Image by Planet Volumes.
Die-hard supporters like to claim that Trump is no different than any other politician; they are all corrupt. A good friend of mine took that position recently when I commented about the money Trump has accumulated since the November election. He defended Trump saying that Biden did the same thing. False equivalents like this and strawman arguments are the Republican go-to strategies.
According to Forbes, Biden’s estimated net worth is $10 million. His assets include a primary residence in Wilmingtonand a vacation home in Rehoboth Beach. Both have substantially appreciated value. Moreover, he has generated significant income from book royalties and speaking engagements and investments and has pension income from his decades of service in congress. He is a classic American success story; he came from a middle-class family and accumulated his wealth honestly by hard work.
By comparison Trump was born to wealth. The patriarch of his family, German born Frederick Trump ran a restaurant and brothel during the Goldrush. And Trump’s father, Fred, made millions in New York real estate. In 1954 Fred Trump was investigated by the US Senate for profiteering, and again in 1966 by State of New York. And in 1973 both he and his son Donald were sued by the Justice Department for racial discrimination.
According to The New York Times, Fred and his wife provided over $1 billion (in 2018 currency) to their children. Donald, who fancies himself a self-made man, received $413 million from his father, ”much of that through dubious tax dodges.” To start his business career, Trump was handed more than 40 times the amount of money Biden was able to accumulate after 50 years of government service, including military.
Trump avoided military service and went on to become the Goldfinger of American politics. Accumulating wealth, and the power that comes with it, has been his life’s ambition. As president, he cares little about governing. Rather than developing his own policies, he simply adapted the Christian nationalists’ Project 2025 playbook and then hired people who wrote it to run his administration. He spends his time capitalizing on his commander-in-chief title.
A typical maneuver is his acceptance of a Boeing 747 airliner. Ostensibly a gift from Qatar to the US government, this second-hand airplane will cost taxpayers as much as one billion to refurbish. Evidently funding will be taken from the Sentinel Nuclear Missile Program. And after spending only a few short months in service of our government, it will be transferred to the Trump Library who will maintain it while he continues to use it. Trump will, apparently, use his Library as he used the Trump Foundation – a personal slush fund.
Recall that in 2018 the courts ordered the Trump Foundation shuttered and fined Trump $2 million for the illegal use of its funds. In the settlement Trump agreed to 19 admissions of personal misuse of the foundation and its funds, including a donation to Pam Bondi’s Florida re-election campaign and buying champagne for a Trump gala.
And then there’s the $TRUMP meme coin and crypto schemes which, by Forbes estimate, has brought him $1 billion. Even more disturbing is his selling dinner invitations to crypto investors so that they might gain a few private moments with the US president. Chinese billionaire Justin Sun netted the preferred place at the table by buying $40 million worth of $TRUMP.
There is much more, but this is more than enough to conclude that no other president in history has so blatantly misused his position. Yet he sees no conflict and his defenders say he is just clever. He is that – a clever abuser of the system.
He is not alone. Others include Russia’s Vladimir Putin whose net worth is $70 billion , Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko – $10 billion, South Korea’s Kim Jung Un – $5 billion. Autocrats acquire their extreme wealth at the expense of the people. Trump acts like an autocrat and wants to be one, an ambition that MAGA Republicans support.
Greed and power have motivated people like Trump from the dawn of civilization. But not everyone is like Trump. Each generation produces good and honest people.
At the turn of the last century, Meriden, Connecticut was known as the Silver City. It was the home of International Silver, and many other businesses that specialized in manufacturing and repairing silver-plate and sterling silver products. Another Meriden company, Bradley and Hubbard, established in 1852, manufactured clocks, decorative metal work and lamps, both kerosene and electric. At their peak, they employed 1,500 people. Today their products are highly sought after by collectors.
Nathaniel Bradley and Walter Hubbard became very wealthy. But they appreciated that the people of Meriden contributed to their success. Walter Hubbard paid them back by building a magnificent 1,800-acre park. To design it, he engaged Frederick Law Olmstead, the renowned American landscape architect, most famous for his design of Manhattan’s Central Park. In 1900 he gave the park to the city of Meriden, stipulating that everything connected with Hubbard Park would be free to the people of Meriden, and that there be no for-profit concessions.
When Nathaniel Bradley died, his son, Clarence, took over as president. Like Hubbard, Clarance Bradley was a humanitarian and a man of vision. He built and endowed The Bradley Home to provide housing and care for senior citizens who could not afford to retire. Today the Bradley Home comprises a nine-acre campus and facilities that provide housing, meals, and skilled nursing care for the elderly.
What will Trump do with his money? Humanitarianism is obviously not his strong suit. Then why are so many Americans enamored with him?
They have lost faith. They no longer see America as the land of opportunity nor believe that through hard work they can enjoy a better life than their parents. They watched wealth move from the middle class to the top 10% and they watched factories close and good paying jobs move offshore. Understandably, they blame the government that put the interests of the wealthy and corporations ahead of the interests of working Americans. Trump promised to change that.
But Trump is a trail of broken promises, and a Trump autocracy would only exacerbate the fundamental problem, – monied interests, corporate lobbyists and politicians like Donald Trump, have taken over our government. Monied interests manipulate the electorate. They amplify voters’ discontent, dividing and enraging them with staged culture wars that vilify immigrants; vilify the government and educational institutions that have served us for generations, and they vilify the liberalism that has defined American culture for 250 years.
To abandon the great liberal democracy that was established by Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, and Washington would be both reckless and foolish. The solution? We the people must make government work again as the founders intended. Throw the charlatans and malcontents, who would destroy our government, out of office and vote in responsible representatives, people like Bradley and Hubbard who care more about the people than they care about their money. We have 16 months to find them.
The post The Root of Our Political Divide? Money. appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Bob Topper.