The Don(ald) Turns the Presidency Into a Protection Racket
Newsweek
The Don(ald) Turns the Presidency Into a Protection Racket | Opinion
Published Feb 05, 2025 at 5:11 AM EST
Thomas Moukawsher
You’ve seen it in the movies. Late one night, the heavies from the local don throw a few bricks through the window of an honest shopkeeper. The next day while he is sweeping up the glass, the don’s boys offer to protect him from further assaults. The keeper pays. Over time the payments go up and up.
Today, bricks are flying through the windows of innocent shopkeepers in Canada—thrown by none other than the president of the United States. Other bricks are flying at Denmark, Panama, and Mexico—countries that have been our neighbors, friends, and stalwart allies. Our latter-day don, President Donald Trump, says give us Greenland and the Panama Canal, and fewer Hispanic-looking people, and we will go away—for now. And—for now—Mexico has decided to pay and so has Canada. They and the world will regret it.
If exposing people to economic and physical threats while demanding territorial and other concessions doesn’t look wrong to you, you are undoubtedly cheering Trump’s threat to throw Ukraine to the wolves unless they provide us with rare earth materials. Remember when we outlawed violence as an instrument of national policy? Remember the over 70 million people who died in World War II to enforce that pledge? Yet now, we’re the ones threatening violence against our neighbors because they have land that Trump wants and migrants he wants to keep out.
But the extortion isn’t all political—by no means. With lawsuits, Trump is using his “bully pulpit” to bully money out of others for his personal benefit. He has always used lawsuits as leverage. Before he had an army with guns, he practiced lawfare with an army of lawyers.
Guess what? Now that he has a real army, the lawsuits are paying off better than ever. Not for the United States. But for Donald Trump’s personal financial benefit. Trump’s latest self-enrichment racket has been to sue the media. Did you notice that none of his suits against ABC, Facebook owner Meta, and CBS were settled before the election?
But after the election, ABC, with no court judgment finding the company did anything wrong, voluntarily paid him $15 million. Meta, in the same position, willingly paid him $25 million, and CBS is said to be in talks to buy peace with Trump, too. Do you think they would have all settled if Trump lost the election? If the answer to that question is “no,” then that leaves only the extortionist power of the presidency to explain how Trump is filling his coffers. Yes, if these are bribes, they are illegal, but who’s watching? Trump is decapitating the Justice Department, the FBI, and the system of inspectors general who might otherwise have done something about it.
And these media millions are chump change compared to the darkest aspects of Trump’s self-enrichment. What money has been propping up Truth Social? Why did the share price go from around $12.00 a share a few months before the election to over $40 just before Trump’s inauguration? Why are major financial institutions investing millions in it? Is some of it for protection? How can we know? And what about the Trump crypto meme coin launched just before his inauguration? It surged to a peak market cap exceeding $15 billion just as Trump assumed office and began promoting the growth of the crypto industry with one of his first executive orders. Where’s all the money coming from? Why is it flowing to Trump’s personal benefit? Take a guess.
It’s fatiguing to track all the roads Trump has used to funnel money from his public power to his private benefit. The $2 billion investment the Saudi’s made in Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner after 2020? The post-2024 election decision to book Saudi LIV golf events at Trump’s Doral golf resort? Doral, the same resort hired by Republican Congressional leaders for their latest conference? How about the “Trump Victory Tourbillon” watch for $100,000? Trump sneakers, boots, bibles, guitars, gold medallions and coins? Are they even worth mentioning now that they have been surpassed by far larger exactions on people with business before the United States government?
All of this bullying and benefiting is on a scale stupendously larger than any of the petty perks traditional to the politics of the past. Where will it stop? So far, no one seems to care.