Trump bribey-wibey-woo - update: Trump shakes down CBS news in $20B bullshit lawsuit for "emotional distress"

[mandrill]

This is a thread about all the ways the bribey-est and most biggly corrupt president of all history makes money out of his job.

Whenever Trumpy-Wumpy gets a bribey-wibey, let's write about it in this thread.


WASHINGTON, D.C. — Corporations facing federal investigations or enforcement lawsuits collectively gave $50 million to Trump’s inauguration – a third of the corporate inauguration donations.


Public Citizen cross-referenced new inauguration donor data (as shown below) with corporations listed in our Corporate Enforcement Tracker database, and found 58 corporations which include crypto companies, oil and auto industries, Big Pharma, tech companies, Wall Street hedge funds and more, faced at least 88 federal enforcement actions when Trump took office. Cases against 11 of these corporations have already been dismissed or withdrawn, and six have been halted.


Public Citizen Researcher Rick Claypool says these corporation donations may serve as down payments for pardons or decisions to drop enforcement actions.


“Corporations facing federal lawsuits and investigations aren’t giving millions to Trump’s inauguration out of the kindness of their hearts,” said Claypool. “They are trying to buy good will. And when you’re a corporation under investigation or facing prosecution, that means the government dropping enforcement actions against you. In some cases, it may even mean receiving pardons in cases in which guilty pleas have already been entered, or retractions of settlements already entered into.

Table: 58 corporations facing federal enforcement actions that collectively gave $50 million to Trump’s inauguration

