Grift or Graft?

Are we experiencing a mass hallucination, or is this really happening?

In a practical sense, there’s no difference as we confront the reality of the reality star’s money grab, feathering his nest while rewarding his foot soldiers in the insurrection of January 6th.

Those outside the Right-wing news bubble are slack-jawed at the awesomeness of the grift. Our president, who unlike his predecessors, did not put his enormous wealth into a blind trust, instead entrusting it to his sons. Of the 3,700 trades made by him or in his name so far this year, the bets he’s placed on Nvidia, Apple, Tesla, Microsoft, and Dell as he touts those companies in speeches is beyond the pale. Yet, I have to say, “So what’s new?” Those trades have netted as much as $750M.

It’s well documented that the gilded president has realized huge gains from the stock market bets he’s placed while advancing policy to the benefit of the companies in which he’s invested. The self-dealing would be astonishing—oh, who am I kidding—there’s nothing even a little extraordinary about watching this Commander-in-Chief line his own pockets while we deal with the inflation his actions have caused.

An unnecessary and uncalled-for trade war, followed by an unnecessary and uncalled for shooting war in Iran have left us weaker, poorer, and with more uncertainty than even the most jaundiced Trump-watchers could have anticipated.

His loyalists cheer on as they pay an average of $4.50 a gallon at the pump, unmoved by the conditions his actions alone have caused. Inflation is up to 3.8%, the Strait of Hormuz is closed, political violence in the form of hate crimes is everywhere, and they are sanguine, proclaiming him the best president in their lifetimes. Ignorance is bliss. Sadly, it’s also expensive.

As he gold-leafs DC, and slaps his name on anything that isn’t moving, they are still unable to see what the rest of us see: a megalomaniac whose insatiable ego threatens not just us and our economy, but threatens the entire world order.

After years of hoping that China, which teetered on the edge of capitalism, would turn into the United States, Trump is turning the United States into China. The recently arranged $1 billion fund for tech companies’ engaged in quantum computing isn’t your father’s public-private initiative; the government is taking an ownership position. That’s state capitalism, ala, China.

Traditional public/private investments, like the ones that got us to the moon, advanced both sides interests, and didn’t have the government taking a piece of Boeing’s or TRW’s ownership.

It’s good to be the King

Trump’s net worth climbed to $7.3 billion from $3.9 billion in 2024, according to Forbes data from September 2025 — nearly doubling in under a year. By early 2026, Forbes put his net worth at around $6.5 billion, still an increase of $1.4 billion over the previous year, with crypto and hospitality businesses as the core drivers.

While he was at it, the President tried to sue his own government for leaking his tax returns. Not for nothing, every other president has voluntarily released their returns. I believe that in the interest of transparency, it should be the law here as it is elsewhere. Predictably, the judge killed the suit because the government cannot be both the plaintiff and defendant. Thus, DOJ dropped the case. Then came the novel idea to create $1.776B slush fund whereby “victims of government persecution” would be compensated. A clearer term is “rewarded.” As in, assault the Capitol, beat police officers, get a financial reward.

And a note: stop calling it a settlement. The suit was dropped. This is a cash-grab, plain and simple.

The slush fund raises eyebrows, but what’s new there? The Acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche, acting more in his former role as personal attorney to Donald J. Trump, than in his official role as defender of the Constitution and the rule of law, came back for one more bite at the apple by declaring henceforth, the Trump family and their associated businesses can never be audited or in any way bothered by the IRS. That’s right, all is forgiven, now and forever. Assuming he pays no taxes on gains from those stock trades, the IRS will have no recourse under this new arrangement.

Will the spineless Republican caucus finally stand up for themselves? Political expediency is their North Star, so it logically follows that since the primaries are over and most of the people that Trump opposed lost, they and others in their party who aren’t up in November, can safely revolt. Mitch McConnell (R-Cowers): “So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong—Take your pick.”

I know it’s late, but it’s never too late to do the right thing.

©2026 Jon Sinton