The Trump Presidency Timeline
Documenting the chaos since day one. 36 entries and counting.
Category: forever grifting
forever grifting
stop the steal, start the pipeline
Jesse Binnall, seen here contemplating whether pipelines or democracy denial has the higher profit margin this quarter.
The 2020 "stop the steal" all-stars have apparently moved on to a more traditional Republican pastime: foreign infrastructure grifts. Jesse Binnall – the lawyer who spent 2020 insisting democracy was a deep-state hologram – and Joe Flynn – brother of martial-law enthusiast Michael Flynn – quietly popped up in Bosnia this week, pitching a $200m gas pipeline deal. They're fronting for something called AAFS Infrastructure and Energy, a company so experienced it was literally born two months ago in Wyoming and has roughly the same public track record as Trump's health-care plan.
The scheme: build the Southern Gas Interconnection pipeline to wean Bosnia off Russian gas and hook it up to LNG from Croatia – and, oh look, American suppliers. Conveniently, after Trump returned to office, Bosnian authorities "agreed" that US companies would get to build and run the thing. Even more convenient: the US embassy in Sarajevo is cheerleading this brand-new mystery firm, dutifully posting photos of Binnall and Flynn with the chargé d’affaires like it's a Rotary Club mixer and not a soft-focus ad for monetizing a coup attempt.
Binnall insists there's no conflict of interest here and that embassy support is just "consistent with its mission to support American businesses operating abroad" – because nothing says standard commercial channels like election-denial lawyers and the brother of Trump's disgraced national security adviser parachuting into the Balkans with a shell company and a bald eagle logo. In other words, the Trump foreign policy shop has evolved: instead of merely attacking democracy at home, the old coup squad is now leveraging their White House access to carve out 30-year energy concessions overseas. But sure, it's about "energy security," not turning insurrection into a subscription business model.
Source: theguardian.com
#forever-grifting#corruption
forever grifting
trump kids invent $100 down, zero phone
Artist’s impression of the Trump T1: a golden rectangle of pure vibes and no hardware, proudly designed in America and manufactured in the imagination.
The presidential failsons are back with a bold new innovation in American tech: a phone that doesn’t exist but will happily take your $100 anyway. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump rolled out Trump Mobile’s gold "T1" phone — allegedly "Made in the USA" — and then, like every other Trump business promise, it somehow got lost between the press conference and reality. The company quietly scrubbed the "Made in the USA" claim from its website and downgraded it to an "American-proud design," which is what you call something that’s absolutely being made somewhere else but still needs to trigger the base.
There’s now a letter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren and 10 other Democrats asking the FTC to look into whether this whole thing is, you know, fraud — including possible false advertising and "bait-and-switch tactics" involving deposits for phones that never show up. NBC News even put down a $100 deposit and was rewarded with a shifting series of ship dates (November, then December, now "sometime in Q1 2026") and an excuse that somehow involved the government shutdown, because nothing says "cutting-edge consumer electronics" like blaming Congress for your nonexistent supply chain.
Lawmakers are also very pointedly asking whether the FTC has actually done anything or spoken to Trump or his businesses about this little presidential side hustle, noting that how the agency responds will be a "critical test" of its independence. Meanwhile, Gavin Newsom’s office has already skipped to the last page of the book and called it what it looks like: "like FRAUD!" In other words, the Trump brand has finally produced the perfect Trump product: a shiny, flag-wrapped, "Made in the USA" nothingburger that exists mainly to vacuum $100 bills out of supporters’ wallets — forever-grifting as a service.
Source: nbcnews.com
#forever-grifting#corruption#money
forever grifting
trump saves american families by exporting the landlord problem to britain
Artist’s impression of Trump heroically standing between Wall Street and American homes, while quietly pointing them toward the UK like a corrupt real estate air-traffic controller.
Donald Trump has discovered a bold new housing strategy: don’t rein in Wall Street, just ship it overseas. After years of private equity giants like Blackstone gobbling up US homes and jacking up rents, Trump is pushing a ban on institutional investors buying single-family houses in America. But instead of actually confronting the financialization of housing, the move is already encouraging those same firms to double down on the UK market, where tenants’ unions are begging politicians not to let American mega-landlords treat Britain like a foreclosure buffet.
Because nothing says “I care about working families” like telling Blackstone & friends: you can keep doing what you’re doing, just go do it to someone else’s renters. Analysts openly predict a surge of US private equity into UK build-to-rent schemes, where the business model is basically: cut corners, hike rents, and tell regulators you’re "improving affordability" while tenants complain about unsafe homes and ignored repairs. In other words, Trump isn’t stopping the housing grift – he’s just turning it into an international franchise.
Source: theguardian.com
#forever-grifting#money
forever grifting
white house declares recession a ‘messaging issue,’ americans declare rent a ‘money issue’
Trump economic advisers bravely explaining that if you close your eyes and repeat "strong fundamentals" three times, your overdraft fees turn into stock gains.
