fired the NLRB cannot function any longer. Why does this matter? Musk has lots of cases before the NLRB so do the people that were standing behind Trump at the inauguration—billionaires who won't have to worry about active NLRB cases if it's rendered powerless.
🏧 January 30th Trump awarded more than $800k in stock to several board members of the Trump Media and Technology Group –-behind his social media platform. Cabinet members like Kash Patel and Linda McMahon owning stock equity in Trump Media can cash it out and sell it to people who could have issues before the Department of Education, the FBI or any government agency. Yet another way to gain influence in the Trump administration.
🏧 Shortly thereafter, over the course of the first few weeks, the DOJ drops cases against those loyal to Trump and aggressively pursues investigations against critics. February 19th the DOJ opens up “Operation Whirlwind” to target anyone who tries to obstruct or criticize Musk and DOGE. February 23rd the DOJ drops a civil complaint that had been pending against Musk's SpaceX. Eight days later the DOJ drops a case against a Republican Congressman.
🏧 February 1st Trump fires the director of the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Board) and announces plans to shutter it. The agency was investigating Musk and many of the billionaire financial backers of Trump-- who now won't have to worry about labor violations or being investigated by the NLRB or consumer protection actions against them.
🏧 February 4th the first of two extraordinary WH meetings occur. Trump convenes business partners -- the Saudi golf league and the PGA to try to negotiate a solution to the dispute between the leagues. Why? Saudi tournaments are at Trump's course. Trump stands to make money.
🏧 February 6th something absolutely stunning happens. Attorney General (AG) Pam Bondi issues a memo proposing to dull criminal enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. If you are representing a foreign government in the US, you have to register so that we know if you are acting on behalf of American interests or on behalf of foreign interests. Trump officials got in big trouble for secretly working for and getting paid by foreign governments without registering during his first term. This makes it much easier for the MAGA crowd and the people who show up to Maralago for favors to get paid quietly by foreign governments in order to influence Trump.
🏧 February 10th NY Mayor Eric Adams, indicted for corruption, is let off the hook. His charges are dismissed in exchange for a pledge of political loyalty to Trump. They literally went on TV and announced the deal -- as long as the mayor pledges political loyalty. That was so corrupt that six or seven DOJ officials resigned refusing to withdraw charges but the deal went through because the remaining 7th, 8th or 9th official filed the withdrawal.
And now in America it is 100% clear that if you want to get away with corruption, steal from your constituents and you're an elected official all you have to do is just sign up for political loyalty with Trump.
🏧 February 10th Trump directs the DOJ to pause enforcement of laws that prohibit companies from paying bribes overseas. Example: Goldman Sachs was engaged in outright bribery of Malaysian officials to get a contract to manage the Malaysian Sovereign Wealth Fund. American companies should not be overseas bribing foreign governments. That compromises America's reputation and national security.
🏧 February 12th it’s announced that the State Department is going to buy $400 million of armored Teslas. It is true that the Biden administration had a blueprint to buy around $483,000 worth of electric vehicles. There was no personal gain or conflict interest with Biden and the investment amount was less.
🏧 February 12th Musk's people infiltrate the Department of Labor and access OSHA enforcement information against Musk’s companies and the his competitor’s’ companies. (SpaceX’s employee injury rate is 9x higher than industry average.) They also get workplace safety violations against Musk's competitors. Here's the message: if you are close to Trump personally, if you support him politically you can get secret access to enforcement data against your country, against your companies and your competitors.
🏧 February 15th suspicious firings at the FDA are related to Musk's financial interests. Musk owns a medical device company named Neuralink under current review by the FDA. The weekend of February 15th and 16th — 20 people are fired from the FDA's office of neurological and physical medical devices. The clear message: you're gonna get fired if you aren't on the right side of Musk's application.
🏧 February 15th that same weekend there's an announcement that FDA cuts are going to be even deeper — as big as 50%. That means hundreds of drugs and devices won't get approved at the FDA. WHO benefits? The folks selling the snake oil products. Guess who’s selling the snake oil products? The people who work for Trump... The director of the FBI is selling vaccine reversal pills. When the FDA gets gutted, people who sell unregulated [and dangerous] products stand to gain.
🏧 February 19th we hear the IRS is going to be cut by 7000 people. The biggest cuts are the people who audit billionaires, millionaires and corporations.
🏧 February 19th news surfaces that advertising on Musk's social platform is starting to grow again. American companies have come to the collective decision they need to keep advertising with Musk's social platform because he has so much regulatory power inside the government that they need to make sure that they're paying Musk through so if they ultimately need something from the government they can get it.
This again is why we have never ever in the history of this country allowed for the richest man in the world --somebody who controls major companies --to also have an official position inside the government because it opens up these clear avenues where people are going to do business with them privately to curry favor publicly.
🏧 February 20th the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices monthly meeting is cancelled and not rescheduled. RFK makes money off attacks on vaccines. The not-for-profit company he will return to after he leaves office makes money as vaccine misinformation spreads. He also continues to collect fees for referring cases to a company that handles claims of personal injury due to vaccines. Cancelling the meeting it is a clear indication that the campaign of assault on vaccines is going to continue.
🏧 February 26th Trump's MAGA hats for sale on his website are displayed in the Oval Office. So many people inside Trump's universe continue to sell merchandise on the side -- a kind of corruption in and of itself. Kash Patel Director of the FBI is still selling branded merchandise while he's running the FBI. Musk and others are selling DOGE merchandise. As they trumpet their brands inside the government they're making money off their brand outside of the government.
🏧 February 26 news breaks that Musk is having the FAA cancel a contract with Verizon that has been in the works for years. Musk’s Starlink company will replace Verizon. In plain view -- Musk uses his access to government to shove competitors aside.
This week Wired reports guests are paying millions to dine with Trump at MaraLago -- business leaders are being targeted with ads that sell access to one-on-one meetings for $5,000,000. If any previous president had sent out an ad to meet for a payment that in and of itself would be unacceptable. But Trump and Musk believe that in this dizzying pace of corruption -- we are all going to feel that it's normal. This is how democracies die.
Democracies die when the very powerful steal so regularly so openly so unapologetically that we come to believe that it's normal. I understand that many Americans may think that all of this stuff just used to happen quietly and that the only difference is that Trump and Musk are just putting it all out in the open. I'm not saying that there haven't been instances of corruption Democrats and Republicans in this body have been accused of and convicted of acts of corruption it has been a fact of life in American politics for a long time but never before has the corruption happened this openly or this frequently.
And so I lay it all out for you this afternoon in the hopes that it is not too late for us to decide to stand up as a body and as a nation to say that this isn't OK. The Trump meme coins are not OK. It's not OK for people who have interests before the federal government to be able to anonymously funnel money to the president of the United States.
It’s not OK for Musk to have access to Department of Labor enforcement data against him or his competitors that nobody else gets access to. It's not OK to just cancel contracts that were going to Musk's competitors and put Musk’s own business in instead just because he has the ability to do it as a friend of Donald Trump.
The rule of law matters. Doing things by the rules matters. This level of corruption was not occurring behind the scenes prior. It is not just that the cover got pulled off of it all. And it's our decision as a body and as a country to decide not to normalize this scale of corruption.
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I guess he can learn something after all. Go figure. Unfortunately, he learned how to be worse. 