Corporation	Contribution (including in-kind and CEO contributions)	Agency	Status	Subject of Investigation or Allegation	Subsequent Trump Administration Intervention
Abbott Laboratories	$500,000	DOJ	Criminal investigation ongoing	Misconduct connected with tainted baby formula
FTC	Investigation disclosed	Potential collusion or coordination in bidding for WIC Infant Formula Contracts
Adobe	$1,000,000	DOJ, FTC	Civil complaint filed	Complaint charges that maker of Photoshop and Acrobat deceived consumers about early termination fees, inhibited cancellations
Amazon	$1,000,000	CPSC	Civil litigation ongoing, Amazon contesting	Commission determined that Amazon was a “distributor” of products that are defective or fail to meet federal consumer product safety standards, and therefore bears legal responsibility for their recall. More than 400,000 products are subject to this order: specifically, faulty carbon monoxide (CO) detectors, hairdryers without electrocution protection, and children’s sleepwear that violated federal flammability standards.
DOJ	Investigation ongoing	DOJ investigating whether Amazon engaged in a fraudulent scheme designed to hide the true number of injuries to Amazon workers and whether Amazon made false representations to lenders about those injuries and its safety record to obtain credit.
EEOC	Investigation reported, judge rules Amazon must comply with subpoena	Discrimination against pregnant workers
FCC	Investigation reported	Investigating sales of illegal wireless frequency jammers
FTC	Antitrust suit filed	Acting as a monopolist among e-commerce superstores and fulfillment providers
FTC	Civil suit filed, trial set for June 2025	Enrolling consumers into its Prime program without their consent while knowingly making it difficult for consumers to cancel their subscriptions
NLRB	Cases open. Amazon seeking dismissal, contesting NLRB's constitutionality.	Over 300 open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 1.6 million employees
Apple	$1,000,000	DOJ	Antitrust suit filed	Smartphone market monopoly violations
NLRB	Cases open	Over 20 open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 160,000 employees
AT&T	$1,000,000	EPA	Investigation reported	Potential environmental contamination from at least 2,000 old lead-sheathed telco cables in the U.S.
NLRB	Cases open	Over 120 open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 230,000 employees
Bank of America	$500,000	CFPB	Dismissed	Alleged misconduct related to Zelle Network banks not doing enough to reimburse customers who were defrauded by scammers using the network	Trump's CFPB filed to dismiss the Zelle Network case
SEC	Investigation disclosed	Systematically cheating customers out of billions of dollars of interest payments
Blackstone	$1,000,000	DOJ	Antitrust suit filed	Blackstone's LivCor subsidiary accused of allegedly participating in an unlawful scheme to decrease competition among landlords in apartment pricing, harming millions of American renters.
Boeing	$1,000,000	DOJ	Plea agreement rejected by judge	Failure to remediate as required following legal agreements to reform following Boeing deceiving the FAA and subsequent deadly 737 Max crashes
NLRB	Cases open	Over 30 open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 70,000 employees
Capital One	$1,000,000	CFPB	Dismissed	Alleged poor communication around introduction of high-interest savings account product	Trump's CFPB filed to dismiss
Citibank	$100,000	NLRB	Cases open	Two open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 120,000 employees
Coca-Cola	$289,750	FTC	Investigation reported	Over potential price discrimination in the soft drink market
Cognizant	$50,000	DOJ	Dismissed	Alleged FCPA violations in India	Trump's DOJ agreed to dismiss its case against Cognizant executives
Coinbase	$1,000,000	SEC	Dismissed	Charged with operating its crypto asset trading platform as an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency. The SEC also charged Coinbase for failing to register the offer and sale of its crypto asset staking-as-a-service program.	Trump's SEC agreed to dismiss the case.
Consensys	$100,000	SEC	Dismissed	Charged with engaging in the unregistered offer and sale of securities through a service it calls MetaMask Staking and with operating as an unregistered broker	Trump's SEC agreed to dismiss the case.
CoreCivic	$500,000	DOJ	Investigation announced	Whether those incarcerated are protected from harm, including physical violence and sexual abuse	Trump DOJ leadership announced a freeze on Civil Rights cases during its first week
DuPont	$250,000	EPA, DOJ	Dismissed	The complaint asserts that the Denka Performance Elastomer and DuPont LaPlace plant’s operations present an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health and welfare due to the cancer risks from Denka’s chloroprene emissions.	Trump DOJ dismissed case, citing its anti-DEI executive order.
Ericsson	$500,000	DOJ	Investigation disclosed	Business activities in Iraq that may constitute a violation of the FCPA	Trump signed an executive order on halting FCPA enforcement, claiming the law disadvantages US businesses.
ExxonMobil	$1,000,000	PHMSA	Civil penalty proposed	$2.4 million fine proposed against pipeline company Exxon-owned Denbury and its contractor, Republic Testing Laboratories for blocking federal pipeline inspectors from carrying out their duties.
FCA LLC	$1,000,000	EEOC	Civil suit filed	Sexual Harassment
FedEx	$1,000,351	EEOC	Civil suits filed	Two disability discrimination cases
Ford Motor Company	$199,000	NHTSA	Investigations opened	Potentially faulty seat belt components in particular trucks and insufficiently extensive recalls
NLRB	Cases open	Over 80 open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 10,000 employees
General Motors	$1,000,000	EEOC	Civil suit filed	Age discrimination
NLRB	Cases open	Over 50 open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 5,800 employees
GEO Group	$500,000	NLRB	Case reportedly withdrawn	Allegedly subjected detained immigrants to punishments including solitary confinement because they protested over pay and working conditions and supported labor strikes.	Trump's NLRB reportedly withdrew its case against GEO Group.
Goldman Sachs	$1,000,000	DOJ	Investigation reported	Whether there was collusion or a conspiracy to collude to control prices during urgent meetings banks held to limit exposure to the Archegos Capital Management meltdown
Google	$1,000,000	DOJ	Breakup plan proposed	Monopoly violations in search	Trump DOJ dropped part of proposed breakup plan requiring Google to sell off AI businesses.
DOJ	Judge ruled Google violated Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act	Monopoly violations in advertising
NLRB	Cases open	Over 20 open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 180,000 employees
Hewlett Packard	$250,000	DOJ	Investigation started under Biden, antitrust suit filed on 1/30/25.	Anticompetitive merger sought with Juniper Networks	Antitrust suit filed
Hims & Hers Health	$1,000,000	FTC	Investigation disclosed	Unspecified
Hyundai	$1,000,000	DOL	Civil suit filed	Child labor violations
OSHA	Investigation reported	Workplace safety investigation after worker crushed in factory
IBM	$750,000	NLRB	Cases open	Three open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 100,000 employees
Johnson & Johnson	$1,000,000	DOJ	Investigation disclosed	False Claims Act investigation relating to free or discounted intraocular lenses and equipment used in eye surgery, such as phacoemulsification and laser systems.
JPMorgan	$1,033,058	CFPB	Dismissed	Alleged misconduct related to Zelle Network banks not doing enough to reimburse customers who were defrauded by scammers using the network	Trump's CFPB filed to dismiss the Zelle Network case
Live Nation	$500,000	DOJ	Antitrust suit filed	For monopolization and other unlawful conduct that thwarts competition in markets across the live entertainment industry
Lumen Technologies	$35,000	NLRB	Cases open	19 open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 50,000 employees
Mastercard	$103,306	DOJ	Antitrust investigation disclosed	Civil investigative demand received regarding potential violations of Sections 1 or 2 of the Sherman Act.
McDonald's	$1,000,000	NLRB	Cases open	Over 10 open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 400,100 employees
Meta	$1,000,000	CFPB	Civil investigation ongoing	Allegations that it improperly used financial data obtained from third parties in its highly-lucrative advertising business	The Trump administration ordered a freeze on all CFPB investigations and cases and announced a deprioritzation of enforcement against nonbanks.
FTC	Antitrust trial underway	Social media monopoly violations
NLRB	Cases open	Two open cases alleging unfair labor practices and covering up to 65,000 employees
Microsoft	$750,000	FTC	Antitrust suit filed	Anticompetitive merger sought with Activision Blizzard
Antitrust investigation reportedly opened	Anticompetitive actions related to AI and cloud computing services
Antitrust investigation reportedly opened	Whether Microsoft structured its deal with AI startup Inflection to avoid a government antitrust oversight.
Nvidia	$1,000,000	DOJ	Antitrust investigation ongoing	Allegations the company abused its market dominance
OpenAI	$1,000,000	FTC	Investigation opened	Consumer harms from data collection and misinformation
SEC	Investigation reported	Investigating internal communications to understand if investors were misled
PayPal	$250,000	FTC	Investigation disclosed	PayPal’s practices relating to commercial customers that submit charges on behalf of other merchants or sellers, and related activities.
PepsiCo	$500,000	FTC	Civil suit filed	Allegedly engaging in illegal price discrimination by providing one customer—a large, big box retailer—with unfair pricing advantages, while raising prices for competing retailers and customers.
Pfizer	$1,000,000	DOJ	FCPA investigation disclosed	Relating to the company's operations in Mexico	Trump signed an executive order on halting FCPA enforcement, claiming the law disadvantages US businesses.
DOJ, SEC	FCPA investigation disclosed	Possible non-compliance with FCPA in China	Trump signed an executive order on halting FCPA enforcement, claiming the law disadvantages US businesses.
DOJ	Investigation disclosed	In October 2018, received a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York seeking records relating its relationship with another drug manufacturer and its production and manufacturing of drugs including, but not limited to, Quillivant XR.
DOJ	Investigation disclosed	In February 2019, received a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the SDNY. The CID seeks records and information related to alleged quality issues involving the manufacture of auto-injectors at the Meridian site. In August 2019, received a HIPAA subpoena issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, in coordination with the Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Branch, seeking similar records and information.
DOJ	Investigation disclosed	In March 2020, received an informal request from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Branch seeking documents relating to our manufacturing operations in India, including at our former facility located at Irrungattukottai in India. In April 2020, received a similar request from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the SDNY regarding a civil investigation concerning operations at our facilities in India.
Pilgrim's Pride (a JBS subsidiary)	$5,000,000	DOJ	The DOJ has informed PPC that it is likely to file a civil complaint pursuant to at least one of its investigations.	On February 9, 2022, PPC learned that the DOJ opened a civil investigation into human resources antitrust matters; on October 6, 2022, PPC learned that the DOJ opened a civil investigation into grower contracts and payment practices; and on October 2, 2023, received a CID requesting information from PPC. PPC is cooperating with the DOJ in its investigations and CID.
Ripple	$4,889,345	SEC	Appeal withdrawn, penalties reduced	Securities law violations	Trump's SEC withdrew its appeal of the Ripple lawsuit and reduced Ripple's penalty from $125 million to $50 million. The withdrawn SEC appeal reportedly sought $2 billion in penalties.
Robinhood Markets	$2,000,000	SEC	Dismissed	Securities violations within crypto unit	Trump's SEC agreed to dismiss the case.
RTW Investments	$1,000,000	SEC	Investigation disclosed	Involvement with proxy vote irregularities at a separate firm
SAP	$200,000	DOJ	Civil investigation reported	Alleged price-fixing
Scale AI	$125,000	DOL	Investigation reported	Compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act
Stanley Black & Decker	$1,000,000	OSHA	Company contesting citation	Workplace safety violations after worker suffers severe burns in electrical arc fire
Syngenta	$250,000	FTC	Case ongoing	Allegedly paying distributors to block competitors from selling their cheaper generic products to farmers
Target	$1,000,000	OSHA	Investigation reported	Workplace death of Pennsylvania store employee
Toyota	$1,000,000	DOJ, SEC	FCPA investigation disclosed	Possible anti-bribery violations related to a Thai subsidiary	Trump signed an executive order on halting FCPA enforcement, claiming the law disadvantages US businesses.
Tyson Foods	$1,000,000	DOJ	Antitrust investigation disclosed	In 2020 and 2021, Tyson received civil investigative demands from the DOJ’s Civil Antitrust Division seeking information related to the fed cattle and beef packing markets. The Offices of the Attorney General for multiple states are participating in the investigation and coordinating with the DOJ.
DOL	Investigation reported	Child labor violations
USDA	Investigation reported	Potential violations of the Packers and Stockyards Act
Uber	$2,000,000	FTC	Investigation reported, proposed settlement reportedly opposed by Uber	Allegedly automatically signing people up for its Uber One subscription service and making it hard to cancel
FTC	Antitrust investigation disclosed	Whether Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. illegally coordinated to limit driver pay in New York City.
US Steel	$106,252	EPA	Investigation reported	The EPA is reportedly investigating the corporation's taconite mine, Keetac, for repeatedly releasing a rice-killing pollutant into surface waters.
Visa	$50,000	DOJ	Antitrust suit filed, Visa contesting charge, pushing for dismissal	Monopolization and other unlawful conduct in debit network markets in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act
Walmart	$150,000	CFPB	Stayed	For forcing delivery drivers to use costly deposit accounts to get paid and for deceiving workers— “last mile” drivers in Walmart’s Spark Driver program—about how they could access their earnings	The Trump administration ordered a freeze on all CFPB investigations and cases and temporarily stayed this case.
EEOC	Civil suit filed	Disability discrimination case filed against Walmart and Sam's East (Sam's Club)
FTC	Case ongoing	Alleged violations of the Telemarketing Sales Rule
Yuga Labs	$100,000	SEC	Investigation closed	Into whether the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs violated laws prohibiting sale of unregistered securities.	Trump's SEC closed the Yuga Labs investigation