Trump is reportedly "fighting a messaging war" over the state of the economy, because nothing says "serious governance" like treating people’s lost jobs, wiped-out savings, and sky-high prices as a vibes problem that can be fixed with better slogans and a fresh chyron on Fox.
Instead of, say, changing policies that shovel money to billionaires and corporate donors, the administration is workshopping talking points to convince you that your empty bank account is actually historic prosperity and that if you’d just stop looking at your bills, you’d see how great everything is. In other words, it’s not the economy that’s broken, it’s you for noticing.
So the White House comms shop is out here trying to rebrand pain as success, insisting this is all a "messaging war" while Americans are conducting a daily "how do I pay for groceries" war. But sure, if they just say "best economy ever" enough times, your rent will spontaneously drop and your credit card debt will patriotically disappear.
Source: nbcnews.com
#forever-grifting#money#full-stupid
forever grifting
trump sues bbc for $10bn, accidentally threatens to expose his own finances
Donald Trump, seen here imagining $10bn in "brand damage" while silently praying the BBC doesn’t ask what the brand is actually worth.
Donald Trump has launched a $10bn defamation lawsuit against the BBC over a Panorama documentary that used a misleadingly spliced clip of his 6 January speech—and in doing so may have pulled the pin on his own financial grenade. His lawyers say the edit damaged the "value of his brand, properties and businesses", which is adorable, because claiming massive financial harm is exactly how you invite the other side to demand chapter-and-verse on what your brand, properties and businesses are actually worth.
The BBC is asking a Florida court to toss the case for lack of jurisdiction, improper venue, and failure to state a claim, while also begging the judge to put discovery on ice so they don’t have to hand over internal editorial documents before the dismissal is decided. Trump, meanwhile, is effectively arguing: "My global empire is so yuge that one edited TV segment cost me billions"—which opens the door for the BBC to say: "Cool story, now show us the books." For a man who fought like hell to hide his tax returns, only to have them eventually reveal business losses and creative accounting, this is a bold new chapter in suing himself into transparency.
The broadcaster has already apologized for the edit, calling it an "error of judgment," but insists that’s not the same thing as defamation, and also notes a fun detail: Trump’s claim that the documentary was on BritBox in the US is apparently just made up. Their court filing basically says, "you could have clicked the link yourself, Mr. President," which is a nice way of saying "we checked the internet; you should try it sometime." They also argue he hasn’t plausibly alleged "actual malice," a requirement for public officials who want to sue the press instead of reading the First Amendment.
So to recap: Trump is demanding $5bn per count because a British broadcaster aired a bad edit of the speech he gave before a mob he spent weeks riling up attacked the US Capitol. The BBC wants the whole thing thrown out, but if it survives long enough to reach discovery, Trump may finally have to cough up detailed info about his "brand" and business empire. In other words, in his quest to punish the media and rewrite 6 January, he might accidentally do the one thing he’s avoided for decades: let the world see what’s really behind the gold-plated curtain—but sure, this is all about protecting his reputation.
Source: theguardian.com
#forever-grifting#money
forever grifting
affordability is a hoax, says man who made everything more expensive
Trump explains that the affordability crisis is a hoax while standing in front of a $10 carton of eggs and a tax bill labeled 'Working Families Tax Cut.'
Democrats have finally discovered a magic word that isn’t "bipartisanship" or "please stop": affordability. While Trump tours the country declaring the cost-of-living crisis a "hoax", Americans are apparently failing to notice how blessed they are by 2.7% inflation on top of already jacked-up prices, gutted healthcare subsidies, and a president whose main economic policy is yelling "DAY ONE" at grocery receipts. In other words, the White House line is: if you can’t afford your meds, just try believing harder.
On Capitol Hill, things are going so well that 17 House Republicans had to mutiny against their own leadership to reinstate Affordable Care Act premium tax credits for three years, after Speaker Mike Johnson bravely refused to allow any vote that might make health insurance less ruinously expensive. Moderates then used a discharge petition to drag the bill onto the floor, because nothing says "fiscally conservative" like forcing your own speaker to stop deliberately raising people’s premiums. Democrats, naturally, are thrilled to discover that "not making people poorer on purpose" is a winning message.
Meanwhile, the GOP is betting that their One Big Beautiful Bill Act — now rebranded as the "Working Families Tax Cut" because focus groups didn’t love "Massive Handout to Donors" — will shower Americans with such huge refunds that they’ll forget about higher prices, healthcare cuts, and Trump’s little Venezuela adventure. Johnson promises "all boats begin to rise," which is a bold claim for a party that keeps drilling holes in the bottom of the lifeboat and calling it structural reform. And when that doesn’t work, Republicans will go back to the classics: blame Biden for everything, scream about fraud in childcare spending, and hope voters don’t notice who’s been methodically making life more expensive for them this whole time.
Source: theguardian.com
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
forever grifting
trump bans high interest rates, forgets to invent laws first
Trump bravely regulates credit card companies using the most powerful tool in American governance: a late-night social media post with zero legal authority.
