Trump Is Exposing How Frail Our Democracy Is

Written By Leeja Miller

Sources:

Transcript:

In a truly bizarre scene on the White House lawn yesterday, Trump stood next to Elon Musk in front of a row of Tesla vehicles and, while answering questions from the press, did his best to play the role of pushy car salesman. The president who donned a McDonald’s apron on the campaign trail and promised to bring the US economy roaring back to life was instead more concerned with propping up the wealth of his billionaire sidekick than about the plunging stock markets that are wiping out the 401ks of the working class Americans he claims to have given him a “powerful mandate” on the economy. This is just the latest and most blatant example of corruption for a man who seems unconcerned with letting that corruption run rampant under his watch and with his participation. We are 50 days into the Trump presidency, and on every one of those days, plus you know the 8 other years we’ve been dealing with his politics, Trump has shown time and again the frailty of our democracy. Norms and expectations we once considered to be pillars of our country, given rules no one would dare to break, have turned out to be a flimsy house of cards when confronted with a populist demagogue whose followers believe he can do no wrong. Today we’re talking about Trump’s blatant, flagrant corruption, and what, if anything, we can even do about it. Let’s get into it.

 

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In the days immediately after the 2024 election that Musk dumped over 100 million dollars into, the stock market did well and Elon’s personal wealth, driven through his stock portfolio of businesses including Tesla, absolutely skyrocketed. It seemed as though the ROI on buying the American presidential election really paid off for Elon. Now, however, as America makes enemy after enemy of our allies and Elon sends his band of hyenas to tear apart government agencies and upend the lives of career civil servants using particularly cruel and unusual tactics, Wall Street has suffered and, according to a recent CNN headline, is turning its back on Elon Musk.

Over the weekend, in an interview with Fox, Trump acknowledged that there might be a recession looming on the horizon, sending stocks even lower than they had already fallen. In a particularly SNL-worthy scene, the Trump administration was defending its economic choices on Fox while the scrolling stock ticker at the bottom of the screen showed the market falling in real time.

Some of our closest friends and allies are hitting us with retaliatory tariffs, their populace furious over pointed attacks from America and leading boycotts of American goods. The EU has slapped exports from southern states with additional tariffs. Businesses, especially the small business owners who Trump claims to love so much, are left picking up the pieces, trying to plan ahead in an economy that is reeling over whiplash after whiplash. Elon Musk’s Tesla has been especially targeted, with Europeans choosing not to purchase Tesla vehicles and US Tesla dealerships being targeted for protests and vandalism. Tesla shares soared 91% after election day, according to CNN, but have since lost virtually all of that post-election value surge. Just since Trump took office, Tesla stocks have lost 38% of their total value.

And so, Elon Musk turned to Daddy Trump to help save his failing reputation and businesses by using his position as President of the United States to help his friend sell cars. As one commenter on Reddit put it, it’s like watching a parent buying the whole catalogue when their kid fucked it up on their school fundraiser. These men are babies and they think they can get away with anything because they mostly can. Tesla stocks jumped after the Tesla White House photo op, with no apparent moves by anyone to address the blatant abuse of power.

And let’s just define corruption, quickly, because I think we very easily attach the term to foreign governments–the Mexican government is corrupt for accepting bribes from cartels, for example, is the accepted narrative about Mexico for at least the last 50 years. But when it comes to the United States, and especially the presidency of Donald Trump, we have a way of redefining things because they definitely could never happen here.

The legal information institute defines corruption as “a dishonest, fraudulent , or even criminal act of an individual or organization, using entrusted authority or power to make a personal gain or other unethical or illegal benefits.” It goes on to say that “A lack of transparency and effective regulations are often the main causes of corruption.” And while it seems like Trump and Elon are being “transparent” at least to their supporters, because of their willingness to so blatantly commit corrupt acts, that is not what transparency looks like. For example, anytime I place an ad in one of my videos, I have to verbally state that the brand is partnering with me or sponsoring me, meaning they are paying me to say these things. I also have to check a box so that a notification appears at the beginning of the video saying it contains paid sponsorships. Not disclosing who is paying me to say what goes against standard consumer protection regulations. Influencers as big as Kim Kardashian have faced lawsuits for not properly labeling their posts as ads, because it means two different things to consumers when I say hey here’s an ad that I am personally gaining from versus hey I’m not getting paid I’m just showing you a product or service I like. It protects consumers when we require disclosure when someone is getting paid to say something. And those disclaimers apply to everyone except politicians. Because they’re able to spin things by saying no they didn’t pay me directly, this isn’t an ad. Meanwhile the company or its investors or owners are funneling millions of dollars into dark money non profits that help the politician get re-elected, or are flying them around in private jets, or are in other ways doing things that DO personally benefit the politician in a quid pro quo fashion with juuuuuuust enough plausible deniability to somehow make it legal. It’s just an exercise of their first amendment rights!!!

