Pay to Pray: Kleptocracy Is US

*Updated 1/13/2025

Kleptocracy is government by thieves—corrupt politicians who use the government to get rich(er) with tactics including kickbacks, bribes, sweetheart contracts, and more. 

You might think that the über-rich don’t need to use government positions and influence because they already have money. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about the 13 billionaires named to high-ranking government positions in the incoming Republican administration. Unfortunately, people with the most power, influence, and money know better than anyone how use these assets to get more of the same.

Update: “Major donors to Donald Trump’s inaugural committee are having to contribute twice as much to get direct access to him and vice-president-elect JD Vance at private events around the swearing-in ceremony compared with the first inauguration, according to fundraising materials.” [The Guardian]

Trump’s cabinet has an estimated combined net worth of more than $7 billion, even without counting Elon Musk’s personal fortune of more than $400 billion. Biden’s cabinet, in contrast, has a combined net worth of $118 million. Not paupers, but nowhere near the Trump cabinet totals. 

Conflicts of interest abound. 

Elon Musk is the most egregious example of conflicts of interest. He earns billions as the head of Tesla, SpaceX, and Starlink, which have multiple and lucrative government contracts. His position as head of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) does not require Senate confirmation. In fact, it’s tough to know what DOGE is—Congress did not establish it, there’s no budget line for funding, but it is already hiring hundreds of people. No one will say how these employees are being paid, but they are already “interviewing” actual federal employees at agencies including the Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service and the departments of Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, and Health and Human Services. 

As for Musk himself, the conflict of interest inherent in having multi-billion dollar federal contracts while also promising/threatening cuts in the departments that sign off on those contracts seems pretty clear. What’s not clear is any kind of ethics constraint on Musk. He has no intention of resigning from his positions in those companies or forgoing the profits from those government contracts. 

Musk is not the only administration figure with conflicts of interest that allow public office to be used for private profit.  Among the other examples:

Tom Homan, the “Border Czar,” also serves in a position not established by Congress and not required to appear for Senate confirmation. His private consulting firm “touts Trump’s endorsement while claiming it has secured ‘tens of millions of dollars of federal contracts’ for his homeland security industry firm clients.” Homan also has a right-wing nonprofit Border911, which has engaged in political activity that likely violates its tax-exempt status. 

Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, remains one of his closest advisers. He is also an unregistered foreign agent, on the payroll of Saudi Arabia and other foreign countries. 

[Popular Information] “According to an investigation by the Senate Finance Committee, Affinity Partners ultimately secured about $3 billion in investments. Along with $2 billion from Saudi Arabia, Kushner secured additional funds ‘from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Taiwanese billionaire Terry Gou.’ There is a fifth foreign investor that Affinity Partners will not disclose. There are no U.S. investors. 

“Saudi Arabia pays Kushner 1.25% of its investment annually as a management fee. The other investors pay even more — 2% of their investments annually. So far, Affinity Partners has ‘collected approximately $157.5 million in management fees from foreign investors,’ including $87 billion from Saudi Arabia alone. It is scheduled to bring in another $90 million through 2026.” 

A third example: Dr. Mehmet Oz, nominated to head the Centers For Medicare And Medicaid Services (CMS). Unlike Elon Musk and Jared Kushner, Oz will eventually face a Senate confirmation hearing. He has pushed for privatization of Medicare, which would directly profit Medicare Advantage companies that he invests in. 

[Accountable US] “Oz’s ‘single biggest healthcare holding’ was up to $26 million in a digital health company Oz co-founded that became the “exclusive in-home care supplemental benefit program” for 1.5 million MA enrollees across 400 Medicare Advantage plans. Oz also disclosed in 2022 he holds up to $30 million in two companies CMS called its “two primary cloud service providers” in its FY 2025 budget document, which requested over $3.3 billion in information technology funding for the year. …

“The new findings follow previous reporting Dr. Oz has additional six-figure stakes in leading private Medicare Advantage (MA) insurers that he reported in 2022.”

Similar examples abound. They follow the example of the fearless leader himself, who is cashing in big-time as an accused Chinese fraudster “invests” $30 million in a Trump-connected company, with an immediately realizable profit to Trump of $18 million. That’s in addition to Trump schemes that range from the notorious “Trump bibles” to the largest-ever cash grab in inauguration “donations,” which get big-money contributors perks that just might include a pay-to-pray presidential prayer breakfast. If you’re interested in something more affordable, the Trump bible issued a special Inauguration Day edition. This edition, released on January 6 (of course), sells for only $69.99. That sounds like a good deal for those who can’t afford the $1,000 edition signed by Trump. 

I wonder if his bible includes this verse:

“He who loves money will not be satisfied with money; nor he who loves wealth, with gain; this also is vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 5:10)