Who does Daddy love moe?

Biden Family Grift vs. Trump Family Grift: Let’s Do the Numbers

It's not even close

Dean Baker in Beat the Press   

Most people recognize that Donald Trump and his kids are stealing from us with both hands every day. But they are not as outraged as they should be because most have the view that everyone does it. While I will never defend the Democrats as paragons of honesty (what the hell are those crypto contributions?), they are not in the same ballpark as Trump and his crew.

Part of the confusion stems from the media’s refusal to ever put big numbers in context. They all know that the vast majority of their audience is not clear on the distinction between millions, billions, and trillions, and have no idea how large the federal budget is, but they refuse to take the ten seconds and ten words that would be needed to give readers a clearer sense of what is at stake.

The other source of confusion is that the Republicans spent four years endlessly hyping the “Biden crime family.” They used Congressional hearings, as well as thousands of appearances on TV news, shows to yell (often literally) about Biden family corruption.

And it’s clear it was not zero. Hunter Biden, while struggling with drug addiction, openly traded on his family name to land a well-paying perch with a Ukrainian energy company. He also managed to sell his artwork, which is not obviously of great value, for $50K a painting.

Joe’s younger brother James also seems to have traded on the family name, but the sums involved appear to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and mostly during the years 2017-2019, when Joe Biden was not even in public office.

It is a bad practice for family members to profit from their ties to a vice-president or president, but there is zero evidence that Joe Biden ever did anything to directly benefit his son or brothers in their business dealings. We can be pretty certain of this fact because Republicans in Congress and the White House, both in Trump’s first term and his current term, have left no stone unturned in trying to show Biden’s corruption. (Trump’s first impeachment was over his effort to extort Ukraine’s president to lie about Biden’s corruption.)

While it is difficult to get clear numbers on the extent of the corruption of Trump and his family in his current term, since they disclose as little as possible, and no one can accept what they do disclose at face value, we can try to put some numbers on it. At the very least, it should be totally clear that Trump’s corruption, by any measure, is in a totally different universe from even the worst imaginable story that can be told about Joe Biden and his family.

The list below is far from exhaustive. We will probably not know all the ways that Trump put money into his and his family’s pockets until long after his presidency, and maybe not even then. But this should be a good start.

“Travel with Natalie”

How three words from Jon Ossoff prompted an epic MAGA crash-out.

Tom Schaller

Donald Trump is easily triggered. That’s hardly news.

He’s temperamental and emotional in a way that supposedly disqualifies women from serving in powerful political or corporate roles. He lashes out at critics, opponents, the media, even his own staff. 

Were it not so frightening, it would be Veep-level hysterical that the man atop the world’s most powerful government and military lacks the impulse control of a high schooler.

But the questions now swirling around Trump’s personal assistant Natalie Harp — and especially the way Sen. Jon Ossoff unleashed a media firestorm this week by invoking her name — offer a long overdue lesson for Democrats on how to successfully bait Trump and his MAGA cohorts for maximum effect.

Harp strikes a chord

Let’s start by unpacking what Ossoff actually said last Sunday, which was not nearly as salacious as the ensuing MAGA meltdown would have you believe.

“While the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings. He golfs and trades stocks,” said Ossoff, of Trump. “See, he doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”

In just four sentences, Ossoff’s carefully crafted language shattered Trump’s curated image as a tough, tireless, troop-loving, America First warrior. The Georgia senator indicted Trump’s military misadventures and octogenarian stamina. He highlighted Trump’s sloth and greed. Ossoff depicted Trump as a detached, spoiled, soft, and vainglorious brat who could make Charli XCX blush.

But the kicker was these three words: “travel with Natalie.”

Ossoff’s statement would have delivered the same critique of Trump as an entitled, lazy lout had he omitted any mention of Harp. But he dropped her name — and only her first name, plus the first-person plural “their” for emphasis — to pair them and suggest a degree of interpersonal intimacy.

Ossoff’s gambit worked perfectly. Americans immediately wanted to learn who Natalie Harp is. 

Answer: a “platinum blonde geyser of positivity, there to buck him up when the going gets rough,” as the New York Times described the young aide who serves as Trump’s personal, 24/7 “security blanket.”

Media journalist Brian Stelter reported that searches for “who is Natalie Harp?” surged an astounding 5,000 percent, and Fox News’ Jesse Watters had to admit on air that his program had not mentioned Ossoff in six years but now his network was talking about the young senator nonstop.

The White House and conservative pundits lost their marbles, crying foul about attacks on the young staffer and veiled implications of her and Trump having an affair.

More amusing and hypocritical is how conservative apologists rushed to Harp’s defense, depicting her as a child immune to attention or attacks, and the victim of sexist “dehumanization.” (In fact, Harp is 35 — an adult more than twice the age of the Central Park 5 Black youths when Trump called for their execution before they were even tried for a crime that, it turned out, they never committed.)

There’s more: Harp is apparently so obsessed with Trump she’s happy to serve as his emotional support companion.

In 2023, Harp twice dodged presidential security protocols and wary Trump staffers to get close to Trump — once, by securing a maid’s room at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey golf club, and then by sneaking into an SUV trunk in Trump’s motorcade. She behaves like a rock band groupie, not a presidential adviser.