Donald Trump hopped on Truth Social to announce that, starting 20 January, credit card interest rates will be capped at 10% for one year — by sheer force of vibes, apparently. No legislation, no regulatory framework, no explanation of how the government will enforce any of this. Just a late-night post declaring that he will no longer let the American public be "ripped off" by credit card companies, which is bold coming from the guy who spent his term trying to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
This sudden populist cosplay arrived hours after Bernie Sanders called him out for breaking his campaign promise and instead deregulating big banks so they could happily charge close to 30% interest. Like clockwork, Trump responded not with policy, but with a press-release tweet-thread that pretends executive wishful thinking is the same thing as law. Elizabeth Warren politely pointed out that "begging credit card companies to play nice is a joke" and noted that if Trump were serious, he’d have supported an actual bill — like the Sanders–Hawley proposal that would cap rates at 10% for five years.
Meanwhile, Wall Street’s feelings got briefly hurt. Trump ally and billionaire hedge fund guy Bill Ackman initially called the move a "mistake" before editing himself into a more donor-friendly concern-troll about "credit availability" and "subprime risk" — because nothing says "we care about working families" like warning that if you stop us from charging 28% APR, we’ll just cancel poor people’s cards. The banking lobby rolled out the standard hostage note about how any cap would be "devastating" for the very people it’s currently gouging, and promised that if forced to be slightly less predatory, they’ll just shove everyone toward even worse, less regulated products.
In other words, Trump is trying to launder a year of pro-bank deregulation into a one-year, likely-to-be-ignored, maybe-not-even-legal rate "cap" that exists mainly as a social media stunt. He weakened the cops, handed the banks a crowbar, and now wants credit for taping a "please don’t rob us" sign on the door. But sure, tell us again how this is the historic triumph of the "very successful Trump Administration."
Source: theguardian.com
#forever-grifting#money
forever grifting
trumprx: now with 90% more press release than savings
Trump announcing his TrumpRx ‘savings’ program, flanked by drug executives who somehow don’t look terrified of losing any actual money.
Trump has discovered a bold new way to fix America’s drug pricing crisis: announce a bunch of secret deals, slap his name on a website, and hope nobody notices that almost no one will actually save money. Since Sept. 30, the White House says it’s struck deals with 14 drugmakers, trading tariff relief for "most favored nation" pricing on a mystery list of drugs and some cash discounts through a new self-pay platform called TrumpRx—because nothing says serious health policy like a QVC-sounding brand extension.
Experts point out that the deals mostly help people on Medicaid (who already pay next to nothing at the counter) and the uninsured, while doing basically nothing for the vast majority of Americans with private insurance or Medicare. Even then, the headline-grabbing cuts—like taking Epclusa from about $25,000 to $2,425 cash—still leave people paying thousands out of pocket. Those “cheaper” weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Zepbound? We’re still talking $250–$350 a month, i.e., unaffordable for a lot of the people Trump claims to be rescuing.
There’s also the tiny problem that almost none of this exists on paper. Brookings’ Richard Frank notes there are "virtually nothing" but press releases, no full drug list, no real contracts we can see, and a decent chance these are just old discounts rebranded as Trump’s historic victory over Big Pharma. Meanwhile, drugmakers quietly hiked prices on more than 350 brand-name medicines, health insurance premiums are spiking as ACA subsidies expire, and millions can’t afford coverage at all. In other words: Trump gets the photo ops, pharma keeps the profits, and Americans get a Trump-branded coupon site that still leaves them choosing between insulin and rent—but sure, tell us again how the deals are "the largest developments" in drug pricing reform.
Source: nbcnews.com
#forever-grifting#healthcare
forever grifting
people live in homes, not corporations, says guy who is a corporation
Trump, America’s most famous landlord, bravely defending regular homeowners from the scourge of… other landlords.
Donald Trump has discovered that housing is expensive and, in a stunning break with the last 40 years of Republican orthodoxy, has decided that maybe Wall Street shouldn't own the entire starter-home market. On Truth Social, the president announced he is "immediately" taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying single-family homes and will be asking Congress to codify it — because nothing says "serious policy" like a vague threat posted on your failing social network before a photo op in Davos.
Trump blamed "Record High Inflation" on Joe Biden, naturally, while ignoring that institutional investors hoovering up whole neighborhoods was a bipartisan, private-equity fever dream years in the making. Now, the guy whose entire life has been one long real estate shell game is rebranding himself as the defender of the American Dream: people live in homes, not corporations, says the walking LLC. Whether this turns into actual legislation or just another campaign-style stunt to yell about in the Swiss Alps remains to be seen — but sure, the man who turned the federal government into a family business is suddenly drawing a hard line on corporate ownership of housing.
In other words: Wall Street might get lightly scolded on social media while lobbyists and donors quietly carve out loopholes in the background. But for now, Trump gets to posture as a populist housing warrior at the World Economic Forum, the annual retreat where billionaires gather to discuss how best to save the world from problems they created, over canapés.
