Eric Spills the Beans About Daddy, It’s Worse Than You Thought

The two elder Trump sons are not exactly the most discreet people you would wish to have around you, especially if the things you’re doing routinely are unethical and illegal as hell. (Yes, emoluments clause, we’re talking about you.) But that’s how it goes. I’m sure you remember both Don Junior and Eric saying back in 2016 how a “disproportionate” amount of “money comes from Russia.” Yes, we believed it then and we believe it now. These are excerpts from a from an interview with journalist Greg Sargent and Casey Michel, author of books on kleptocracy.

In recent days, Eric Trump has really stepped out into the international limelight as the new face of the Trump oligarchy. At a conference in the Middle East this week, Eric Trump told an audience that he and his father, Donald Trump, are basically working together to push crypto, which the Trump family is invested in. And Eric, who’s the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, has been very prominently involved in negotiating the ethics policy—or lack thereof—that Donald Trump and his businesses will subject themselves to when he’s president. Have we ever seen an incoming president this prone to self-dealing in U.S. history? According to Casey Michel, a journalist and author of several books on kleptocracy, the answer is an emphatic no. […]

Sargent: Let’s start with what Eric Trump said this week. It was at a cryptocurrency conference in the United Arab Emirates. He said, “You’re going to have the most pro-crypto president in the history of America.” And he added, “The president won’t allow Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies to be overregulated and stifled.” Casey, Trump and his sons are invested in crypto. So here, Eric is openly declaring that his father will govern in the financial interests of something his family is invested in. Can you talk about what this means?

Michel: Absolutely, Greg. This is part and parcel of the Trump Organization, certainly the Trump family’s approach to mixing business and politics. It’s not limited to crypto, but that’s certainly been in the news, especially recently. By all appearances, the family, and of course Donald Trump himself, appear to be using Trump’s presidency, both his first term and now his incoming second term, as a means simply of enriching themselves and enriching those who are close to them.

Part of that is on the regulatory side of things, making sure there is no oversight, no investigation, and of course, no actual prosecution of things like white-collar crimes or what are potentially crimes or criminal elements themselves. And the other end are the actual brand-new investments in new industries like crypto, but also things like real estate. We have seen the Trump Organization even before Trump has returned to the White House announcing brand-new details of new deals in dictatorships around the world, opening up brand-new avenues for foreign influence right in the United States. […]

Michel: The worst case scenario in a theoretical approach—I don’t even want to think about what this would look like on the ground—is that Americans no longer have any say in their supposed democracy whatsoever. Of course, it is available to the deepest-pocketed donors, both domestically but also some of the kleptocratic regimes—the Russians, the Chinas of the world, the Hungarians, the Turkeys—that have access to even deeper pockets. Any semblance of American democracy or democratic or transparent oversight is completely obliterated. That is the direction we are going in. That is the direction we are barreling toward and Trump is certainly helping that every single day.

I don’t want to put myself in too deep of a funk by thinking about what that would actually look like on the ground, let alone what that would mean for the state of democracy around the world, but it is a very, very dark place that is approaching.

Sargent: To step back and go big picture a little bit more, Trump during his first campaign basically advertised this corruption. He said, “Not paying taxes makes me smart.” At the same time, what he was saying to voters was, I have seen how elite inside corruption works, and I will put that knowledge to work for you. That was the message of the first campaign. The message of the second one is he doesn’t even actually try to make a case that the self-dealing that he’s essentially openly advertising will be in the interests of the country. He no longer says he’s going to put this knowledge to work for anyone. He just says, When I win, you win.

And you thought Reagan’s trickle down theory was nuts. Oh, for those days, as compared to what we’re about to face. Kleptocracy and kakistocracy rolled into one, made possible by an authoritarian oligarchy, headed by a charismatic cult leader. This is more science fiction than political science.

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