 

[mandrill]

Link for that article is:

Trump’s Inauguration Donor Pool Includes $50 Million in Contributions from Corporations Under Investigation or Facing Federal Enforcement - Public Citizen

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Corporations facing federal investigations or enforcement lawsuits collectively gave $50 million to Trump’s inauguration – a third…

www.citizen.org

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

More Than a Dozen U.S. Officials Sold Stocks Before Trump’s Tariffs Sent the Market Plunging

Records show well-timed trades by executive branch employees and congressional aides. Even if they had no insider information, ethics experts say such trading undermines faith in government and the markets.

www.propublica.org

Records show well-timed trades by executive branch employees and congressional aides. Even if they had no insider information, ethics experts say such trading undermines faith in government and the markets.

More Than a Dozen U.S. Officials Sold Stocks Before Trump’s Tariffs Sent the Market Plunging

Records show well-timed trades by executive branch employees and congressional aides. Even if they had no insider information, ethics experts say such trading undermines faith in government and the markets.

www.propublica.org

Change Appearance
Republish

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

The week before President Donald Trump unveiled bruising new tariffs that sent the stock market plummeting, a key official in the agency that shapes his administration’s trade policy sold off as much as $30,000 of stock.

Two days before that so-called “Liberation Day” announcement on April 2, a State Department official sold as much as $50,000 in stock, then bought a similar investment as prices fell.

And just before Trump made another significant tariff announcement, a White House lawyer sold shares in nine companies, records show.

More than a dozen high-ranking executive branch officials and congressional aides have made well-timed trades since Trump took office in January, most of them selling stock before the market plunged amid fears that Trump’s tariffs would set off a global trade war, according to a ProPublica review of disclosures across the government.



