One pundit observed that President Trump’s success in reaching a hostage deal in Gaza was based on an affinity for the Middle East that other U.S. Presidents lacked. Well, that’s hardly surprising given he shares so many unpleasant characteristics with the stereotypical Middle Eastern potentate. Of course he relates to them; at heart he’s one of them. Afterall, that’s what he wants the White House to be, a maharaja’s palace filled with golden bric-a-brac. (I’ll leave Trump’s dreams of a harem aside until the Epstein files are released and we learn the truth about his involvement in the trafficking and sexploitation of underage girls.)
In the meantime, the sun never sets on Trump’s corruption empire. While the hostage deal is getting all the news coverage, the Trump administration is bailing out the ever-embattled South American nation of Argentina, whose right-wing leader, Javier Milei, is one of Trump’s authoritarian allies. According to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a strong, stable Argentina that will help to “anchor a prosperous Western Hemisphere is in America’s strategic interest.” In this case “strength and stability” depends on $29 billion in aid to help bailout the country’s global investors, Trump allies and supporters, including BlackRock, Fidelity and Pimco, who have made big bets on Argentina’s government debt and stood to lose their shirts. All this while the U.S. Government remains shut down and Trump’s hatchet man, Russell Vought of “Project 25” fame, fires thousands of federal workers. The President’s priorities are all too clear.
Move over Warren G. Harding, Donald Trump is Running the Most Corrupt Administration in American History.
One gets the feeling that Trump’s whole presidency is nothing but one big grift, one big con job that he and his administration struggle to hide. But he’s juggling so many distractions that it’s hard to determine what he’s hiding at any given time. How long before even the MAGA faithful lose patience with the unabating inflation and struggling economy, let alone the impending healthcare cuts? It remains to be seen if the revenue generated by his tariffs justifies their inflationary impact, but even if it does, middle-class consumers will pay for most of it, once again reflecting Trump’s priorities.
Meanwhile, how many of the country’s problems can Trump blame on Antifa and the “radical-left” Democrats for how long? Talk about a distraction, a scapegoat, and a boogeyman! According to a White House press release, “Antifa-led hellfire has turned Portland into a wasteland of firebombs, beatings, and brazen attacks on federal officers and property—yet the Fake News remains in shameful denial about the Radical Left’s reign of terror.” This is a totally fictitious claim (Trump thinks old footage of Portland’s 2020 riots is from today), but scores well with the base. According to Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the administration is fighting “domestic terror networks” that are “anti-American, anti-capitalist and anti-Christian.” House Speaker Johnson refers to them as the “Antifa crowd, the pro-Hamas crowd, and the Marxists.” Good gosh, if there’s “Trump derangement syndrome,” these people are infected with a bad case of “Antifa derangement syndrome.”
And all the While, the Trump Family Crypto Empire Keeps Growing.
Are we supposed to be distracted by his unleashing the National Guard in Memphis, Portland and Chicago, or is that what he’s trying to distract us from? Everyone wants to reduce crime in our cities, but putting National Guard troops on Michigan Ave., one of the ritziest shopping streets in the country, is unlikely to be of much help in Chicago’s crime-ridden south side. As Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker says: The administration “wants to militarize major cities across the United States, especially blue cities in blue states, because he wants us to get used to the idea of military on the streets” before the 2026 elections. “I believe that he’s going to post people outside of ballot boxes and polling places. And if he needs to in order to control those elections, he’ll assume control of the ballot boxes.
When Trump sways an election to control Republican control of Congress it will be more than a distraction; it will be the beginning of an authoritarian dictatorship.