Trump blamed "Record High Inflation" on Joe Biden, naturally, while ignoring that institutional investors hoovering up whole neighborhoods was a bipartisan, private-equity fever dream years in the making. Now, the guy whose entire life has been one long real estate shell game is rebranding himself as the defender of the American Dream: people live in homes, not corporations, says the walking LLC. Whether this turns into actual legislation or just another campaign-style stunt to yell about in the Swiss Alps remains to be seen — but sure, the man who turned the federal government into a family business is suddenly drawing a hard line on corporate ownership of housing.
In other words: Wall Street might get lightly scolded on social media while lobbyists and donors quietly carve out loopholes in the background. But for now, Trump gets to posture as a populist housing warrior at the World Economic Forum, the annual retreat where billionaires gather to discuss how best to save the world from problems they created, over canapés.
Source: theguardian.com
#forever-grifting#trumps-america
forever grifting
trump wins big for america’s neediest: apple, nike, and bermuda
Mathias Cormann and Scott Bessent smile for the cameras after agreeing that everyone will fight tax havens—except the companies that actually use them.
Nearly 150 countries just signed on to a landmark global tax deal to stop giant corporations from hiding profits in tax havens. The Trump administration’s response? Negotiate an exemption so the biggest US multinationals don’t actually have to follow it. Because nothing says “international cooperation” like telling the rest of the world to crack down on tax dodging while Washington carves out a giant golden escape hatch for Apple and Nike.
The OECD is out here calling it a “landmark decision in international tax cooperation” that “protects tax bases,” while Trump’s Treasury secretary Scott Bessent is bragging it’s a “historic victory in preserving US sovereignty.” Translation: everyone else agreed to a 15% global minimum tax, and the US insisted its own megacorps can keep funneling profits to Bermuda and the Caymans like it’s 2013 forever. The original 2021 deal—pushed by Janet Yellen and hated by Republicans for daring to ask corporations to pay taxes anywhere—has now been watered down into a bespoke loophole for American champions of creative accounting.
This didn’t happen by accident. Trump first trashed the Biden-era deal as not applicable in the US, then threatened retaliatory taxes on countries that dared to tax US firms. Congressional Republicans helpfully rolled back a “revenge tax” provision in Trump’s own big tax-and-spending bill, clearing the way for the June re-negotiation that produced this corporate love letter. Tax transparency groups are pointing out that this move risks “nearly a decade of global progress” on corporate taxation so that the most profitable companies on earth can keep pretending their real headquarters is a beach in the Caribbean.
In other words, the rest of the world is trying—however weakly—to stop the race to the bottom on corporate taxes, and the Trump administration just showed up with a shovel and said, “No worries, we’ll keep digging.” But sure, tell us more about how this is about protecting American workers, and not about protecting the right of multinationals to never meet a tax bill they can’t outrun on paper.
Source: theguardian.com
#forever-grifting#corruption#oligarchy
forever grifting
trump invents the tax refund as a campaign ad
Scott Bessent explaining that if you ignore the deficits, the service cuts, and the chaos at the IRS, this is actually a huge win because you might get your own money back slightly later than you should have.
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent is out promising a “gigantic refund year” in 2026, because nothing says responsible governance like bragging that the government accidentally over-withheld your paycheck all year and will now heroically give you back your own money. The magic comes from Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (yes, that’s really what they called it), which showers new deductions on tipped workers, overtime earners, and seniors—just don’t look too hard at the exploding deficit, shredded social spending, or the part where almost nobody updated their withholdings because the IRS and employers were left in the dark.
Under OBBBA, tipped workers can deduct up to $25,000, overtime pay gets its own deduction, and older adults pick up an extra $6,000 on top of the standard deduction. Small businesses get juiced with bigger depreciation and R&D write-offs, and there’s even a branded “Trump savings account” for babies, because of course the tax code now includes a MAGA 529 knockoff. Meanwhile, thanks to the shutdown, the IRS didn’t have time to fix W‑2s, employers got almost no guidance, and any screwups are—naturally—your problem. In other words: the administration broke the machinery, slapped Trump’s name on a few tax perks, and is now selling your over-withholding as proof of their economic genius.
Critics point out that the bill blows up deficits and guts needed programs, but hey, you might get a few extra bucks back in April while the safety net quietly dissolves. This is the Trump model in a nutshell: short-term sugar high for workers, long-term structural giveaway for the rich, and a big shiny “refund” headline to wave around on Fox while the bill comes due later. But sure, gigantic refund year—what could possibly go wrong?
Under OBBBA, tipped workers can deduct up to $25,000, overtime pay gets its own deduction, and older adults pick up an extra $6,000 on top of the standard deduction. Small businesses get juiced with bigger depreciation and R&D write-offs, and there’s even a branded “Trump savings account” for babies, because of course the tax code now includes a MAGA 529 knockoff. Meanwhile, thanks to the shutdown, the IRS didn’t have time to fix W‑2s, employers got almost no guidance, and any screwups are—naturally—your problem. In other words: the administration broke the machinery, slapped Trump’s name on a few tax perks, and is now selling your over-withholding as proof of their economic genius.
