Corruption Watch, April 23, 2025

This “Corruption Watch” post bears the date of April 23, 2025, because I expect more revelations as the next 33 months unfold.

The presidential inauguration fund is a slush fund with no accountability. It is not required to say how much money it spends, or where the left over funds go. The Trump-Vance inaugural committee raised $239 million dollars. 

[New York Times] “The total, disclosed in a filing with the Federal Election Commission on Sunday, is more than double the previous record of $107 million set by Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee in 2017. About 140 different people or companies gave at least $1 million to the effort, including blue-chip companies like JPMorgan Chase, Delta Air Lines and Target. …

“Inaugurations, even with several days of elaborate dinners and other events, have never cost anything near roughly a quarter-billion dollars, and the amount raised by the committee will resurface questions about where any leftover funds might go. …

“President Trump’s total in 2017 was twice as much as any president-elect had ever raised for an inauguration. The $346 million raised by his two inaugural committees is more than the nominal amount raised by all other inaugural committees combined since Richard M. Nixon’s $4 million in 1973.” 

Donations to Trump’s inauguration fund did more than fatten his war chest. Public Citizen reports that many of the donors were facing federal enforcement actions—some of which have already gone away.

“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 Cases against 11 of these corporations have already been dismissed or withdrawn, and six have been halted.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.’“ 

Elon Musk currently wields power second only to that of the president himself. He also profits from multiple contracts between companies he owns and the government. And he has gutted regulatory agencies investigating violations of various sorts by his companies. Now there’s another revelation, this time about his xAI company violating the law and releasing massive pollution in an impoverished southwest Tennessee community. Emissions of smog-forming nitrous oxide and carcinogenic HAP formaldehyde exceed safe limits. 

[Musk Watch] “In January 2025, after the facility had already been operating for months, xAI filed a draft construction and air pollution permit for 15 gas turbines. This permit is open for public comment through April 25. But drone photos obtained by SELC [Southern Environmental Law Center] revealed that xAi is already operating at least 35 turbines at the facility. …

“xAI is allegedly illegally operating gas turbines in a majority-black area of South Memphis that was already “home to an oil refinery, a steel mill, and chemical plants.” It is home to the world’s largest cargo airport, and 2400 diesel trucks pass through the area daily. Residents “have high rates of asthma…and four times the national rate of cancer…health impacts that have been linked to industrial pollution.” Life expectancy in South Memphis is 67 years, well below both the state average (75) and Shelby County as a whole (79).”

Trump’s Golden Dome missile system, which may or may not provide any actual increase in security, will definitely line the pockets of defense contractors. And probably the main beneficiaries will be Elon Musk and right-wing cronies like Palantir.

They have already been in talks with Pentagon and Trump administration officials, even though no plan has been approved or funded by Congress.

[Reuters] “Elon Musk’s SpaceX and two partners have emerged as frontrunners to win a crucial part of President Donald Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense shield, six people familiar with the matter said.

“Musk’s rocket and satellite company is partnering with software maker Palantir  and drone builder Anduril on a bid to build key parts of Golden Dome, the sources said, which has drawn significant interest from the technology sector’s burgeoning base of defense startups.

“All three companies were founded by entrepreneurs who have been major political supporters of Trump. …

“One of the sources familiar with the talks described them as ‘a departure from the usual acquisition process. There’s an attitude that the national security and defense community has to be sensitive and deferential to Elon Musk because of his role in the government.’ …

“In an unusual twist, SpaceX has proposed setting up its role in Golden Dome as a “subscription service” in which the government would pay for access to the technology, rather than own the system outright. …

“While the approach would not violate any rules, the government may then be locked into a subscription and lose control over its ongoing development and pricing, they added. …

“Laura Grego, research director at the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists, questioned the feasibility of such a defense system given that multiple studies have concluded it is a ‘bad idea, expensive and vulnerable.’”

Given the amount of money that flows through the income tax system, the Internal Revenue Service stands as a nice, fat target for Trump administration corruption. That starts with gutting the capacity of the IRS to audit high-income and corporate taxpayers/tax evaders and runs all the way down to eliminating free filing for individuals with uncomplicated returns. 

As Robert Reich notes on BlueSky: “The IRS launched its own tax filing program that allowed taxpayers to file taxes for free. Tax prep companies like Intuit lobbied for years to stop the IRS from doing this.  Intuit donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration. Now Trump is gutting the program. Hello?”

Billy Long, Trump’s pick to run the IRS, is not likely to care about chasing tax fraud. Not only did he just get major contributions from a company under investigation for tax fraud—he formerly worked for one of those companies.

[Lever News] “In new campaign finance filings, Long disclosed an outstanding personal loan of $130,000 that he had made to his failed 2022 U.S. Senate campaign. The dormant Senate campaign committee had raised less than $36,000 in the last two years, which could have forced Long to absorb the losses on the loan. 

“But after Trump named Long to head the IRS, the committee suddenly raked in nearly $137,000 in less than three weeks in January — money that Long then used to remunerate himself, according to disclosure documents filed this week….

“Numerous Long contributors in his new campaign disclosure report are financial advisors for White River Energy and Lifetime Advisors, among others. Those firms are named in an April 14 letter from Senate Finance Committee members Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) calling for a criminal investigation into what they allege is a fraudulent tax credit scheme orchestrated by the companies, many of which employ donors that helped retire Long’s debt.”