All of the trades came shortly before a significant government announcement or development that could influence stock prices. Some who sold individual stocks or broader market funds used their earnings to buy investments that are generally less risky, such as bonds or treasuries. Others appear to have kept their money in cash. In one case unrelated to tariffs, records show that a congressional aide bought stock in two mining companies shortly before a key Senate committee approved a bill written by his boss that would help the firms.

Using nonpublic information learned at work to trade securities could violate the law. But even if such actions aren’t influenced by insider knowledge, ethics experts warn that trading stock while the federal government’s actions move markets can create the appearance of impropriety. The recent trades by government officials, they said, underscore that there should be tighter rules on how, or if, federal employees can trade securities.

“The executive branch is routinely engaged in activities that will move the market,” said Tyler Gellasch, who, as a congressional aide, helped write the law on insider trading by government officials and now runs a nonprofit focused on transparency and ethics in capital markets. “I don’t think members of Congress and executive branch officials should be trading securities. To the extent they have investment holdings, it should be managed by someone else outside their purview. The temptation to put their own personal self-interest ahead of their duties to the country is just too high.”

There is no evidence that the trades by government officials identified by ProPublica were informed by nonpublic information. Still, when government officials trade stock at opportune times, Gellasch said, even if it was based on luck and not inside information, it undermines trust in government and the markets

“It then becomes a thing where our markets look rigged,” he said.

In response to questions from ProPublica, the officials who made the trades either said they had no insider information that would help them time their decisions or did not respond to questions about the transactions.

Questions about trades based on nonpublic information have swirled around Congress for years and began anew after Trump’s tariffs announcements led to wild swings in the market. Lawmakers’ trades are automatically posted online and, after multiple congressional stock-trading scandals, are widely scrutinized as soon as they become public.



But less attention is paid to the trades of executive branch employees and congressional aides whose work could give them access to confidential information likely to influence markets once made public.

Last week, ProPublica reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi sold between $1 million and $5 million worth of shares of Trump Media, the president’s social media company, on April 2. After the market closed that day, Trump unveiled his “Liberation Day” tariffs, sending the market reeling. Bondi’s ethics agreement required her to sell by early May, but why she sold on that date is unclear. She has yet to answer questions about the trades, and the Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment.

Earlier this week, ProPublica reported that Sean Duffy, Trump’s transportation secretary, sold shares in almost three dozen companies on Feb. 11, two days before Trump announced plans to institute wide-ranging “reciprocal” tariffs. A Transportation Department spokesperson said Duffy’s account manager made the trades and that Duffy had no input on the timing.

Using insider government information to buy or sell securities could violate the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge, or STOCK, Act. But no cases have ever been brought under the law, and some legal experts have doubts it would hold up to scrutiny from the courts, which in recent years have generally narrowed what constitutes illegal insider trading.

Thousands of government employees are required to file disclosure forms if they sell or buy securities worth more than $1,000. In many cases, the records are available only in person in Washington, D.C., or through a records request. The documents do not include exact amounts bought or sold but instead provide a broad range for the totals of each transaction.

ProPublica examined hundreds of records for trades shortly before major tariff announcements or other key government decisions. Trump, of course, repeatedly said on the campaign trail that he intended to institute dramatic tariffs on foreign imports. But during the first weeks of his term, investors were not panic selling, seeming to assume that his campaign promises were bluster. Several tariff announcements by Trump early on shook the markets, but it wasn’t until he detailed his new tariffs on April 2 that stocks dived.

Among those who sold securities before one of Trump’s main tariff announcements was Tobias Dorsey. Dorsey, a lawyer in the executive branch since the Obama administration, was named acting general counsel for the White House’s Office of Administration in January, when Trump was inaugurated. The division provides a range of services, including research and legal counseling across the president’s staff, including the Office of the United States Trade Representative, which helps craft trade policy. In his LinkedIn bio, Dorsey describes his duties since 2022 as giving “expert advice on a wide range of legal and policy matters to help White House officials achieve their policy goals.”

On Feb. 25 and 26, disclosure records show, Dorsey unloaded shares of an index fund and nine companies, including cleaning products manufacturer Clorox and engineering firm Emerson Electric. The total dollar figure for the sales was between $12,000 and $180,000. (He purchased one stock, defense contractor Palantir, which was selling for a bargain after recently plummeting on news of Pentagon budget cuts.)

At the time of Dorsey’s trades, investors were still largely in denial that Trump was going to go through with the massive tariffs he had promised during the campaign. But the next morning, Trump posted on social media that significant tariffs on Mexico and Canada “will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled” in several days, and that “China will likewise be charged an additional 10% Tariff on that date.”

The S&P 500, a stock index that tracks a wide swath of the market, fell almost 2% that day alone and ultimately dropped nearly 18% in six weeks.

In an interview, Dorsey said the sale was made by his wife from an account belonging to her. He said she decided to sell around $20,000 worth of shares so they could make tuition payments and that he had no nonpublic information on the impending tariff announcements. The kind of work he does as a career employee, he said, focuses not on public policy, but on how the White House operates, including personnel, workplace technology, contracts and records issues.



“I’m not advising Stephen Miller or Peter Navarro,” he said, referring to top policy advisers to the president. “I’m advising the people running the campus. … I don’t have access to any sensitive political information.”

Another well-timed set of transactions was made by Marshall Stallings, the director of intergovernmental affairs and public engagement for Trump’s Trade Representative. The office helps shape the White House’s trade policy and negotiates trade deals with foreign governments.

On March 25 and 27, Stallings sold between $2,000 and $30,000 of stock in retail giant Target and mining company Freeport-McMoRan. The sales appear to have been an abrupt U-turn. He had purchased the shares less than a week earlier. Days after Stallings’ sales, Trump unveiled his most dramatic tariffs. Target stock fell 17%. Freeport-McMoRan fell 25%.

