The single most obvious means by which someone or a corporation can dictate a new administration’s priorities and spending is to shovel money into the transition process, going even so far as to simply dump cash on the incoming president – or family, whatever. One can easily buy access. To that end, there is a process by which everyone can legally stay in good-standing by signing agreements to both fund the transition, paying people and funding office space, all in the open. Doing so ensures access to the ongoing administration such that the transition team can hit the ground running, or at least better prepared if they intend to hit the ground running anyway.
But the Trump transition has refused to sign the agreement, an act so beyond expectations that they are the first to do so. Access is normally deemed absolutely critical. And the only reason the move makes any sense in keeping everything secret is to suck up anonymous dark money in a manner that hides obvious attempts at a quid pro quo. It screams corruption and President-elect Trump isn’t even sworn in yet. The details are set out in a new New York Times article published Sunday:
“When the money isn’t disclosed, it’s not clear how much everybody is giving, who is giving it and what they are getting in return for their donations,” said Heath Brown, a professor of public policy at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who studies presidential transitions. “It’s an area where the vast majority of Americans would agree that they want to know who is paying that bill.”
Anytime one hears “unclear” in the same sentence as “money” as applied to donors and a politician the first thought should be corruption and the likeliest benefactor is the candidate himself – herself. And here we are in spite of a law that all but requires signing on the dotted line. It goes on further down the report:
On Thursday, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, sent a letter to the Biden administration, raising concerns that the Trump transition’s failure to sign the agreements was “uncharted territory” that “threatens the American public.” She asked for an accounting of how the administration was engaging with the Trump transition on the agreements.
This is obviously bad enough from a corruption standpoint. Previously, administrations raised money in the open and those donations were limited to $5,000, leaving an incoming transition with about $10 million to easily transition into office. But those donors had to be out in the open and exposed them to clearly attempting to pay people off. These donors don’t face such constraints (At least not yet) and it is entirely conceivable that in this context one donor might pay $10 million alone as an investment that ensures the right access. Consider how much Musk might donate if able to secure all civilian and military contracts to get our shi*t in space.
It gets even worse. It is bad enough to have little coordination with the current administration during a normal period. But there is war being waged in Europe right now, threatening to expand much further. NATO is terrified. Putin is using new high-capacity weapons, and the U.S. and U.K. have allowed Ukraine to target infrastructure deep inside Russian borders – also a first. Despite Trump being a notorious isolationist, it would still serve all of us to have an idea as if they had access to the latest intelligence, including reports on what other nations plan to do even if Trump will not push the matter further.
Last, it sure appears as though the new administration is going to do whatever it wants without regard to any current conditions concerning anything – even to their own detriment. The money must be worth that much.
All of this is just beyond ominous. Things can almost always be even worse. Allowing big money to pay for big access and getting even bigger leeway to do whatever they want is one means to ensure chaos with respect to the economy, regulations, and current projects.
It is bad and doesn’t look to be lifted any time soon.
God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and @JasonMiciak and now on Blue Sky, a much better, cleaner platform.
Big business buying anything they want for any amount of money they want is how Trump ALWAYS does his grifting.
It’s what his voters voted for, whether they knew it or not.
It WILL lead to further corruption, they voted for that too.
But once his corruption costs them, there goes his support.
Roll on the midterms in two years.
In the meantime, despite the vast sums involved, the surprise is going to come from how cheaply he can be bought. And how cheaply political power can be purchased by those with much to gain. By spending mere millions they can make billions.
on the bright side, what these people are buying is stuff getting done. so far it looks like Trump isn’t bothering with hire people who actually know how to do anything. they will do a lot of damage though. and for anyone looking to cash in on big government contracts there’s the question of where the money will come from. from what I see it won’t be coming in any large amounts.
I’ve read on several sources that tyrant is already getting security briefings…
Carol – You are right about that. Those are mandatory. Indeed, he may have been getting security briefings all the way through having been an ex-president so the current one can call about something tha that hppened in a previous term, they all do.
This sort of coordination is having his people inside agencies such as State/Def/Treas with the people actually working now, reviewing more detailed current issues, etc.
Hope that helps.
jason
When you elect a tyrannical malignant narcissist, a rapist grifter, and a serial liar after watching him do evil since 2015…ominous doesn’t cover the CERTAINTY of what is about to happen. I offer thoughts and prayers.
The people who blindly voted for him because he said he would “protect” them and “fix” everything are soon to find out just who is getting “protected” and “fixed” (and scammed). Buyer beware, my a$&!!!