{"id":1055488,"date":"2025-08-05T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1055488"},"modified":"2025-08-06T07:30:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T11:30:38","slug":"cashing-in-and-covering-up-trump-and-his-fellow-grifters-rake-in-millions-off-the-american-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/cashing-in-and-covering-up-trump-and-his-fellow-grifters-rake-in-millions-off-the-american-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Cashing In and Covering Up: Trump and His Fellow Grifters Rake In Millions Off the American People\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Donald Trump has moved from one corruption scandal to another. Whether it\u2019s selling White House access and influence to the highest bidder, using nuclear safety funding to refurbish his $400 million private jet gift from a foreign nation, billionaire donors footing the bill and currying favor over White House renovations, or doing favors for Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s chief accomplice, it\u2019s clear that there\u2019s no limit to Trump\u2019s corruption. Whether it\u2019s him, his staff, or his family members \u2014 Trump and his cronies are cashing in on the White House, leaving no grift behind and making history for their levels of corruption. Trump won\u2019t hesitate to sell out the American people to line his own pockets, and everyone knows it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAY-TO-PLAY: The contract for Donald Trump\u2019s excessive<\/strong> $200 million ballroom<\/strong><\/a> \u2014 and up to $1.5 billion more in defense contracts \u2014 was awarded to a client of his Chief of Staff\u2019s lobbying firm and one of Trump\u2019s top campaign donors.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5 AECOM was awarded the contract to build Trump\u2019s extravagant $200 million ballroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5 AECOM paid Ballard Partners \u2014 White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles\u2019 former employer and a top Trump fundraiser\u2019s firm \u2014 to lobby the White House. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5 AECOM has received numerous federal contracts since the start of the Trump administration, including an Air Force contract worth up to $1.5 billion and at least two major contracts from the Army Corps of Engineers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CORRUPT CONTRACTS: Trump is awarding Anduril \u2014 whose owners are major Trump donors \u2014 a big chunk of the <\/strong>$6 billion worth of contracts<\/strong><\/a> for border security. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5 Trump\u2019s budget has $6 billion for border security upgrades<\/strong> \u2014 a lot of which is going towards autonomous surveillance towers. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5 Anduril is likely to get 100% of the contracts<\/strong> for surveillance towers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5 Anduril was founded by<\/strong> Palmer Luckey and backed by Peter Thiel, two billionaires who have been major supporters of Trump. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NUCLEAR OPTION:<\/strong> Trump accepted a <\/strong>$400 million luxury jet<\/strong><\/a> from Qatar, and American taxpayers will foot the bill for its renovations \u2014 even though the administration is trying to bury those costs. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5 <\/strong>Officially, and conveniently, the price tag of retrofitting Trump\u2019s jet has been classified.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5  Trump transferred $934 million from one of the Pentagon\u2019s modernization of America\u2019s nuclear missile sites to pay for his jet.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FAMILY BUSINESS:<\/strong> Donald Trump Jr.\u2019s drone company will <\/strong>massively benefit<\/strong><\/a> from his father\u2019s expansion of the drone program. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5 President Donald Trump\u2019s military procurement policies<\/strong>, defense budget, and recently passed government budget, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, includes $1.4 billion dollars for small drone production \u2014 where Unusual Machines has been making big investments.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACCOMPLICE-IN-CHIEF:<\/strong> Two days after Jeffrey Epstein accomplice and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell met with Trump\u2019s personal lawyer, she was <\/strong>quietly moved to a \u201cless restrictive\u201d<\/strong><\/a> facility. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5 Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell was moved from a federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5 Maxwell was moved a week after she met with Todd Blanche<\/strong>, a senior Justice Department official and one of President Trump\u2019s former lawyers.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump has moved from one corruption scandal to another. Whether it\u2019s selling White House access and influence to the highest bidder, using nuclear safety funding to refurbish his $400 million private jet gift from a foreign nation, billionaire donors footing the bill and currying favor over White House renovations, or doing favors for Jeffrey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1055488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCashing In and Covering Up: Trump and His Fellow Grifters Rake In Millions Off the American People\u00a0 - Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/cashing-in-and-covering-up-trump-and-his-fellow-grifters-rake-in-millions-off-the-american-people\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-05T21:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-06T11:30:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1101\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adrianna Tomasello\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adrianna Tomasello\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/cashing-in-and-covering-up-trump-and-his-fellow-grifters-rake-in-millions-off-the-american-people\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/cashing-in-and-covering-up-trump-and-his-fellow-grifters-rake-in-millions-off-the-american-people\/\",\"name\":\"Cashing In and Covering Up: Trump and His Fellow Grifters Rake In Millions Off the American People\u00a0 - 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