Stallings and the Trade Representative’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

A longtime State Department official, Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath, who until April was ambassador to Peru, also appeared to make a bet against the stock market. On March 24 and 25, she sold between $255,000 and $650,000 in stocks, and bought between $265,000 and $650,000 in bond and treasury funds (along with $50,000 to $100,000 in stocks). Then, on March 31, two days before Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement, she sold between $15,000 and $50,000 of a broad-based stock fund. When the market started to plummet, she bought back the same dollar range in another stock fund. Syptak-Ramnath said she did not have any information about the administration's decisions beyond what was publicly available. The trades, she said, were “undertaken as a result of family obligations” and in “response to a changing economy.”

A second longtime State Department official, Gautam Rana, who is now ambassador to Slovakia, sold between $830,000 and $1.7 million worth of stock on March 19, a week before Trump declared new tariffs on cars and two weeks before his “Liberation Day” announcement. The shares he sold were largely broad-based index funds. Rana declined to comment for this story.

Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer, said executive branch employees who don’t have nonpublic information and want to trade stock should consult with ethics officials before doing so, thereby allowing an independent third party to assess their actions.

“If you trade and you don’t seek advice in advance, you kind of do it at your own risk, and if you’re asked about it, you have to hope there aren’t factors that make someone question your motivations,” Canter said. “If you seek ethics official advice, you have some cover.”

Executive branch employees are barred from taking government actions that would narrowly benefit them personally, and some are required to sell stock in companies and industries they have purview over in their jobs. But like members of Congress, they are allowed to trade securities.

Since Trump’s tariff announcements and walkbacks began causing fluctuations in the market, questions have been raised about whether anyone has profited off advance notice of the moves. After Trump unexpectedly rolled back some of his tariffs in early April, causing stocks to surge, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned on social media that “any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene bought between $21,000 and $315,000 of stock the day before and the day of the announcement. In a statement, Greene said a financial adviser controls her investments: “Since my portfolio manager makes my trades for me, I usually find out about them when the media asks.”



ProPublica’s review of disclosures also found trades by congressional aides that took place before the market tumbled.

Michael Platt, a veteran Republican staffer who served in the Commerce Department during Trump’s first term and now works for the House committee that handles administrative matters for the chamber, restructured his portfolio in March. An account under his wife’s name sold off between $96,000 and $390,000 in mostly American companies, and purchased at least $45,000 in foreign stocks and at least $15,000 in an American and Canadian energy index fund. Some stock forecasters considered international markets a relatively safe haven if Trump went through with his tariffs. Platt did not respond to requests for comment.

Stephanie Trifone, a Senate Judiciary Committee aide, sold stock in mid-March and bought at least $50,000 in treasuries. A spokesperson for the committee’s Democratic minority said Trifone had no nonpublic information about the tariffs and her trades were conducted by a financial adviser without her input. Kevin Wheeler, a staffer for the Senate Appropriations Committee, made a similar move. In late February, he and his spouse offloaded between $18,000 and $270,000 in funds composed almost entirely of stocks and bought between $50,000 and $225,000 in bonds. A spokesperson for the Appropriation Committee’s Republican majority said Wheeler had no nonpublic information about Trump’s tariff plans and that a financial planner made the trades after advising Wheeler to take a more conservative approach with his portfolio.

Another staffer, Ryan White, chief of staff to Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, bought shares worth between $2,000 and $30,000 in two precious metals mining companies two days before Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement. He continued buying more shares in the companies, Hecla Mining and Coeur Mining, in the following days.



Precious metals can be a safe haven during a bear market turn, but those stocks, like the rest of the market, declined after Trump’s tariff announcements.


Two days after White’s last purchase in April of the mining companies’ shares, however, the firms got some good news. A bill White’s boss introduced to make it easier for mining companies like Hecla and Coeur to operate on public lands was approved by a Senate committee, an important step in passing a bill. (White added to his Hecla shares earlier this month and sold his stake in Coeur.)


White told ProPublica that “all required reporting and ethics rules were followed.” Any suggestion that the committee passing the bill played a role in his stock purchases “is a stretch and patently false,” he said, adding that the legislation “has not become law and even if it does, would take decades to have any appreciable impact.”


Update, May 22, 2025: This story has been updated to include a statement from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

 

[mandrill]

 

[optimusprime69]

View attachment 442289

View attachment 442290

Justin Trudeau was worth 8 million when he entered office and he is now worth 80-100. I guess he was playing a lot of bingo instead of leading our country.

 

[Frankfooter]

Justin Trudeau was worth 8 million when he entered office and he is now worth 80-100. I guess he was playing a lot of bingo instead of leading our country.

Source?

 

[The Oracle]

Justin Trudeau was worth 8 million when he entered office and he is now worth 80-100. I guess he was playing a lot of bingo instead of leading our country.

A true man of the people...

 

[mandrill]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/25/world/asia/trump-vietnam-golf-project.html?rsrc=ss&unlocked_article_code=1.J08.NUXo.hHfOJYeK6gPp&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Why Vietnam Ignored Its Own Laws to Fast-Track a Trump Family Golf Complex
As President Trump blurs the lines between politics and business — and threatens steep tariffs on trade partners — governments feel compelled to favor Trump-related projects.


By Damien Cave
Photographs by Linh Pham
Reporting from Hung Yen Province, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

• May 25, 2025Updated 12:56 a.m. ET

When officials in the home province of Vietnam’s top leader went door to door recently, pressing residents to sign letters agreeing to the Trump Organization’s plans for a new golf community, Le Van Truong wanted to refuse.
Planning documents promised a “new benchmark in luxury, recreation and business.” Mr. Truong, 54, pictured something else: the uprooting of a cemetery with five generations of his ancestors and the loss of rich farmland that has sustained local families for centuries.

