Apr.01

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Dem 47

   

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Today's Crazypants Report: This is What Grift Looks Like

We're not sure what Donald Trump's single-greatest motivation is. There was a piece in The Conversation about a month ago arguing that his most pressing need is to dominate, presumably to make up for all the times he was made to feel small as a child (by his parents) and early in his business career (by more successful real estate investors).

Maybe that is indeed #1 on his list. We may never know for sure, since he's never going to let anyone in on his innermost thoughts, especially someone qualified to try to make sense of them (like, say, a psychiatrist). Another contender for #1, and the one that we might pick, is Trump's pathological need for more money—there's no such thing as enough for him. Of course, for him, the line between "I must have more money" and "I must dominate" is a pretty thin one, since he judges success and failure by how much money someone has, or how much they realize from any particular deal.

We write all of this as entree to four different stories about outrageous grift from Trump and/or his inner circle, all of them from just the last week or so. Here's the rundown:

1. The Big One: One day, perhaps, Trump will realize huge gains due to his holdings in Truth Social, through Trump Media & Technology Group. However, he's already realized huge gains through his crypto coin, $TRUMP. Despite the fact that $TRUMP is not a medium of exchange, and so has no actual value, it has generated at least $14 billion in trades. It is hard to know exactly how much Trump has made from this setup. He and his family own the company that controls $TRUMP, and get 75% of trading fees. So, just from the various transactions that have taken place, he's probably collected about $100 million. He may also have brought in some additional, sizable amount of money through ownership of some portion of the $TRUMP coins. And, per Reuters, about four dozen others have enjoyed handsome returns on their $TRUMP "investment"—at least $10 million each.
   
   Remember, again, that the $TRUMP coin has no actual value. Then consider that the coin's price has dropped by more than two-thirds since its high point. What that means is that Trump and 50 (or so) of his closest friends made their fat returns on the backs of a lot of smaller fish who are almost certainly going to be left high and dry. How many small fish? About 200,000 of them. Obviously, some sizable portion of that group are people who are huge Trump fans. So, he's fleecing his own people.
   
   This is a textbook pump-and-dump scheme. And since the potential to pump-and-dump $TRUMP is probably dead at this point, the First Sons—Donald Jr. and Eric—have just announced a different bitcoin. This one is called $USD1, and will be pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar. That means it will have actual value, which also means that suckers investors who bought $TRUMP can tell themselves, "Well, this one is different." This particular type of bitcoin, called a stablecoin, has been widely criticized on a number of bases, most commonly that stablecoins are poorly regulated and they often fail to hold their value (in contrast to claims that they are guaranteed to hold their value). Undoubtedly, the Republican-controlled Congress will get right to work on those problems, now that the Trumps are in the stablecoin business.
   
   
2. Reparations: It wasn't good enough for Donald Trump that he merely pardoned the convicted criminals who attempted to pull off a coup for him on Jan. 6, 2021. Now he wants to compensate them for their suffering on account of getting caught breaking the law. In a way, this is surprising since Trump hates losers and anyone who gets caught and convicted is normally a loser in his mind.
   
   Last week, Trump told Newsmax's Greg Kelly there is talk about a compensation fund for the rioters "because a lot of people in government really like that group of people." He added they were treated unfairly. He specifically noted Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by a police officer while she was trying to break into the Capitol.
   
   With Trump it is hard to tell which ideas are serious ones he will fight for, and which are just one-off remarks he will never bring up again. A compensation fund paid for by the government would require an act of Congress, and that seems unlikely because only representatives in deep-red districts would vote for that unless it was buried in a much larger package and no one noticed. But the Jan. 6 coup attempt is something that still looms large in Trump's mind, so maybe he is serious about this.
   
   What he could also do is create a foundation or some other legal structure and get millionaires and billionaires who want to curry favor with him to donate to it. Then he could give a portion of the take to the Jan. 6 criminals, while keeping the rest for himself—since after all, he also suffered on that day. After all, Congress decided that he lost the 2020 election. That wasn't easy to take.
   
   It is also worth noting that if a bunch of hardcore Trumpers enjoy a big windfall, either funded by the government or by private donors, there is every chance that many of them will spend the money on things like Trump-branded guitars, or golden Trump shoes, or $USD1 bitcoins. You always have to assume with Trump that whenever he talks about money going to other people, he's really thinking about how some of that money will end up in his own pocket.
   
   
3. This Resurrection Brought to You By Chick-Fil-A: The White House Easter Egg Roll dates back to 1878. In that year, the meanies in Congress said they wanted those damn kids to get off their lawn, and so a tradition that pre-dated the Civil War moved to the grounds of the Executive Mansion, where it's remained ever since.
   
   The fellow who was president in 1878 was Rutherford B. Hayes. That means that 25 non-Trump presidents, both Republican and Democratic, never sought to commercialize the event. Maybe they felt that was inappropriate for an event that involves children. Or one that involves "The People's House." Or maybe they were aware that, in the end, Easter is a rather important religious holiday, and thought that it really should not be cheapened by money. Most likely, though, is that those 25 men did not have dollars on the brain, and so it just didn't occur to them to try to squeeze money out of the thing.
   
   Trump does have dollars on the brain, and so too do a number of the grifters in his inner circle. And so, his team created a splashy brochure offering "opportunities" to purchase sponsorships. If you really love Trump/Jesus, then you can buy the Platinum Package for $200,000. That gets you a prominent place on the sponsorship list, a bunch of tickets, a few seats at a brunch, and some benefits that we don't understand, like "Branding for a key area or activation." If you only kind of love Trump/Jesus, you can get the cheaper Gold Package ($125,000) or Bronze Package ($75,000).
   
   Nobody is entirely clear on where the funds, once raised, will go. However, when Trump is involved in anything involving money, and it's not clear where exactly the money is going, you pretty much know EXACTLY where it's going.
   
   
4. Miracles for Sale: This one is not from Trump himself, it's from one of his inner circle (although don't discount the possibility that he gets a cut of the action). Trump's prosperity-gospel-loving "faith" advisor Paula White produced a video in which she suggested that if you send her $1,000, that will unlock up to seven "specific supernatural blessings." Among the possible "blessings" (prizes?) are God assigning an angel to you, prosperity, curing sickness and punishing your enemies.
   
   If this sounds like ridiculous—and perhaps even evil—nonsense, you can stop reading. If this sounds like something of interest, however, we are pleased to advise that Electoral-Vote.com also has a special on miracles right now. If you send us $500 before Easter, you get FOURTEEN miracles. That's right, twice as many miracles for half the money! You don't even need the staff mathematician to figure out that's four times as many miracles per dollar as White is offering. All you have to do is click on the PayPal link above and send us the $500. You don't even have to send us an e-mail; we've automated the process, so that you'll get your miracles as soon as the money leaves your bank account.

And that's the latest news on the grift front. (Z & V)