Critics point out that the bill blows up deficits and guts needed programs, but hey, you might get a few extra bucks back in April while the safety net quietly dissolves. This is the Trump model in a nutshell: short-term sugar high for workers, long-term structural giveaway for the rich, and a big shiny “refund” headline to wave around on Fox while the bill comes due later. But sure, gigantic refund year—what could possibly go wrong?
Source: theguardian.com
#forever-grifting#money
forever grifting
trump slaps his name on the kennedy center, immediately starts looting
Protesters look up at the newly christened Trump-Kennedy Center, wondering when exactly the national arts budget got converted into a loyalty-points program for MAGA cronies.
The Kennedy Center was supposed to be a national monument to the arts. Instead, it’s become a live-action case study in how fast the Trump crowd can turn a cultural institution into a MAGA yacht club with better chandeliers. After Trump purged Biden appointees from the board, installed himself as chairman, and handed the presidency to professional yes-man Richard Grenell, the place allegedly pivoted from supporting artists to supporting Trump’s friends’ minibar tabs at the Watergate.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s investigation into the center’s finances describes it as a “slush fund and private club for Trump’s friends and political allies”, with millions in losses and a mission that now seems to be less about ballet and more about grift. In other words, the arts are canceled; the grifting is sold out for a multi-year run. Grenell, naturally, responded by screaming “partisan witch hunt” on X and blaming “financial chaos” on the previous leadership, because nothing says fiscal responsibility like allegedly handing out free access and luxury rooms to your buddies.
And just when you think the tackiness has peaked, Karoline Leavitt proudly announces that the board has “voted unanimously” to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center—despite that tiny constitutional-ish snag where Congress actually has to do that. Within 24 hours, workmen are bolting Trump’s name onto the facade while the Kennedy family points out that this is, legally speaking, not how any of this works. But sure, who needs statutes when you’ve got a tarp, some metal letters, and a personality cult?
So the ‘secular temple to the arts’ is now a Trump-branded loot crate, and the only performance being perfected is public corruption.
So the ‘secular temple to the arts’ is now a Trump-branded loot crate, and the only performance being perfected is public corruption.
Source: theguardian.com
#corruption#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
forever grifting
trump calls climate a scam, lets your utility bill do the talking
Bernie, AOC, and Zohran Mamdani on stage plotting the radical agenda of cheaper buses, cooler classrooms, and fewer kids getting cooked in uninsulated apartments—so obviously, the real extremists here.
The Trump administration has discovered a bold new climate strategy: call it a “scam,” cash record checks from big oil, and then act shocked when people’s power bills, rent, and insurance all explode. While Trump world insists that regulations are the real problem, Americans are getting hit with a monthly climate surcharge as extreme weather drives up utility costs, healthcare bills, and housing prices. Public transit systems are being shoved off a funding cliff, because nothing says “lower costs” like forcing everyone into cars during a heatwave.
Into this tire fire strolls an actually coherent idea: treat climate policy as an affordability agenda instead of a morality lecture. New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is pushing free buses and climate-resilient schools; Seattle’s socialist mayor-elect Katie Wilson wants social housing with green retrofits; unions from Chicago to Los Angeles are bargaining for solar schools and clean-energy jobs. Meanwhile, the administration that promised lower energy prices is busy turning the US into an oligarchic oil-and-gas theme park, where Exxon gets the rides and you get the bill.
From Maine’s Graham Platner tying pollution to oligarchy, to Nebraska’s Dan Osborn backing right-to-repair so farmers don’t have to mortgage the farm to fix a tractor, to Democrats winning on “lower utility costs” without even being especially left, the throughline is obvious: climate action can actually cut costs for normal people. But sure, tell us more about how climate policy is a con while you gut transit, shovel subsidies at fossil fuel donors, and let landlords pass disaster and insurance costs straight to renters. Green economic populism is trying to keep the lights on and the rent payable; the Trump administration is just making sure the oil CEOs’ yachts stay fully fueled.
Source: theguardian.com
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
forever grifting
president launches new altcoin, calls it 'regulation policy'
President Trump proudly announces his new cryptocurrency, seen here attempting to moon while ethics laws quietly flatline in the background.
The Trump administration has discovered a bold new frontier in public service: cutting out the middleman and just paying the president in crypto. Trump Media & Technology Group — the corporate husk behind Truth Social — is rolling out a shiny new cryptocurrency for its shareholders, which conveniently includes its largest shareholder: President Donald Trump. Each share gets a token, the stock price jumps, and Devin Nunes calls it a "first-of-its-kind" move to "promote fair and transparent markets" — because nothing says fairness like the guy writing the rules also pumping his own coin.