This despite the fact that federal law has, for decades, recognized the need to protect against corruption in the government generally. The Hatch Act, passed in 1939, forbids, among other things, officials paid with federal funds from using promises of jobs, promotion, financial assistance, contracts, or any other benefit to coerce campaign contributions or political support. This, however, does not apply to the president. The president is explicitly exempted from this law. Because of course. There are, however, other rules that DO apply to the President. Specifically, the emoluments clause in the constitution prohibits the president from accepting gifts or payments or other personal gains or wealth from foreign governments. The constitution also prohibits the president from accepting money or gifts from states. Criminal law prohibits everyone, including the president, from trading on insider information, committing fraud, money laundering, Ponzi schemes, bribing foreign officials, et cetera. The Ethics in Government Act requires certain financial disclosures for government officials, including the president. And then there are the unwritten ethics practices. For example, since the 1970s, every president (except Trump) has placed their assets in a blind trust that he could not see during the time he was president and that was managed by an independent trustee. The problem with ALL of this, however, is that pesky enforcement. Before Trump, most of these requirements were never tested. No one had ever tried to legally enforce the emoluments clause. The Presidential blind trust was voluntary, presidents just did it because they understood that any appearance of financial self-interest could undermine the legitimacy of the president. And for most of our history there has been a general understanding that whether or not the people see their government as “legitimate” was a central part of maintaining societal order and balance.

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that the president can’t be held liable for “official acts” even the criminal code is out the window. By concentrating power in the executive branch, Trump and his backers are placing in power only those people with complete loyalty to Trump. So traditional enforcement mechanisms, like the justice department through filing lawsuits and enforcing disclosure laws, the FBI investigating misconduct, the office of government ethics and white house counsel acting as advisors, none of those positions have the will to push back on Trump or hold him accountable, even if they could. If you run down the list of offices and people who have any ability to hold presidents accountable for corrupt practices, you will see they are largely all owned by Trump now. Congress, with its ability to impeach, to hold investigations, to issue reports, to recommend prosecution, is truly the final barrier when it comes to government ethics. Judges and lawyers are filing lots of lawsuits to challenge DOGE activities, to fight for civil rights, and more, but suing the government over corruption presents legal challenges. Who has standing to sue? Who is actively being hurt by, say, Trump holding a March Tesla sales event on the White House lawn? The American people? Yes, abstractly, but you can’t file a class action lawsuit on behalf of every American. The ethics provisions that aren’t entirely voluntary or based on unwritten norms do not provide for a private cause of action meaning you or I can’t sue if the President violates the law. The Justice Department under Trump sure as hell isn’t going to enforce anything. It is truly just Congress, especially for example the House Oversight Committee or the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, that can launch investigations, issue subpoenas for records, get people to testify, recommend prosecutions, and initiate impeachment actions. The head of the House Oversight Committee is James Comer and the ranking member for the Democrats is Gerry Connolly, who won out for the position over AOC, clearly showing a lack of any interest on the part of Democrats to put someone in power who would actually push against the status quo in favor of progressive change. So far the committee has mainly had hearings about cracking down on sanctuary cities so… not much going on there by way of oversight or accountability, it seems. And the Senate government affairs committee is headed by Rand Paul and includes Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rick Scott of Florida. The most recognizable democrat on the committee is… John Fettermen. So. Not lookin great. This means that every potential enforcer or investigatory body within the government that could hold Trump and Elon accountable for corrupt practices is either owned by Trump or demonstrates zero will to do so.

And Elon’s special position means that he can largely skirt any oversight as well. He’s not a government employee. He’s not in the cabinet. Since he doesn’t really have an official position other than advisor to the president, and since DOGE isn’t actually a federal department, Elon is able to skate around official regulations by just remaining a nebulous foreboding undefined “presence” in the White House. And while lawsuits are underway challenging Elon’s position because the amount of power and control he’s exerting over the government should require oversight and official nomination and confirmation by the Senate, that is for his position in DOGE and doesn’t get at any personal financial gain he gets from his actions or any potential conflicts of interest, which are many. In the meantime, if he ever is forced to comply with any confirmation or federal employee requirements, he can commit all the corrupt practices he wants, short of completely breaking criminal laws. And even then, as we saw with Eric Adams, Trump owns the DOJ and can cut deals for the right people.