Yet he signed anyway, because, as he put it, “there’s nothing I can do.”

“Trump says it’s separate — the presidency and his business,” Mr. Truong said. “But he has the power to do whatever he wants.”

This $1.5 billion golf complex outside the capital, Hanoi, as well as plans for a Trump skyscraper in Ho Chi Minh City, are the Trump family’s first projects in Vietnam — part of a global moneymaking enterprise that no family of a sitting American president has ever attempted on this scale. And as that blitz makes the Trumps richer, it is distorting how countries interact with the United States.


To fast-track the Trump development, Vietnam has ignored its own laws, legal experts said, granting concessions more generous than what even the most connected locals receive. Vietnamese officials, in a letter obtained by The New York Times, explicitly stated that the project required special support from the top ranks of the Vietnamese government because it was “receiving special attention from the Trump administration and President Donald Trump personally.”

And Vietnamese officials have waved the development along in a moment of high-stakes diplomacy. They face intense pressure to strike a trade deal that would head off President Trump’s threat of steep tariffs, which would hit about 30 percent of Vietnam’s exports.


Eric Trump, the president’s second son, stands at the center of the drama. Mr. Trump was in Vietnam to break ground for the golf project on Wednesday, less than a year after meeting a local building partner, Dang Thanh Tam. Inside a tent with a gold facade, Mr. Trump told guests, including the country’s prime minister, that “the Trump family is going to make you very, very proud.”

The White House said, in an emailed statement, “All of the president’s trade discussions are totally unrelated to the Trump Organization.” It argued that there are no ethical issues as the president’s family develops about 20 Trump-branded properties worldwide, because the president’s sons run the businesses.


President Trump’s financial disclosure report, however, shows that he still personally benefits financially from most of these ventures.


Eric Trump, who did not respond to interview requests, has insisted that he is just doing his job, developing properties. Vietnamese officials say that prioritizing Trump projects assists the country’s economic rise.

But as the deal-making accelerates and collides with U.S. threats to free trade, the line between Trump the president and Trump the tycoon is now seen by diplomats, trade officials and corporations worldwide as so obviously blurred that governments feel more compelled than ever to favor anything Trump-related.

While other Trump deals are happening in Serbia, Indonesia and the Middle East, Vietnam has become a case study for how the

Trump brand wields influence and gains advantage, challenging local norms and encouraging leaders to rush approvals, to please the Trump family.

With trade negotiations intensifying, Vietnamese officials have allowed the Trump project to break ground without completing at least a half-dozen legally required steps, from securing all the land and financing to conducting environmental reviews.

The process usually takes two to four years. But records show that initial planning documents were filed only three months before Wednesday’s event, which was held on newly leveled land under an archway announcing “THE GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY OF TRUMP INTERNATIONAL, HUNG YEN.”


Vietnam’s foreign ministry did not respond to questions about the legality of the project.

Residents, who gathered outside the development site to watch the groundbreaking, were held at a distance by the police. Many worry that their livelihoods and land will soon be taken. Fifty years after the end of a brutal war with the United States, they say they fear becoming collateral damage as the new move-fast-and-defy-the-rules approach of Trumpism marches on.

Taking Land for Villas
In Vietnam’s communist system, all land is owned by the people and managed or leased out by the state. Most of the property for

the golf project is still controlled by families with long-term rights of use. In the Khoai Chau district of Hung Yen province — where the Trump project will take up nearly four square miles along the Red River — a sense of betrayal has been rumbling.

At town-hall meetings in early April, officials told hundreds of residents that the best they could expect was about half of what their land would have sold for even before the golf project was announced in October.

Amid a chorus of outrage at one meeting, nearly everyone stormed out. Word of the offered rate spread through streets and into the fields. Opposition has hardened as farmers fear losing investments in saplings that take years to mature, and the security that the land has provided for generations.

“They’re not listening to us,” Le Thi Thanh, 57, said on a recent fever-hot afternoon, squatting to graft young custard apple trees. “They just come here and impose their will.”


Vietnam’s construction approval process is supposed to begin with independent scrutiny in the public interest at the district and provincial level. In reality, as interviews and government documents show, little of that happened and planning laws have been shoved aside.

After the March 20 letter from provincial officials that said the project needed special treatment, the government cut short public comment and did not follow the usual rules on using public funds for preliminary research, documents show. Legal experts said the project was in conflict with the province’s housing master plan. The entire complex, with Trump-designed villas and 36 holes of golf in one of four development zones, would add 35,000 residents, theme parks and an urban commercial district.

On top of that, the project is planned in a riverfront area that flooded during a typhoon last year, and the province is dotted with unexploded ordnance from the Vietnam War. A 200-pound bomb was discovered six months ago.


Nonetheless, on May 15, just over three months after the first official filing, Vietnam’s central government ended the planning process early, to allow for investment and a groundbreaking event that would — as the letter in March had requested — align with Eric Trump’s availability and avoid “missing the window to capitalize on the support of the Donald Trump administration.”
That same day, residents rushed to the site of the groundbreaking, only to find that some construction had already begun. A black Rolls-Royce Phantom (valued at about $500,000, belonging to the Trump partner, Mr. Tam) sat near excavators, photographs showed, 100 yards from Mr. Truong’s family cemetery and families working the land.


