BILLBOARD News Now
Three Buckets
A lot of media attention is focused on “Trump corruption”. The reporting can be put into three big buckets. Business fraud, conflicts of interest and using government power to benefit donors or Trump family interests.
Let’s start here…a $500 million UAV-back investment into a Trump-linked crypto firm, after Trump’s sons met officials from multiple foreign governments while expanding business operations abroad.
Another deal reported by The Wall Street Journal relates to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed AI Nahyan brother and national security adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates. The Trump family’s crypto fund (World Liberty Financial) benefitted from a half-billion-dollar stake made by Tahnoon’s investment fund. Afterwards Tahnoon was successful in lobbying the White House for Emirates access to America’s most advanced A.I. chips, resulting with Tahnoon’s A. I. company getting a large portion.
Use of presidential powers, i.e. pardons, and Department of Justice actions have been used to benefit allies (donors & supporters) which have undermined accountability for fraud cases.
Not to be overlooked are “settlements” earmarked for Trump’s presidential library. Trump brought lawsuits against ABC, Paramount, Meta and X (formally) Twitter. He settled lawsuits against these huge media conglomerates for $63 million. The funds were earmarked for Trump’s presidential library. The money appeared to be directed to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library fund which was later dissolved by Florida officials. A new entity was established…the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation Inc…a tax-exempt nonprofit. The unanswered question…is “what happened to the $63 million?”
In January 2026, Trump, his sons, and the Trump Organization sued the Internal Revenue Service. They claim the government failed to protect confidential tax data and effectively allowed a leak to happen. They argue the disclosures caused financial and reputational harm. The unusual twist…is President Trump is suing his own government. Any settlement would likely come from U. S. government funds (taxpayers). The lawsuit is essentially Trump saying, “The Government failed to protect my tax data, and I want massive damages.”
A day does not go by that we do not read or observe allegations of government benefits flowing to donors/supporters. This is nothing new in the political world, but it appears the Trump administration is taking it to the extremes.
When this is looked at in total…it is called corruption because it uses presidential authority to protect himself and target rivals.
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner this evening will be available on C-SPAN. President Trump is expected to attend, marking his first time going as president.
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