From the People's Business to Family Business
Donald Trump's defenders have taken great offense to suspicions by Democrats and others that the Trump family and its close circle are doing insider trading to profit from market convulsions. There's no "proof," they say.
It's true that there's been no proof so far, but there's surely enough smoke to warrant an investigation. Problem is, the Trump administration has fired the investigators or replaced them with people who won't investigate. To quote a Wall Street Journal headline, "Trump Administration Retreats from White-Collar Criminal Enforcement."
Whence comes the smoke? For starters, it comes from the total lack of consistency in Trump's pronouncements on tariffs. The administration on Friday announced that iPhones, laptops and other tech products would be exempt from the "so-called reciprocal tariffs" against China that run as high as 145%, the Journal noted. "But on Sunday morning Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said tariffs on electronic goods would go up again in the future."
See the game? When Trump announces new tariffs, stock prices crater. When he announces a retreat, the indices soar. To keep the game going, there always must be the threat of a reversal that would send the markets in another direction. And how nice it would be to become one of the insiders who get a heads-up right before announcements are made.
But one investment that stopped jumping at every hint of trade sanity: U.S. Treasury securities. Once considered the world's safest place to keep money at times of economic stress, the world's investors are moving out of U.S. government bonds. They now see America as an increasingly unstable country no longer governed by the old rules of capitalism but by crony and family interests. And extortion.
If you don't deliver a bag of gold for my inauguration, I might hurt your business. Or, you could also pay Melania an outlandish $40 million for her documentary, Jeff Bezos, and I'll be nice to Amazon. You could also buy my crypto.
Wall Street Journal, thank you again for yet another headline: "Trump's $1 Billion Law Firm Deals Are the Work of His Personal Lawyer." That would be Boris Epshteyn, indicted in Arizona for trying to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss in that state. And he has pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in a bar.
Epshteyn doesn't work for the government. He doesn't even have a government email address. But he's been shaking down law firms deemed opposed to the Trump agenda for pro bono, that is, free, work. On Friday alone, five law firms submitted and agreed to hand over about $600 million in legal services, gratis. Several law firms have hired Trump-friendly lobbyists.
Others, however, have resisted the intimidation. Law firms have every right to represent clients opposed to actions by the Trump or any other administration.
"But what about Hunter's laptop?" some will ask. Don't even try that.
Observe Trump's mafia-style locutions, like, "You can do it the easy way, or you can do it the hard way." Or, "These countries are kissing my a--." It's important in the mob mentality that extortion be blatant.
Astounding how the MAGA right accuses anyone they disagree with of being a "socialist" and then throws into the dumpster the guardrails and respect for impersonal decisions that help capitalism function.
Four years ago, Trump called crypto "a scam." He told Fox News that he objected to crypto because it competes with the U.S. dollar. But Trump has a long history of regarding a scam as an opportunity. Trump is now deregulating crypto as his family goes into everything from bitcoin mining to stablecoins.
The people's business has been given over to a family's business. Small wonder that the free world is bailing out of America.
========
Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.
----
Copyright 2025 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Comments