At the groundbreaking, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh seemed sensitive to the possibility of public backlash in a country where, despite the power of a one-party state, people are not afraid to protest over being forced from where they live and work.
Raising his voice to a crowd of bankers, generals and Trump invitees in suits or shimmering stilettos, Mr. Chinh instructed the provincial authorities to ensure that those who sacrificed property would “have a new livelihood and new home better than their old ones.”

He also said the project would “receive maximum support” to “further strengthen the relationship between Vietnam and the U.S.” He promised that it would be completed in 2027.

Several lawyers and developers said that while Vietnam’s bureaucracy can be slow, the Trump project’s pace was unprecedented, illegal and unfair to other investors.


Residents said their needs were being tossed aside to please the already rich.

“They’ll have hotels, golf courses and swimming pools,” Mr. Truong said. “We’ll have nothing.”

The American Connection
The first Trump project in Vietnam got its start with the previously undisclosed efforts of two former Marine Corps platoon commanders with post-combat idealism in mind.

Billy Birdzell, 45, grew up in Larchmont, N.Y. David Lewis, 47, comes from an oil and gas family in Texas. The Iraq war welded them together forever after Aug. 5, 2004, when a rocket skipped off Mr. Lewis’s helmet and then exploded during a brutal battle in Najaf.


“He got very badly injured,” Mr. Birdzell said. “My guys, we evacuated him.”

They stayed in touch, as veterans do, and each separately developed a connection to Vietnam.

Mr. Birdzell visited in 2007, trekking to Khe Sanh and other Marine Corps landmarks before starting an investment banking firm, Horatius Group, and moving to California. In 2015, Mr. Lewis started Energy Capital Vietnam, which develops natural gas power projects.


In January 2024, they were at the Melia hotel in Hanoi, on a joint business trip, when Mr. Birdzell came down to breakfast and explained that he had been texting “a friend” who was interested in real estate in Vietnam.

“That was Eric,” Mr. Birdzell said.

In an interview, he would not say how they had met. They share a passion for guns and hunting. Mr. Birdzell is also married to a niece of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services.


Mr. Lewis, with a decade of work and connections in Vietnam, said he saw in Eric Trump a chance to bring the United States and Vietnam closer together. So, right after he heard of his interest, he reached out to Mr. Tam, the founder of the industrial construction firm Kinh Bac City, who embraced the idea immediately.
Mr. Birdzell and Mr. Lewis said that if the new development succeeded, it might be a catalyst for fostering deals and updating American perceptions about Vietnam after the war.
“It’s to elevate the Vietnamese people,” Mr. Birdzell said, “and to elevate Vietnam.”


Mr. Birdzell added that he had mainly been an intermediary, though he hoped for a role in raising capital. Mr. Lewis said he had stepped back and had no financial stake in the project.
But they have watched it advance. They attended the first meeting at Trump Tower between Mr. Tam and Eric Trump in July. They were there again on Sept. 24 to witness the signing of initial documents for the deal.


That day, the Trump family’s personal-political blend was on full display. Surrounded by Vietnamese business leaders and officials, Donald J. Trump took a break from his campaigning — just weeks before the U.S. presidential election — to play a leading role.

In a promotional photo from that day, Eric Trump sits on one side, Mr. Tam on the other. The past and future president occupies the center, smiling in front of two American flags.

Risks for U.S.-Vietnam Relations
Like those two former Marines, who saw the Trump golf course as

a potential extension of America itself and this White House, Vietnam’s government sees Mr. Trump’s administration and the Trump Organization as one.

“When he wants to build a project in Vietnam, it’s under his personal brand name, and Vietnam wants to show off that connection,” said Dang Hung Vo, a former deputy minister of natural resources and environment who helped write some of the country’s land laws.

Part of the draw is national pride: Only some countries have Trump developments, and Vietnam would like to join that club.

Many Vietnamese also admire Mr. Trump for his riches and resistance to China.


In late April and early May, according to U.S. officials, Washington warned Vietnam that its hopes for lower tariffs were at risk because of the American perception that too many Chinese companies have been setting up in Vietnam and using the country to avoid tariffs on China.

Vietnamese officials say, in public and in private, that they hope the Trump golf project will serve as a good-will token, and further intertwine the U.S. and Vietnam.

The groundbreaking occurred just a few days after the Trump administration’s trade negotiator, Jamieson Greer, met with Vietnam’s trade minister, Nguyen Hong Dien, in South Korea. It

was their first in-person meeting since Mr. Trump imposed (then paused) 46 percent tariffs on Vietnam, which sends more of its exports to the United States than anywhere else.

But as economists note, big development projects driven by political favors or optics, rather than by traditional investment calculations, often lose focus. By elevating patronage over merit, they can erode public trust.


The Trump project, initially announced as a golf community, now includes a lot more, and residents who had gathered near the groundbreaking demanded greater transparency about what it entails and how it will affect them.
Many analysts say that providing special treatment for the Trump family business undermines the efforts of To Lam, Vietnam’s top leader, to create a modern, evenhanded business environment with less corruption.


“This pushes Vietnam in the direction of more personalistic business transactions, rather than those more invested in markets, transparency and uniformity,” said Ja-Ian Chong, a political science professor at the National University of Singapore who studies Southeast Asia.
The faster things go, he added, the greater the risk of major problems. In Indonesia, the authorities halted construction on another Trump golf project this year because of water mismanagement. Mr. Tam, the Trumps’ local building partner in Vietnam, promised at the groundbreaking to continue working quickly before handing over the private golf project to the Trump Organization to operate.


For the people wondering about their land, the pace of change makes trouble look inevitable and close at hand.
“In just five days, they filled up all that farm’s land and put up that tent for the ceremony,” said Do Thi Suat, 63, watching the groundbreaking from a row of saplings. “Why are they moving so fast?”
“They will take our land away,” she said. “Then what will we do with our lives?”
Tung Ngo contributed reporting from Hanoi, and Kitty Bennett contributed research.

