Purpose of the document:
The intended audience is people who support Trump and his administration or are ambivalent. Trump supporters have been lied to and are being taken advantage of, just like if not more than anyone else. This is not about saying that you are bad or evil or that your political beliefs are wrong. This is not to convince you that being Conservative or Republican is bad. This is about illegal and immoral acts that are being done in the name of your belief system, violating much of what you stand for.
The purpose is to show a clear and undeniable pattern of corruption by President Donald Trump and his closest allies, which can be seen through evidence presented by unbiased or supportive sources and is being done in full view of the American public with no discretion or concern for repercussions.
This document is not about policy disagreements. There is a massive gap regarding international affairs, immigration, government spending, federal agency mandates, states’ rights, veterans affairs, healthcare, or anything that can be genuinely debated as to the proper role of government or the direction of the country. Those are numerous, volatile, and mostly subjective. We will not solve partisan issues here.
This document is about objective ethics and morals. The following is a non-exhaustive list of President Trump’s actions and those of his Cabinet and advisors that will empower, enrich, or remove legal responsibility from the President, his immediate circle, or a broader swath of billionaires and corporations which financially support them. These are immoral and illegal actions, as decided by decades of law, legal precedence, and basic human ethics.
Sources:
All sources cited are conservative or neutral in their reporting, to avoid the potential for blaming liberal media bias. The priority for sources is Fox News and Newsmax for conservative outlets and then Reuters, The Hill, & Business Insider for more neutral outlets. Source bias ratings are based on indexes available at https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-chart and https://app.adfontesmedia.com/chart/interactive.
Author’s Note:
This is not a complete list. There are many other reported incidents of abuse of power and personal enrichment. This is also not new, it happened last time as well. We don’t need to list every single thing that happens, just present a strong pattern of the clearest examples of corruption which cannot be excused as policy choices. If you think I have something wrong or have missed something major, which I likely have, you can email trumpabuseofpower@gmail.com. – – Ryan
Actions:
- January 10: Trump Organization declares it will allow deals with private foreign companies, a break from their practice in the first term.
Impact: Foreign business, whether acting on their own or on behalf of foreign governments, will now have an easier time making payments to the Trump family in exchange for influence and favors.
- January 17: Launch of the Trump meme coin, a cryptocurrency which is untraceable for purchases and sales and directly increases the net worth of Trump.
Impact: This allows individuals seeking to influence the administration to funnel money directly and privately to the President with no oversight or paper trail.
- January 20: Implementation of a new energy agenda that favors the oil and gas industry, allegedly after the industry promised Trump a billion dollars in campaign contributions.
Impact: This preferences oil and gas, punishes oil and gas competitors, freezes permits on wind projects, and undercuts permitting processes. The companies and billionaires who donated to Trump are receiving an unfair market advantage to make money in quid pro quo.
- January 25: Firing of 17 inspectors general, who are responsible for identifying corruption, waste, and abuse within agencies.
Impact: This removes individuals who look for corruption inside of agencies, allowing for Cabinet members and advisors to to use federal agencies for personal gain, investigate rivals, and help friends with no oversight.
- January 27: Gwynne Wilcox is fired from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which renders the NLRB unable to function.
Impact: Elon Musk is put in charge of reviewing hirings and firings of these agencies, and both Musk and people supporting Trump have cases before the NLRB, allowing them to now get away with mistreatment of workers.
- January 30: Trump awards over $800,000 worth of stock to board members of the Trump Media and Technology Group including Kash Patel and Linda McMahon,
Impact: This creates an avenue for individuals seeking influence to move cash to Trump cabinet members. Cabinet members own equity in Trump's media platform that can be sold to people who want to buy them out of their interest at any time. It also ensures their loyalty to Trump no matter what he says.
- February 1: The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Board (CFPB) is fired, and plans are announced to shut down the CFPB.
Impact: This agency was investigating Elon Musk and many of Trump's biggest financial backers, who can escape scrutiny for previous predatory practices and can now pursue new ways to extract money unfairly from their customers.
- February 6: Pam Bondi issues a memorandum proposing to dull the criminal enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which means that no one will be prosecuted if they are representing the interests of foreign governments without declaring it; Bondi formerly represented the government of Qatar.
Impact: This makes it easier for Trump's friends to get paid quietly by foreign governments in order to influence Donald Trump without anyone knowing that they are acting in the interest of another country rather than the US.
- February 10: Eric Adams is let off the hook for corruption charges in exchange for the mayor's pledge of political loyalty to Donald Trump, meeting with Border Czar Homan and agreeing to cooperate with ICE; at least seven prosecutors in New York and Washington quit rather than carry out Bove’s directive to halt the case.
Impact: The administration is turning a blind eye to criminal actions when it turns someone to their side and supports them, regardless of previous political stances.
- February 10: Donald Trump directs the DOJ to pause enforcement of U.S. laws that prohibit companies from paying bribes overseas.
Impact: This allows companies to operate unjustly in business dealings abroad and even bribe other country’s officials on behalf of Trump or the US government.
- February 12: The State Department was going to buy $400 million of armored Teslas from Elon Musk, up from $400,000 under Biden, until it was called out and revised.
Impact: The administration was going to hand out hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts to the second most powerful, unelected person in the government, who seemingly has the power to decide if they will be fired or receive funding, with no competitive or public bid process.
- February 12: Elon Musk's people infiltrate the Department of Labor and get access to enforcement information at OSHA,
Impact: Elon Musk gets access to investigations against not only against his own companies, but also his friends and competitors, which could allow him to affect the outcome and to threaten or retaliate against the people who brought the case.
- February 15: There are suspicious firings at the FDA related to Elon Musk's personal financial interests. Because Elon Musk owns a medical device company called Neuralink that is currently being reviewed by the FDA, 20 people are fired from the FDA's Office of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices.
Impact: The FDA and other agencies are now living under a direct threat of being fired if they do not comply with his wishes.
- February 19: The IRS is going to be cut by 7,000 people, and the biggest chunk of the folks who are going to be laid off are the people who perform the audits of the billionaires, and the millionaires, and the corporations or help the average person navigate the complex process.
Impact: This makes it harder for our government to collect the revenue it is owed, at a time when the administration is claiming to try to balance the books. The bulk of unenforced and uncollected taxes are from the wealthiest individuals and corporations. It also makes it harder for the average person to get help maximizing their refund and getting back what they are owed.
- February 26: Elon Musk is using his extraordinary access to government systems for unfair information gathering into government contracts and is threatening to have the FAA cancel a contract with Verizon that has been in the works for years, and instead just substitute in Starlink for Verizon.
Impact: This represents another massive conflict of interest, where Elon has already received billions of dollars in government subsidies and contracts and is looking to steal business from a direct competitor using his influence.
- March 4 (still breaking): Guests are paying millions of dollars to dine with Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago, and business leaders are being targeted with advertisements that sell access to a one-on-one meeting with the President of the United States for $5 million.
Impact: In yet another case of direct bribery, only the wealthiest are allowed access to the President and are paying him money for time and influence while Trump makes money from his office as President, which directly violates the Emoluments Clause is found in Article II, Section 1, Clause 7 of the Constitution.