Jonathan P. Baird

One of the biggest stories of the second Trump presidency has to be its mushrooming corruption scandals. A major theme of this presidency is self-enrichment and the normalization of white collar crime.

Just when you thought it could not get worse, there are surprises. I had thought the profiting-off crypto was the worst. Since January, Trump has been adding a billion dollars a month to his family fortune. But then along came his palace-in-the-sky, the $400 million luxury jet gifted by the Qatari royal family.

Trump had complained that Arab leaders had bigger and more impressive airplanes than the current Air Force One. His preference is for Louis XIV-style opulence and gold ornamentation. He said it would be stupid to turn down “a free, very expensive airplane”. The plan is for the jet to be used first as Air Force One and then it is supposed to be given to Trump’s presidential library foundation.

Whether it would remain available for Trump’s personal use after he leaves office remains contested.

The ethical and legal questions jump out. The Framers of the Constitution sought to prevent corruption in drafting the Foreign Emoluments Clause. That clause prohibits the president from receiving any profit, gain or advantage from foreign governments without the consent of Congress.

The jet looks to be an unconstitutional payoff from a foreign government to the president. Congress hasn’t authorized the deal. No president has ever accepted a gift of this magnitude from a foreign government. The formerly royal jet raises the spectre that the Qatari government will receive favorable treatment because of the gift.

And this arrangement doesn’t begin to get to national security concerns. The Qatari jet would require a costly, time-consuming renovation to meet the intensive security, safety and technical standards of an Air Force One. The plane would have to be stripped down to ensure there are no listening devices or secret technology hidden away. That cost alone could be enormous and it is not clear the work could be finished before January 2029 when Trump is slated to leave office.

I think extravagant gift-giving like the Qatari luxury jet perfectly illustrates the core model of behavior we see in this presidency. Corrupt gifts are this Administration’s life blood. Donors line up to purchase desired results.

When I was in junior high school, I had a very witty math teacher named Mr. Harper. I remember Mr. Harper saying, “Every man has his price”. So it is with Donald Trump.

We see this most clearly in how he is authorizing and selling pardons. Presidents do have broad pardon authority but Trump has misused the power to pardon white collar criminals and his political allies who have earned their prison sentences. You might think pardons would be about correcting some blatant injustice. This is absolutely not the case with Trump. His mission is to pardon the worst cheats and crooks.

In the last week, there is the Paul Walczak story. Walczak was hired by his mother to run a Florida nursing home and to act as a CEO. Over the course of years, he stole $10 million out of the paychecks of his employees (doctors, nurses and health care workers) and he stopped paying taxes. He used the money he stole to finance a luxurious lifestyle, including private jets and purchase of a $2 million yacht.

Walczak pled guilty and he was sentenced to 18 months in prison and he was ordered to pay $4.4 million in restitution. At sentencing, the judge said “there is no get out of jail free card”. However, Trump granted Walczak a full and unconditional pardon meaning he would do no jail time and he was off the hook for the $4.4 million restitution. As a result, all the health care workers he cheated get no compensation for being ripped off.

Walczak’s mother, Elizabeth Fago, has a history of raising millions for Trump campaigns. The Trump pardon came less than three weeks after she attended a $1 million per-person fundraising dinner at Mar-a-Lago that promised face-to-face access to Trump. Good deal: pay one million so you don’t have to pay four.

At almost the same time as the Walczak pardon came the pardon of reality-TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who had been convicted of evading taxes and defrauding banks of more than $30 million. They had submitted false financial documents to obtain loans they used to fund a lavish lifestyle. The Chrisleys’ daughter, Savannah, has been a big player in the MAGA universe. She spoke at the Republican National Convention. She also was interviewed on FOX by Lara Trump about her parents. This pardon was tossing red meat to the base.

There are many other stories like Walczak and the Chrisleys where Trump has granted pardons. There is a New York lawsuit going on now where Rudy Giuliani’s former assistant Noelle Dunphy is suing Giuliani and alleging in her lawsuit that Giuliani was selling pardons for $2 million, which he and President Trump would split.

Trump has been signaling to his billionaire friends and his political allies that there is no longer any enforcement of white collar crime law. Likewise, he is signaling to foreign donors: pony up and let’s make a deal. His purge of the Department of Justice lawyers ensures no consequences for criminality. There is nothing to get in the way of leader wealth maximization.

Never has corruption been so out front. This presidency has replaced any sense of national self-interest with the family interest of the would-be king. We are all being played for suckers.