Harp has also skirted security clearance checks, a fact that suggests Trump is willing to sacrifice national security to maintain his emotional “security blanket.” That’s the term Ossoff used to describe Harp when, instead of apologizing or backtracking as weak-willed Democrats often do when facing backlash, he doubled down on his Trump attack during a Monday television interview with MS NOW’s Jen Psaki.

Ossoff shows the way

But enough about poor Natalie — back to Ossoff.

The senator and his speechwriters clearly understand that powerful words do more than assert or indict: They create imagery.

Ossoff painted a picture of Trump flying in comfortable, Middle Eastern-supplied luxury, oblivious to the problems around him, his every need and indulgence fulfilled like some oleaginous sultan. That image contrasts sharply with his MAGA cult supporters’ rally flags depicting Trump as a bandana-wearing Rambo delivering rough justice.

Depicting Trump as Ossoff skillfully did generated paroxysms from Republican politicians and conservative talking heads.

The right-wing media narrative is lousy with depictions of liberals and Democrats living better than — and therefore condescending to — their lessors: those humble, hardworking, heartland Americans. Ossoff delivered this same appraisal of Trump in fewer words than a median-length William Faulkner sentence. The senator’s quip was a Thomas Nast cartoon sketched with four sentences.

And therein lies the key lesson of this episode: Trump can be weakened by policy attacks, especially on the economy and his foolhardy war with Iran. But politicians in the new media age who want to gain traction — no less run for the White House — need to talk less in stentorian policy tones, like a Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, and more like Jimmy Kimmel or Chelsea Handler.

The Georgia senator whom many believe to be a frontrunner for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination understands that Democrats need more than “affordability” policy messages to win in 2026 and beyond. They need to depict Trump as feeble, selfish, and tone-deaf.

By inserting Harp into the national political discourse, Ossoff inverted the national narrative about which side is politically soft and entitled. The 2028 presidential election is more than two years away, but this week Ossoff put his party and the punditry on notice that he will be a skilled and formidable contender.

A flustered Trump dismissed Ossoff as “Pee Wee Herman.” Weak tea.

Trump’s snide derogatories have lost their oomph. More to the point, like all bullies his feckless response proves he can throw a punch but can’t take one.

And the senator’s invocation of “Natalie” — leaving out her last name to imply some special intimacy between Harp and Trump — was the shiny frame that drew millions of eyes to the Trumpian imagery Ossoff so deftly painted.

Troll bridge to 2028

Conservative media routinely dismiss Trump’s opponents by attaching the “Trump Derangement Syndrome” label to those who dare to criticize their MAGA champion. But nobody is more troll-able and deranged than the thin-skinned, fragile male egoist who currently occupies the Oval Office.

Narcissists like Donald Trump cannot abide criticism, and no critique is more effective with insecure narcissists than mockery. Making fun of Trump as a lazy, unpatriotic, and ineffective president cuts to his bone. Trump commits ample policy and political errors without provocation, but he is far more prone to blunder when under attack and on the defensive. And so are his allies.

Trump’s supporters warn that if Democrats recapture the House this fall, they will immediately impeach Trump for a third time. His self-dealing corruption, which makes Watergate look like a parking ticket, alone warrants his removal. But to paraphrase a time-worn maxim, if you try to kill a wannabe king you better succeed. Even if Democrats flip the Senate, they will not have enough Republican support to convict Trump on any House impeachment article.

The better way to impeach Trump is to rattle his confidence and destroy his heavily-curated image as a tough and competent patriot. This week, Jon Ossoff separated himself from the pack by providing liberals and Democrats a perfect formula for how to do so.

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From the folks who looted a kids' cancer charity

The many loves of Donald Trump, MAGA savior

What are they dying for?

In 2009, Trump and his kids co-signed President Obama statement calling for action on climate change

Donald Trump’s Descent into Climate Chaos 

By Thomas Schueneman

Back in 2009, in the lead-up to COP15 in Copenhagen, a group of concerned business leaders and “liberal luminaries” called for urgent action on climate change in an open letter to then-President Obama published in the New York Times. The letter said in part: 

“If we fail to act now, it is scientifically irrefutable that there will be catastrophic and irreversible consequences for humanity and our planet.” 

Donald Trump and his three adult children were all signatories.

The letter went on to promote the United States as a model for climate leadership and action:

“Please allow us, the United States of America, to serve in modeling the change necessary to protect humanity and our planet.”

An Inconvenient Truth

If we didn’t know it then, we do now. Trump’s commitment to anything is inexorably tied to his own base ambitions, malignant narcissism, and infantile ego. 

I can’t say what motivated Trump to align with climate action proponents, but it’s safe to say he didn’t much care about climate change one way or another. 

There was something in it for him, until there wasn’t. 

His political ambitions and golf courses splattered across the globe change all that. It didn’t take long for his professed climate concern to morph into derision. Starting in 2012, he abandoned his firmly held belief (I jest, he has no firmly held beliefs). That’s when he started accusing China of creating the climate change hoax as a means of keeping America down. 