In other words, the White House now doubles as a crypto launchpad. Nunes isn’t just the CEO of Trump Media; he’s also Chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, whispering sweet nothings about “intelligence collection” to the same guy whose policies just made crypto’s life much easier. Since returning to the White House, Trump has signed landmark crypto legislation, dropped multiple enforcement cases against crypto firms, and pushed to let Americans shove their retirement savings into volatile coins — all while his family’s various tokens and meme-coins rake in hundreds of millions and conveniently crater only after the insiders have cashed out. But sure, this is all about "innovation" and "mainstream adoption," not the president using federal policy to juice his own digital casino.
Trump’s crypto empire is, fittingly, as stable as his temperament. The TRUMP meme-coin exploded in value around his inauguration, then lost more than 90% of its worth — the perfect metaphor for every Trump-branded venture ever. Trump Media stock is down more than 60% this year, so naturally the solution is not sound governance or real products, but airdropping magic internet money via Crypto.com on the Cronos blockchain and promising "various rewards" like discounts on Trump-branded nonsense. It’s not a presidency anymore, it’s a perpetual pump-and-dump scheme with nuclear codes.
So to recap: the president owns a media company that prints its own token, he controls the regulatory environment for that industry, his allies kill enforcement actions against it, and Americans are nudged to gamble their retirements on the whole circus. But don’t worry, Devin Nunes swears it’s all about transparency.
Source: bbc.com
#forever-grifting#corruption#crypto
forever grifting
trump unveils proudly american phone, forgets to unveil the phone
Artist’s impression of the Trump T1: a gold brick with an American flag on it, functionally identical to the actual product currently in customers’ hands.
Trump Mobile – the latest entry in the “how many ways can we cash in on the presidency” cinematic universe – has delayed its big, shiny, $499 gold-colored smartphone, the T1. The company, which licensed the Trump name to slap on a phone and service plan, now says there’s a “strong possibility” customers won’t see their devices this month, blaming the government shutdown Trump helped create for disrupting shipments. Because nothing says competent business genius like failing to deliver a product you already took $100 deposits for and then pointing at your own administration’s chaos as the excuse.
The T1 is marketed as a “proudly American” rival to Apple and Samsung, which is adorable given that almost no smartphones are actually manufactured in the US and no one seems to know who would even build this thing. But sure, it’s etched with an American flag, so that’s basically a supply chain. The phone was first promised for August, then vaguely pushed to “later this year,” while customers are still required to cough up $100 just to reserve the privilege of maybe, someday, receiving a gold Trump rectangle.
Trump Mobile also offers a $47.45 monthly phone plan – a price point chosen to worship Trump’s status as the 47th president, because when you’re building a cult of personality, even your billing has to be a campaign ad. The venture is run by Donald Jr and Eric, naturally, and joins Trump-branded watches, shoes, and Bibles in the ever-expanding MAGA QVC catalog. According to financial disclosures, these licensing deals pulled in more than $8m for Trump in 2024 alone, all while his administration oversees the very federal agencies that regulate telecom and digital media. In other words: regulatory power on one hand, phone company cash in the other – but we’re definitely still pretending there’s a meaningful separation between the presidency and the family business.
Source: theguardian.com
#forever-grifting#corruption
forever grifting
historic comeback mostly happening to other people
Trump explains the ‘historic comeback’ to people whose bank accounts appear to be participating in a completely different economy.
Nearly half of Americans now say their financial security is getting worse, and the other half are presumably just waiting for the next layoff email. A new Harris poll finds 45% of people feel less secure than before, while only 20% say things are improving—but the White House insists we’re living through a "historic comeback" and that prices are "coming down fast." Because nothing says ‘comeback’ like mass government layoffs, chaotic tariffs, and a crackdown on immigrant labor that breaks supply chains.
The economy on paper is doing fine—strong GDP growth, no technical recession—yet 57% of Americans say we’re in a recession anyway. That’s what happens when your "booming" economy is a K-shaped funhouse where the stock market is high, the rich are richer, and everyone under $50,000 a year is watching their finances go through the floor. Fifty-nine percent of those making under $50k say their security is getting worse, compared with 37% of those over $100k. In other words: Trump’s "comeback" is mostly a vibes-based recovery for people who own multiple ETFs.
The partisan breakdown is a chef’s-kiss of dysfunction. Democrats and independents are increasingly blaming the government for rising prices—76% and 72% respectively—while Republicans are heroically trying to pin it on "corporate practices" instead, as if Trump’s tariffs and mass firings are just a weird coincidence. Women, Black, and Hispanic voters—whom Trump bragged about winning over in 2024—are now far more likely to say their finances are deteriorating and that we’re in a recession. But sure, keep rolling out the teleprompter speeches about how everything is totally fixed and the only problem is people’s "perceptions." If only people could pay rent in White House talking points.
Source: theguardian.com
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
forever grifting
trump to big pharma: your profits are safe, we'll just shake down our allies
Trump explaining that the way to lower US drug prices is to keep Big Pharma rich and send the bill to France, because of course he is.