So while my friend whose state job relies on federal funding cannot legally accept so much as a gift basket, Trump gets to hold million dollar per plate dinners at his private estate in Mar a Lago and offer $5 million dollar one on one meetings to anyone willing to pay, and Elon gets to cancel the government contracts of his competitors and remove key agencies and government employees tasked with overseeing the regulations of his many businesses. All while lying about the amount of money DOGE is ACTUALLY saving the American people, attempting to avoid freedom of information act requests, and refusing to have DOGE employees submit to thorough background checks. It is feigned transparency through overtly outrageous acts that obscure the actual back room deals and bribery happening, largely instigated by Trump and Elon for their own personal accumulation of wealth. It is textbook corruption, through and through.

And yet their followers are largely buying it hook line and sinker. While polls show the vast majority of people disapprove of both Trump and Elon, with Trump’s approval numbers on the economy the lowest they’ve ever been in either of his administrations, their most ardent supporters believe this is all just part of the plan, that they have to tighten their belts a bit to get through the rough patch that will eventually give way to the Great America Trump has been promising them for a decade. Which brings us to the other side of the important discussion we have to have about the frailty of our democracy as evidenced by the behavior of Trump and Elon. Part of the bargain of government, the agreements that are more like gentleman’s handshakes than established law or ethics, is the assumption that the people would be unwilling to elect and intolerant of an executive that clearly puts his own personal interests and that of his billionaire friends above the good of the people and of the nation. Yet despite four years of evidence during his first administration that he is solely interested in personal gain and power, including official congressional reports indicating evidence that he routinely violated the emoluments clause while in office, we chose to elect him again. WE chose this. I mean I PERSONALLY did not choose this, but as a body, as an electorate, we saw all of it and we chose this. And we can blame stupidity and our failing education system all we want, certainly it is part of the problem since 20% of high school graduates are functionally illiterate, a rate that I’m sure is about to increase as the department of education is completely shut down, but the 77 million Americans who voted for him aren’t all stupid. They’re not. They’re maybe bigoted, intolerant, lacking in empathy, prone to black and white thinking, lacking in some higher level critical thinking skills, but this isn’t idiocracy, as much as our current era is often compared to that movie. The 77 million Americans who purposely showed up to the polls and filled in the bubble next to Donald J Trump aren’t all just spending their days sitting in front of the TV on their hybrid toilet chairs chugging mountain dew being outwitted by sly politicians who have pulled the wool over their eyes. I think that characterization lets them off the hook too easy, like they’re just childlike adults who didn’t know better. Many of them knew exactly what they were voting for. Some of them are regretting it, and I do feel a sense of schadenfreude when I see those videos of Trump supporters being like wait I don’t like this now that it’s impacting me. But most of his ardent supporters are watching this unfold and saying hell yeah brother.

A great recent example of this is the viral clip circulating from the YouTube channel Jubilee in which liberal commentator Sam Seder takes on Trump voters. [insert clip.] That girl isn’t a hapless dumb dumb. I could call her a number of different names, certainly, but she knows exactly what she’s talking about and what she voted for. And she thinks he’s not going far ENOUGH.

Part of the agreement between the government and the governed in a democratic system is the assumption that the people wouldn’t tolerate an executive that acts in an anti-democratic nature, at least not for long. But we saw it and then we re-elected him, this time by an even larger margin. Many of our states are gerryrigged to hell, voter ID laws make it harder for certain people to vote, the carceral state has rendered a major portion of the minority population ineligible to vote, that is true. It was also true when Obama was elected. It was also true during the Civil Rights movement. Disenfranchisement has been happening in this country since we invented the vote, so I don’t think it’s to blame for the downfall of a democracy that has managed to hang on for 250 years even with mass attempts at disenfranchisement. A country that until recently had largely moved towards granting MORE rights to people over the centuries, as opposed to taking them away. And yet we the people have, through a democratically held election with very little evidence of tampering or fraud, chosen a man known for being self-serving and corrupt. We have broken our end of the agreement for upholding democratic ideals.

