The Trump campaign is setting out it’s march to dictatorial power by taking old criticism and turning it into new relevant threats, indeed – relevant in the amount of three billion dollars in government contracts. In 2019, then private citizen JD Vance sent emails to a friend working for the massive international consulting firm Deloitte. In September of this year, the Deloitte employee – Kevin Gallagher, then went back into his emails and took the old Vance criticisms and leaked them to the Washington Post. The Post then published some of the comments which included JD Vance’s 2019 criticism of Trump’s economic policies and his prediction that Trump would lose in 2020.
The emails proved that JD Vance is at least a bit hypocritical in now supporting Trump after his views just five years ago – nothing more than an old riff, to be expected actually. And that would have been the end of it until Donald Trump Jr. learned that Gallagher worked for Deloitte and went public about it. Don Jr. stated that if Trump were to win the White House in November, they should cut all government contracts with Deloitte, a firm with thousands of employees. Not only is it a shocking threat, it is also absurd to punish a massive firm for one employee’s actions – especially when that company may be the only one specialized enough to deal with such contracts.
According to The Guardian, Trump Jr. stated in a post on X:
“An executive at @Deloitte … decided to interfere in the election & leak private convos with JD Vance to help Kamala Harris. Deloitte also gets $2B in govt contracts. Maybe it’s time for the GOP to end Deloitte’s taxpayer funded gravy train?”
An executive at @Deloitte named Kevin Gallagher decided to interfere in the election & leak private convos with JD Vance to help Kamala Harris. Deloitte also gets $2B in govt contracts. Maybe it's time for the GOP to end Deloitte's taxpayer funded gravy train?
CC @speakerjohnson pic.twitter.com/gAOs1TBt86
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 27, 2024
It is actually three billion and the threat was so blatant and bizarrely personal that it threw ethics experts into a tailspin. This type of thing isn’t supposed to happen here. A president has to bat away and simply be above petty criticism even when if it bites. A president looks weak when taking things personally. Kedric Payne, the senior director of ethics at the non-partisan Campaign Legal Centre, told The Washington Post:
“I’ve never seen anything like this. You can’t imagine that if one employee out of thousands made a statement that offended an official, that then the government contracts would be in jeopardy.”
Let’s just stipulate the given that Deloitte should fire Gallagher for taking a partisan position because the company must remain apolitical in its consulting for the government. They must serve every administration. So they likely should fire Gallagher. Fine so far. But if the government then cancels all contracts with a massive company based on actions taken by one employee the consequences cascade.
First, every company everywhere, whether they contract with the federal government or hope to do so would suddenly have to make an effort to search its databases and meeting minutes because they live in fear of being dumped for any personal criticism. Second – and this is even more sinister – all companies with government contracts would suddenly become intensely militant in monitoring their employee’s personal lives. Contracts would ride on the ability to police their employees in a manner similar to – or worse – than the federal government.
Obviously, any thought of cutting off government contracts based on one employee’s slights is a flagrantly dictatorial move. It would never have occurred to any president or Congress to take such action. Indeed, it’s likely that even Donald Trump circa 2016 to 2020 would not have thought to pull billions in contracts. But this Donald Trump of 2024 is campaigning specifically on retribution. There are no guardrails, and he might savor the opportunity to punch down and make an example of Deloitte for others to consider. “Support my authority or find yourselves much poorer. Nice business you got there. Shame if something happened to it.”
To that end, Trump campaign manager Jason Miller responded to Junior’s post by stating that Gallagher had “FAFO” – short for F*ck around and find out.”
This is intolerable on so many levels that it’s probably best to start at the very top. Deloitte is an international entity with offices all around the world. It does tens of billions of dollars in business every year. If Deloitte is vulnerable to being shaken down or punished, then God help us all because if Deloitee cannot stop it than it’s likely no one can. This is Mussolini’s Italy. It is Pinochet’s Chile, or Franco’s Spain. We are right there.
Yes. As Trump once promised: “I am your retribution.” It would seem Don Jr. is willing to take up the call as the family business.
God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and @JasonMiciak
Yet he’s just fine that the nazi Musk has huge government contracts from a government he’s actively trying to overthrow, and who’s mother is advocating voter fraud. Stick to the coke son. It’s the only thing you are an expert at. Crystal snow for the snowflakes in trump’s cult. By the way…your daddy still doesn’t give a shit about you. Never did. Never will.
“Let’s do the stupidest thing possible that will result in wasting a fuck-ton of money”- von shitzi’s son. I can see why your daddy was so worried you’d be stupid son. He should have figured there would be a very good chance you’d take after him.
It’s not that Gallagher had an opinion and expressed it.
He just exposed the truth. Vance DID say those things.
So it’s really a case of threatening someone for telling the truth, and not perpetuating a lie.
This is what they’ve become, liars covering for liars, by bullying truth-tellers.
So the guy’s name is out there for the magats to go after him. He’ll never be safe again. But, sure, coke light can out the man without repercussions. Yes, the executive should probably lose his job. Not sure since he didn’t lie and it’s old news. But what repercussions for coke light? Of course nothing will happen to him for making his threats and putting this man in peril.
So Jr’s just added a powerful international corporation to the list of entities who cannot afford a Trump win. And if that’s the way they want to roll, Deloitte will not be alone. FAFO indeed.
what priscianus said. plus, Gallagher was just a private citizen providing information to someone. this had nothing to do with his job or the deloitte, that just happened to be where he worked. they might have trouble finding a legitimate reason to fire him.