Trump looked at America’s obscene drug prices and, in a stunning twist no one saw coming, concluded the real villains are France, Germany, and Japan – not the pharmaceutical companies making record profits by charging whatever they can get away with. Instead of touching private insurers or pharma margins, he’s promising a fantasyland 700% price cut at home by forcing allies to jack up their own prices, because nothing says "standing up for American patients" like turning healthcare into a protection racket.
The article lays out how the US helped build the current global pharma regime – TRIPS, ironclad patents, and all – that funnels billions to shareholders while rationing lifesaving drugs by bank balance. Now that profits might be peaking and China, Cuba, and others are building their own state-backed pharma sectors, Washington’s answer (under Trump) isn’t "rein in corporate power" but "make our allies pay more so Pfizer doesn’t have to suffer." In other words, preserve the same rigged system that made insulin unaffordable in the first place, just with a side of geopolitical extortion.
European and Japanese governments are left in a fun little bind: domestic pharma and private insurers would love higher prices, but their voters and public health systems will explode the second hospital budgets are fed into the shareholder furnace. Trump is selling this as a populist crusade for cheaper drugs, but the actual plan is to keep Big Pharma’s profit machine intact, shift the pain onto other countries, and call it a win for American patients. It’s not healthcare reform, it’s a globalized shakedown operation – forever-grifting, but make it pharma.
Source: theguardian.com
#forever-grifting#money
forever grifting
trump replaces free markets with the vibes-based stock exchange
President Trump, seen here auditioning CEOs for the role of "most obedient oligarch," as markets wait to see who gets government equity and who gets publicly threatened on live TV.
Remember "free-market capitalism"? Trump spent 2025 helpfully updating it to "whoever flatters me the most gets the stock bump." NPR walks through how the president has been openly picking corporate winners and losers, turning the U.S. economy into a loyalty program where the rewards are government stakes and export licenses, and the fine print is democracy.
We get the Intel special: Trump publicly demands CEO Lip‑Bu Tan's resignation, then suddenly discovers Tan is a genius visionary the moment Intel agrees to hand the U.S. government a 10% equity stake. Because nothing says level playing field like the president publicly kneecapping your stock price until you cough up shares.
Then there’s Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who has apparently figured out the new business model: fund Trump’s tacky White House ballroom project, get permission to sell advanced chips to China — as long as the U.S. government gets a 25% cut of those sales. In other words, it’s not industrial policy, it’s the House takes a quarter Ann Lipton, a corporate law expert, politely calls this capitalism by "schmoozing"; everyone else would call it what it is: state-backed shakedowns that destroy competition, innovation, and any pretense that U.S. markets aren’t being run like Trump’s personal casino.
So yes, America still has capitalism — just the Russian kind. The line between government and business isn’t blurred; it’s been replaced with a revolving door, a donation link, and a very clear message: play ball with Trump or get regulated, humiliated, or cut out of the global market. But sure, tell us again how this is all about freedom and the invisible hand.
We get the Intel special: Trump publicly demands CEO Lip‑Bu Tan's resignation, then suddenly discovers Tan is a genius visionary the moment Intel agrees to hand the U.S. government a 10% equity stake. Because nothing says level playing field like the president publicly kneecapping your stock price until you cough up shares.
Then there’s Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who has apparently figured out the new business model: fund Trump’s tacky White House ballroom project, get permission to sell advanced chips to China — as long as the U.S. government gets a 25% cut of those sales. In other words, it’s not industrial policy, it’s the House takes a quarter Ann Lipton, a corporate law expert, politely calls this capitalism by "schmoozing"; everyone else would call it what it is: state-backed shakedowns that destroy competition, innovation, and any pretense that U.S. markets aren’t being run like Trump’s personal casino.
So yes, America still has capitalism — just the Russian kind. The line between government and business isn’t blurred; it’s been replaced with a revolving door, a donation link, and a very clear message: play ball with Trump or get regulated, humiliated, or cut out of the global market. But sure, tell us again how this is all about freedom and the invisible hand.
Source: npr.org
#forever-grifting#corruption#oligarchy
forever grifting
trumprx.gov: now with 30% off insulin and 100% off transparency
Trump announces he has finally tamed Big Pharma, flanked by drug executives whose stock prices mysteriously did not get the memo.
Donald Trump has discovered a bold new form of healthcare reform: negotiate in private with nine giant drug companies, announce "massive savings" with no actual numbers, and then hand them a three-year exemption from tariffs and a government-backed sales funnel called TrumpRx.gov. Because nothing says "standing up to Big Pharma" like giving them a custom federal storefront and trade perks in exchange for promising to stop charging Americans quite three times as much as the rest of the developed world.
Under the deal, companies like Bristol Myers Squibb, Gilead, Merck, Roche/Genentech, Novartis, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi, and GSK will cut prices for Medicaid and some cash payers, and pledge "most-favored-nation" pricing on new drugs. In return, they get tariff holidays, fast-track FDA vibes, and the opportunity to sell direct-to-consumer through a website that sounds like it was cooked up between Truth Social posts. Merck, in a shocking coincidence, is offering 70% off diabetes drugs that are about to face generic competition anyway—heroism is always easier when the patent cliff is doing most of the work.