The one major thing that HAS changed in recent years that has dramatically impacted political outcomes is Citizens United, decided in 2010, that gave corporations arguably MORE first amendment free speech rights than individual citizens, that unleashed a wave of monied interests infiltrating our elections and government. The presidential election immediately after that 2010 supreme court decision saw a dramatic increase in spending by both candidates and the problem has grown worse ever since. Allowing that level of wealth to infiltrate our government was the beginning of the end for democracy. When the people with money have a stronger voice than the people without money, they are able to get their own into the upper ranks of power. We’ve always known that there are two justice systems in this country, one for the poor and one for the rich. So when you put the very rich in charge of the whole system, the people who are used to getting whatever they want with impunity, that removes any incentive for them to give a shit about the rest of us, because they don’t have to. And they have money and power in a country where the fabulously wealthy are put on pedestals and assumed to have really “figured it out” and achieved the American dream, so they’re able to convince the people that they know what they’re doing and that, one day, some of us little guys, if we just work hard enough, might get to where they are. And through vast ad campaigns and photo ops, they can spin the narrative and convince the electorate that this is what’s best for them. The American dream is truly the ultimate cult, and people most likely to fall victim to a cult aren’t the dumbest people in the room. There are many reasons someone might fall prey to a cult, but studies show those most vulnerable are people who are attempting to escape difficult or stressful situations, who suffer from socioeconomic instability, who have suffered childhood trauma, a lack of a supportive community or family structure, or substance abuse issues. Those also happen to be the predictable outcomes of a society formed around late stage capitalism where wealth is concentrated at the very top and most people feel desperate and concerned for their ability to provide for the very basics needed to survive. When you are desperate and looking for someone who has “figured it out” to guide you, it can be really enticing when a rich charismatic man tells you he loves small business owners, who tells you that as a white christian you have been persecuted and victimized, who promises to fight for you against the crooked establishment that brought you down in the first place. Never mind that he’s friends with the entire crooked bunch and just seeking greater power for himself by manipulating you. It’s a cult!!! And we live in a country where the conditions are ripe for the taking, whether you’re peddling an MLM to moms trying to make ends meet, self-help courses for lost actresses like with Nxium, or an escape from the poverty-stricken, jobless, drug addicted reality you might find yourself in anywhere in America. And so here we have arrived where the largest cult in America has managed to gain total control, with members infiltrating the executive branch, in Congress, in the Supreme Court, and the leader of the cult, Donald Trump, can do no wrong. And so he will never be held to account for his actions, because he has managed to subvert the longheld rules and ethics standards that have largely rested on the hope that the people in power will see the value of maintaining decorum, respectability, and trust in institutions. But Trump, like any good cult leader, is willing to watch the world burn if it means more wealth and power for himself and his friends. And our only hope of stopping him appears to be voting Democrats into the majority in Congress in 2026 and, if by that point the entire thing hasn’t imploded, the Democrats have given absolutely zero indication that they plan to do much to hold him to account even if they do retake Congress.

That being said, last week, Senator Chris Murphy took over the US Senate floor to lay out all of the instances of corruption that have occurred in just the first six weeks of the Trump administration. His speech took half an hour and required a large, detailed graph. I’ll link it in the sources so you can watch the whole thing. I’m not going to delve into all of them because Murphy already did a good job of that and my videos tend to be around 25 minutes long so there’s simply no time!!!! But Senator Murphy makes the point, at the end of his speech, that I think is important to drive home and why I wanted to talk about this today. The level of corruption under Trump is not normal. There has of course always been some corrupt politicians in government who have been accused and convicted for various corruption schemes while in office. But this is not just Trump and Elon being out in the open while past presidents have just secretly been this corrupt all along. This. Is. Not. Normal. But the pace at which they are committing these corrupt acts is meant to overwhelm us and distract us and eventually get to a point where this level of open corruption is accepted and considered normal. And so while I lament the fact that there seems to be zero ethical enforcement mechanisms, and a large portion of the electorate voted for this, I also think it’s important to keep watching and keep calling out the corruption for what it is.

I’ve seen a couple comments lately from people annoyed that I’m just making episodes complaining about problems but offering zero tangible solutions, as though content creators are the final bastion for democracy and hold the secret key to our collective salvation. Bitch, I don’t know what the solution is. Because I don’t think there is one. Not on like a national level. I think the solution is remaining vigilant and informed and speaking out against injustice, which is what I’m doing. But saving the world cannot be placed on my shoulders, okay. And I do offer tangible things in almost every episode, like focusing on your local community, doing what you can to make the lives of your neighbors or friends or family better, learning skills to be more self-reliant, but I think people want me to hand hold and spoon feed them the solution to saving democracy. We’re all in this together, but no one in the government is coming to save us, it appears. There’s nothing I can tell you to do that’s gonna change that. Instead, I’m doing what I can to make little differences and continue to fight the good fight day in and day out.

And for me, education is power. Which is literally why I launched the Why, America? Co-Learning Lab at the beginning of this year, a learning community having discussions and making connections, along with a monthly syllabus curated by me. All year we’ll be covering topics under the umbrella theme of “Eat the Rich: Building Solidarity in the New Gilded Age.” March’s topic is how billionaires bought the government. This is all hosted over on Patreon, which is linked down below. If you’re interested, please join us. Patreon dot com slash leeja miller.

Thank you to my multi-platinum patrons Thomas Orf, Sarah Shelby, Art, David, R_H, L’etranger (Lukus), Joshua Cole, Thomas Johnson, and Tay. Your generosity makes this channel what it is, so thank you!

And if you liked this episode, you’ll like the one from Monday where I talk about the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil.

Leeja Miller
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