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared blasé over concerns that Donald Trump is using his presidential power to help line his pockets, arguing that, unlike Joe Biden, the president does “everything out in the open.”

While speaking with CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union Sunday, the GOP congressman rushed to the president’s defense over alleged conflicts of interest stemming from a recent private dinner with top investors in his meme coin, $TRUMP.



Brushing off Trump corruption concerns, Johnson instead took aim at the “Biden crime family.”

The Republican questioned whether people could buy access to the former president through his son, Hunter Biden, despite a House Republican report concluding that there was no evidence of impeachable offenses or wrongdoing by Joe Biden.

“The difference, of course, is that President Trump does everything out in the open. He’s not trying to hide anything,” Johnson said. “There's no shell companies or fake LLCs or fake family businesses. He’s putting it out there, so everybody can evaluate for themselves.”

Trump threw a black-tie gala for the top 220 buyers of his meme coin Thursday night at his Virginia golf club. The president flew in on Marine One and spoke at a lectern emblazoned with the presidential seal.

The White House argued that it was a “private” event and he was “attending it in his personal time.”





With the guest list for Thursday’s cryptocurrency dinner firmly under wraps, several lawmakers voice ethical concerns about investors' potential to sway the president on crypto policy.

When pressed about the public being made aware of who attended the president’s dinner, Johnson conceded, “I guess.”

Johnson said that he had no knowledge of the dinner due to his busy work schedule shepherding Trump’s one “big, beautiful bill” through the House last week, before adding that Trump has “nothing to hide.”



Activists protest against alleged influence-peddling corruption outside Trump National Golf Course earlier this month (AP)
“I mean, again, I don’t know anything about that dinner. I do know that President Trump is the most transparent president in the most transparent administration, probably in history. He has nothing to hide,” he said.

It’s not the first time that Johnson has attempted to distance himself from Trump’s meme coin venture.



On May 14, Johnson told reporters that he knows nothing “about the meme coin thing.”

“I don’t know, I can just tell you that, I mean, President Trump has nothing to hide. He’s very upfront about it,” he said. “There are people who watch all the ethics of that, but I mean, I’ve got to be concerned with running the House of Representatives.”

The Independent has always had a global perspective. Built on a firm foundation of superb international reporting and analysis, The Independent now enjoys a reach that was inconceivable when it was launched as an upstart player in the British news industry. For the first time since the end of the Second World War, and across the world, pluralism, reason, a progressive and humanitarian agenda, and internationalism – Independent values – are under threat. Yet we, The Independent, continue to grow.

Trump’s alleged corruption shouldn’t be investigated because ‘it’s out in the open,’ Mike Johnson says

 

[squeezer]

Justin Trudeau was worth 8 million when he entered office and he is now worth 80-100. I guess he was playing a lot of bingo instead of leading our country.

Facts before fiction, NONSENSE and BULLSHIT but I hope he is sitting on a $100M. He deserves every penny!!!!

Justin Trudeau Net Worth, Salary, Career, and More

Discover Justin Trudeau's net worth, salary, career highlights, and controversies. Learn about his journey as Canada's Prime Minister.

www.finance-monthly.com

Justin Trudeau Doesn't Pretend To Be Middle Class. Here's Why.

His net worth includes inheritance.

www.huffpost.com

Justin Trudeau Net Worth 2024: Insights Into Wealth Of Canada's Prime Minister

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau enjoys a comfortable financial position, thanks in part to his family's wealth and his earnings as a politician.

www.ibtimes.com

Now, keeping in mind he comes from a wealthy family and I'm sure Daddy left him a very good inheritance, but if you want to make this a whataboutism of your conman Trump, then it's hilarious. Trump is crowning himself to be the next richest family in the world with all the bribes and schemes he's concocting while the MAGA TWATS cheer him on. It really is hilarious.

 

[Catwhiskers]

View attachment 442287
versus 100% for Obama!

 

[optimusprime69]

Facts before fiction, NONSENSE and BULLSHIT but I hope he is sitting on a $100M. He deserves every penny!!!!

Justin Trudeau Net Worth, Salary, Career, and More

Discover Justin Trudeau's net worth, salary, career highlights, and controversies. Learn about his journey as Canada's Prime Minister.

www.finance-monthly.com

Justin Trudeau Doesn't Pretend To Be Middle Class. Here's Why.

His net worth includes inheritance.

www.huffpost.com

Justin Trudeau Net Worth 2024: Insights Into Wealth Of Canada's Prime Minister

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau enjoys a comfortable financial position, thanks in part to his family's wealth and his earnings as a politician.

www.ibtimes.com

Now, keeping in mind he comes from a wealthy family and I'm sure Daddy left him a very good inheritance, but if you want to make this a whataboutism of your conman Trump, then it's hilarious. Trump is crowning himself to be the next richest family in the world with all the bribes and schemes he's concocting while the MAGA TWATS cheer him on. It really is hilarious.

They warned me not to speak on Trudeau, they said you'd show up. Makes me think the Candyman could be real now too. lol

 

[squeezer]

They warned me not to speak on Trudeau, they said you'd show up. Makes me think the Candyman could be real now too. lol

I've been warned that OptimusPrime is a rebrand of a banished robot. Justin stuffed Pee Pee down the toilet by anointing Megacarney and you just can't handle it.

 

[mandrill]

They warned me not to speak on Trudeau, they said you'd show up. Makes me think the Candyman could be real now too. lol

It's a little odd you're posting about Trudeau in a thread about Trump, tbh.

 

[mandrill]