Officials brag that this will save Medicaid money, which is adorable given Medicaid is only about 10% of US drug spending and already gets discounts north of 80% on some drugs. Investors, initially terrified of actual price controls, are now calm and happy—always a great sign for the supposed populist crackdown. The companies also pledged $150bn in US R&D and manufacturing "investment" (unclear if this is new money or just re-gifted press release fluff) and will remit some foreign revenues back to the US, as if multinational tax planning just died of embarrassment.
So Trump gets a victory lap about "beating" Big Pharma, Big Pharma gets regulatory certainty, tariff relief, and a new federal marketing channel, and Americans still get to pay the highest drug prices in the world—just slightly less obscene and with a fresh coat of Trump branding. In other words, it’s not healthcare reform, it’s a corporate loyalty program with a presidential logo slapped on top.
Under the deal, companies like Bristol Myers Squibb, Gilead, Merck, Roche/Genentech, Novartis, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi, and GSK will cut prices for Medicaid and some cash payers, and pledge "most-favored-nation" pricing on new drugs. In return, they get tariff holidays, fast-track FDA vibes, and the opportunity to sell direct-to-consumer through a website that sounds like it was cooked up between Truth Social posts. Merck, in a shocking coincidence, is offering 70% off diabetes drugs that are about to face generic competition anyway—heroism is always easier when the patent cliff is doing most of the work.
Officials brag that this will save Medicaid money, which is adorable given Medicaid is only about 10% of US drug spending and already gets discounts north of 80% on some drugs. Investors, initially terrified of actual price controls, are now calm and happy—always a great sign for the supposed populist crackdown. The companies also pledged $150bn in US R&D and manufacturing "investment" (unclear if this is new money or just re-gifted press release fluff) and will remit some foreign revenues back to the US, as if multinational tax planning just died of embarrassment.
So Trump gets a victory lap about "beating" Big Pharma, Big Pharma gets regulatory certainty, tariff relief, and a new federal marketing channel, and Americans still get to pay the highest drug prices in the world—just slightly less obscene and with a fresh coat of Trump branding. In other words, it’s not healthcare reform, it’s a corporate loyalty program with a presidential logo slapped on top.
Source: theguardian.com
#forever-grifting#healthcare
forever grifting
truth social to the sun: trump discovers a new thing to grift
Donald Trump and Devin Nunes, fresh off failing at social media, preparing to reinvent nuclear fusion with vibes, SPAC math, and a prayer to the stock ticker.
Trump Media — the proud parent of the ghost town known as Truth Social — has decided that losing tens of millions of dollars a quarter just isn’t ambitious enough, so it’s merging with fusion energy firm TAE Technologies in a $6bn deal. Because nothing says "serious energy policy" like hitching the future of nuclear fusion to a meme stock built on Trump posts and a volatile crypto treasury. Devin Nunes, failed cow-suing congressman turned tech visionary, will be co-CEO of this nuclear adventure, and Trump himself will sit on the nine-member board, just to really drive home that the president is now literally in the nuclear energy business while he runs the government.
On the policy side, the Trump White House is simultaneously deregulating nuclear, fast-tracking fusion, declaring it a matter of national security, and building a new Office of Fusion at DOE to shove the tech to market as quickly as possible. On the private side, Trump Media is handing TAE $300m in cash and a direct line to "major political support from President Trump", as one analyst delicately put it. In other words: the president is using federal power to juice an industry that he and his family now have a massive financial stake in, and everyone’s just nodding along like this is normal.
TAE’s CEO says sometimes you "get lucky and you meet the right people" — by which he apparently means a sitting president with a failing social network, a pump-and-dump stock, a crypto casino, and a bottomless appetite for conflicts of interest. But sure, we’re told not to worry, because he "welcomes regulatory scrutiny" while partnering with the guy currently taking a chainsaw to the regulators. If this all goes wrong, at least it’ll be on brand: Trump finally delivering on "nuclear" — just not quite in the way anyone had in mind.
On the policy side, the Trump White House is simultaneously deregulating nuclear, fast-tracking fusion, declaring it a matter of national security, and building a new Office of Fusion at DOE to shove the tech to market as quickly as possible. On the private side, Trump Media is handing TAE $300m in cash and a direct line to "major political support from President Trump", as one analyst delicately put it. In other words: the president is using federal power to juice an industry that he and his family now have a massive financial stake in, and everyone’s just nodding along like this is normal.
TAE’s CEO says sometimes you "get lucky and you meet the right people" — by which he apparently means a sitting president with a failing social network, a pump-and-dump stock, a crypto casino, and a bottomless appetite for conflicts of interest. But sure, we’re told not to worry, because he "welcomes regulatory scrutiny" while partnering with the guy currently taking a chainsaw to the regulators. If this all goes wrong, at least it’ll be on brand: Trump finally delivering on "nuclear" — just not quite in the way anyone had in mind.
Source: theguardian.com
#forever-grifting#corruption#killing-democracy