He has held to his hoax-y rhetoric since then. What better way to curry favor with his recalcitrant MAGA cult and attract Big Oil money than call global warming a hoax? An added bonus is owning the libs, what with their calls for emissions reductions and renewable energy. And it isn’t just the libs who Trump trolls with his rapier wit and intellectual framing. 

He chides other nations, claiming that their efforts to secure a sustainable future, however minimal, will be their downfall. 

Here's a blowup of the NY Times ad, showing the Trump family members names as co-signers:

Read and weep new Trump disclosure from newly released Epstein files

Hey MAGA - Now do you understand why Trump didn't want the Epstein files released?

How Trump Has Exploited Pardons and Clemency to Reward Allies and Supporters

With Trump, everything is for sale (or barter)

By Jeremy Kohler for ProPublica

The beneficiaries of Donald Trump’s mercy in his second term have mostly been people with access to the president or his inner circle. Those who have followed the rules set out by the Department of Justice, meanwhile, are still waiting.

Trump has granted clemency to allies, donors and culture-war figures — as well as felons who, like him, were convicted of financial wrongdoing. On Friday, he granted pardons to 77 people, including Rudy Giuliani and other allies tied to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, though they are mostly symbolic because federal pardons do not apply to ongoing or possible state prosecutions, which many of the grantees face. 

Those clemencies came on top of the commutation awarded last month to George Santos, the disgraced former New York congressman found guilty of defrauding donors and lying to the House of Representatives. Trump cut short Santos’ seven-year sentence after less than three months.

For those who followed the standard protocol set out by the Department of Justice, the sense is growing that the process no longer matters; they’ve watched the public database of applicants swell with thousands of pending cases, while Trump grants pardons to people who never entered the system at all.

In just over nine months back in office, roughly 10,000 people have filed petitions for pardons or commutations, about two-thirds the total of the 14,867 applications submitted during the entire Biden presidency.

Under Justice Department standards and requirements, people seeking pardons generally must wait five years after their release from incarceration, demonstrate good conduct and remorse, and file petitions through the Office of the Pardon Attorney. But Trump’s actions in his second term show he has largely abandoned that process.

The Pedo Protection Squad at your service

Trump really loves his daughter Ivanka

New trend in right-wing fashion: Mar-a-Lago Face. Seriously.

To fit in at King Donald's palace, MAGA women change their looks, especially their lips.

Starting with Ivanka, before and after:

Homeland Security Secretary Kristin Noem, before and after:

Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump nominee as Ambassador to Greece (and Don Jr.'s ex):

Laura Loomer, Trump advisor and rightwing nut:

Attorney General Pam Bondi: 

Lara Trump, wife of Eric and former RNC Chair:

Even the guys do it, like Matt Gaetz:

Only he came out looking like a Vulcan

Today's star witness

Draw your own conclusions

They deserve each other

A perfect couple: The worst president and a wretched first lady 

by Mark Sumner for Daily Kos

Here they are with another role model power couple, convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. (Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)

Melania Trump hasn’t been associating with her husband, Donald, on his retribution tour across America. She hasn’t been at his side during his trials for fraud or for defaming a woman he sexually assaulted in a dressing room. 

She didn’t even show up for her spouse’s New Year's Eve party. That level of dedicated absence may lead to suggestions that the Einstein visa-winning former nude model doesn’t really care for her ketchup-hurling husband.

The genuineness of this photo of Trump and 11 year old
Ivanka was checked by Snopes.com
and determined to be real.

But over the weekend, there was more evidence that the pair are perfect for each other. They may not be a match made in heaven, but in whatever spiritual sweatshop cranks out rich-old-guy-and-much-younger-trophy-wife relationships, these two are a chef’s kiss.

That fresh evidence starts with Fox News fuming over the latest presidential rankings from a survey of political scholars who specialize in presidential history. Those rankings once again have Abraham Lincoln in the top spot. It’s also no surprise who is riding in the historical caboose. Not only is Trump ranked dead last, he’s last by a huge margin. It’s bad. Like, way behind James Buchanan bad.

And to really get MAGA fans grinding their molars: Both Barack Obama and Joe Biden are in the top 15.

Shame. Shame.

How Trumponomics works

 

Ethics Watchdog group issues new report comparing Trump and Biden Administrations’ compliance with the law

Biden administration financial disclosures show strong pattern of compliance

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW)

Introduction (To read the full report, CLICK HERE).

Stark differences between Biden and Trump administration officials’ financial disclosures highlight a need for reforms of ethics rules. 

A review of senior Biden administration officials’ financial disclosures for 2022 shows a high degree of compliance with divestiture obligations, and even includes examples of cabinet members going beyond required divestitures. 

In contrast, several notable examples from both the Trump White House and Cabinet illustrate how officials were permitted to retain holdings that presented significant concerns about conflicts of interest and appeared to allow them to profit off of their public positions. 

To prevent future abuses, Congress should adopt legislation that bans the president, vice president, cabinet members and all senior White House staff from owning and trading individual stocks and from retaining personal interests in family businesses that could make them susceptible to influence-peddling. 

Oh, the horror!

 

Boosting the red hat market

By Pat Bagley