The Shakedown

Photo by the Office of the Speaker of the House, Wikimedia Commons

As we ramp up to the second Trump Presidency, it has not gone unnoticed that corporations are lining up to throw money at the incoming president. In many cases, these are corporations that opposed him for a long time. NYT (gift link):

Since his victory in November, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s allies have raised well over $200 million for a constellation of groups that will fund his inauguration, his political operation and eventually his presidential library, according to four people involved in the fund-raising.

It is a staggering sum that underscores efforts by donors and corporate interests to curry favor with Mr. Trump ahead of a second presidential term after a number of business leaders denounced him following the violence by his supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Massive donations have rolled in from all over but the primary sources are AI interests, crypto interests and Silicon Valley, including many businesses and executives who once vilified Trump. In addition to this, Amazon is committing $40 million to making a movie about the life of Melania Trump, who might be the least interesting person to ever be the subject of a biopic. The Coca-Cola corporation presented him with a special inauguration commemorative Diet Coke bottle. Business executive are flocking to Mar-A-Lago (and, in the process, shoving massive amounts of money directly into Trump’s pocket) to wine and dine the incoming executive.

The response to this largesse has been to accuse the companies involved of trying to bribe their way into Trump’s good graces. And that’s … actually a pretty fair assessment. The mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits and vipers Trump has nominated to various positions have made it clear that laws are a sometimes things that will only be enforced against enemies of the President. Being in with the Administration both exempts companies from being the target of this engine of abuse and allows them to direct it against competitors.

Trump’s primary promise has been a massive, economy-breaking hike in tariffs. The last time he did this, however, he gave special dispensations to selected industries and companies. These exemptions were worth enormous amounts of money. With the threat of 100% tariffs looming over the economy, such exemptions are worth billions or more. This makes sucking up to Trump a worthwhile investment. A few tens of millions from Amazon and they both escape the tariffs and watch the competition get destroyed by them. A few commemorative Diet Coke bottles means Coca-Cola can continue to import coca leaves without the price of their drinks doubling.

Most of the blame for this open corruption goes on the man coming into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. But a huge amount goes to Congress. As Kevin Drum points out, Congress has given the President immense power to punish his enemies and reward his allies:

Trump has promised, for example, to deport millions of illegal immigrants, and he wields sole executive authority to direct how that happens. If you’re not a Trump supporter, you might end up at the top of the list for an ICE raid of your farm or sweatshop.

Tariffs always produce lots of requests for exemptions, many of them from companies that will literally go out of business if they don’t get one. And if you don’t support Trump you probably won’t.

Do you want to drill for oil or gas on federal lands? The president has authority to decide which fields are opened up. If you don’t play ball, yours might stay untapped for the duration.

Congress had four years under Biden to start reigning in these powers and did nothing. The Courts have made it clear that they have little interest in constraining executive power (at least not when a Republican is in charge) and basically legalized bribery last year. A system of checks and balances that was intended for each branch of government to check the power of the others has been perverted to the belief that each branch has its own untrammeled domain in which it has unlimited power to bend the taxpayer over the nearest convenient surface. And throwing money at Trump is the best way to escape such a fate.

This is the way it’s going to be for four years. There’s no one riding in to stop it. Not big business, not the Courts and not Congress. We’re stuck with it. As I will no doubt be saying a lot for the next 4+ years, this is what a plurality of the American people voted for. And we’re going to get what they voted for, good and hard.