Decryption | Fear of a different type of corruption

During Donald Trump’s first term as president, the Trump International Hotel was one of the most blatant symbols of the corruption his critics accused him of.

Located not far from the White House, the luxury establishment was considered a hotbed of influence peddling. American lobbyists, Republican politicians and foreign diplomats hung out there, spending lavishly to gain the favor of the president whose name adorned the facade of the old Washington post office.

This dubious, even illicit, trade had led to Donald Trump being accused of violating a clause in the American Constitution prohibiting the president from accepting “presents, emoluments, offices or titles of any kind from a king, prince or foreign state” .

The 45^e president has never been found guilty of such a violation. And his son Eric, who manages the family business, has started talks to regain the lease of the hotel sold for US$375 million to the Waldorf Astoria in November 2021.

And repeat? Yes and no. For Donald Trump’s second term in the White House may have a much less subtle symbol of corruption than the Trump International Hotel, whose guests could at least cite its convenient location.

This new symbol could take the form of an encrypted currency called $Trump, which the president-elect launched on his social network on Saturday evening, two days before his inauguration at the White House.

“This Trump Meme celebrates a leader who never backs down, no matter the situation,” we can read on the site where interested buyers can purchase digital tokens bearing the name with a debit card or other cryptocurrencies. silhouette of Donald Trump at the time of the assassination attempt on him on July 13.

“A predatory act”

Donald Trump himself presented the new digital currency as a “meme coin”, that is to say a cryptocurrency intended to exploit the virality of a personality, a movement or any other phenomenon on the internet .

$Trump had the meteoric start that its creator had expected. At the time of writing, its market capitalization exceeded US$12 billion.

This raises “unprecedented” ethical questions, said the New York Timesusing a euphemism to describe what a former aide to Donald Trump described as a very serious risk of corruption.

“The most dangerous thing for the country about Trump’s cryptocurrency is what comes next,” wrote on X Anthony Scaramucci, who became one of Donald Trump’s critics after serving as his advisor and, for a few days, as director of communications at the White House.

Some of the biggest proponents of cryptocurrencies have criticized Donald Trump’s personal involvement in an industry he has not always been a supporter of (he once called cryptocurrencies a “scam”).

“The fact that Trump holds 80% of the capital [de sa cryptomonnaie] and scheduling its launch a few hours before his inauguration is a predatory act and many will likely suffer from it,” wrote Nick Tomaino, former manager of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, on X.

During the day on Sunday, Melania Trump in turn tried to take advantage of the circumstances to enrich herself by launching $Melania, her own cryptocurrency.

Exposed conflicts of interest

That said, $Trump and $Melania are not the only examples of potential or actual corruption to emerge even before the start of Donald Trump’s second term.

Included in this category is Amazon’s decision to pay the colossal sum of US$40 million to license a documentary on the life of former and future first lady of the United States Melania Trump. According to the New York Posta pro-Trump daily, Disney had judged that the license for such a film was not worth more than 14 million US dollars.

But Jeff Bezos, big boss of Amazon – and owner of Washington Post and Blue Origin – probably calculated that this sum was likely to attract the good graces of Donald Trump, who made life difficult for him during his first term. If so, it will be a relatively modest investment.

Of course, Jeff Bezos isn’t playing in the same league as Elon Musk yet.

The richest man on the planet spent at least US$277 million to help Donald Trump win the presidential election.

This sum will enable him to play a key role within a government which has already awarded its companies contracts worth several hundred million dollars.

And as if this dizzying conflict of interest were not enough, the boss of Tesla, SpaceX and X will have access to an office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is part of the White House grounds.

As Anthony Scaramucci points out, all this is happening in broad daylight. And there is no reason to believe that Congress will raise any objection to actual or potential corruption, at least for the next two years when Republicans are in the majority.

As for American justice, Donald Trump already knows that he will not have to worry about it, given the Supreme Court’s decision granting him immunity for most of the crimes he could commit during his second term in the White House.

So this is a different kind of corruption that Americans can fear over the next four years. A type of corruption that will perhaps make them nostalgic for that which once took place under the chandeliers of the Trump International Hotel.