Among many instances of blatant corruption, this week saw huge gains for Trump’s crypto firm and huge losses for the EPA’s scientific research arm.
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Welcome to Week Nine of the Revolving Door Project’s Corruption Calendar, where we highlight examples of corporate corruption shaping the Trump administration’s agenda and their material impact on everyday people. Read our inaugural issue here and follow us on Bluesky and X for #CorruptionCalendar updates.
This week, the Trump administration continued to dismantle the administrative state while enriching the small group of oligarchs who have solicited his patronage. With a new review of quarterly reports indicating that enforcement is down across regulatory agencies, new attempted Trump firings have hit more agencies ranging from the research arm of the EPA to the commissioners of the FTC. This week’s stories highlight how Trump’s (often illegal) weaponization of federal authority and high-level political corruption go hand in hand for this administration.
- Trump’s World Liberty Financial Announced $250 Million In Token Sales. On Tuesday, WLFI announced that it had raised $250 million in its second token sale, which means that it has sold $550 million tokens so far. World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is a crypto firm founded and owned by the Trump and Witkoff families. Trump and his business partners will receive 75% of these revenues after expenses. But, these WLFI tokens don’t seem to have any real use… other than for political corruption and fraud. Case in point: after crypto-swindler Justin Sun bought $75 million of these pixels, Trump’s SEC started exploring a resolution to a high-profile lawsuit against him. Where else might that $550 million have come from?
- Enforcement Across Regulatory Agencies Dropped After Trump 2.0. In a move sure to embolden corporate wrongdoing across the board, watchdog group Good Jobs First found that federal enforcement actions under Trump have “grind[ed] nearly to a halt.” Since the start of Trump 2.0, the Department of Labor has seemingly stopped enforcement activity across their offices completely. The SEC has only announced seven enforcement actions, and the EPA and FTC have both only announced one. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has cut its anti-discrimination regulation in half, halting enforcement of anti-discrimination laws. The DOJ has paused investigations under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Finally, while the OSHA and MSHA have continued to report new enforcement actions, they have stopped releasing news updates.
- The EPA Issued Plans To Cut Its Scientific Research Arm. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin reportedly “wants to eliminate 65 percent of the agency’s budget.” A reduction-in-force plan presented to the White House last week would dismantle the Office of Research and Development, which conducts independent research crucial to the EPA’s environmental policies, from “analyzing the risks of ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water to determining the best way to reduce fine particle pollution in the atmosphere.” Importantly, the EPA has already been suffering from severe staff shortages for years.
If we the people never learn that corporate America is polluting us because there are no scientists to investigate, corporate elites won’t be bothered with pesky lawsuits or even annoying news reports!
- In A Giveaway to Corporations, Trump Tried To Illegally Fire Two FTC Commissioners. Democratic commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter both helped former chair Lina Khan crank up FTC enforcement. As an independent agency, the FTC’s board members should be protected from removal under a 1935 Supreme Court precedent that bars firing over policy disagreements. In response to the firings, our Executive Director Jeff Hauser made the following statement: “As antitrust enforcement dies out and a handful of corporations accumulate even more economic power, Americans will only have one person to blame for the new fraud economy: Donald Trump.”
- The FTC Removed Business Guidances Issued To Amazon, Microsoft, And Artificial Intelligence Companies. Wired reported that the FTC removed blog posts which provided legal guidelines to large tech companies. Trump’s FTC deleted hundreds of blogs, including many that provided guidance on Amazon and Microsoft’s alleged violations of privacy and consumer protection laws. Other blogs detailed how AI companies can avoid violating FTC rules that outlaw unfair or deceptive products. The removal is a win for tech companies who were under regulatory scrutiny and spent millions supporting Trump. It is also a particular win for Amazon, which disagreed with the FTC in the lawsuits from which some of the guidelines originated.
- A Top Commerce Official Resigned While Warning That Trump Will Enrich Musk With Broadband Contracts. The Commerce official, Evan Feinman, told the Financial Times that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick “mentioned Musk by name, he asked if we had been talking with Elon,” when reviewing the receivers of federal contracts. Feinman was in charge of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, a $42.5 billion broadband development program meant to build out broadband infrastructure across the country. Lutnick has proposed a “vigorous review of BEAD.” Since Musk owns Starlink, a satellite broadband service, Lutnick’s “review” could redirect federal subsidies to him. Feinman also warned the Trump administration could halt BEAD’s progress in states including Louisiana, Delaware, Nevada, and West Virginia.
- The Next NLRB General Counsel Might Come From A Notorious Union-Busting Law Firm That Represents Amazon. Our friends at The Prospect reported this week that Trump will likely select Morgan Lewis attorney Crystal Carey as NLRB general counsel. Morgan Lewis is notorious for union-busting and is currently defending Amazon in an antitrust case. It previously represented Trader Joes in its lawsuit that alleges the structure of the NLRB is unconstitutional. It has a long history of union-busting and consistently advocates for anti-union tactics in NLRB union elections. Carey herself joined Morgan Lewis after a stint at the NLRB back in the first Trump admin.
- Trump Rewarded His Co-Defendant In Classified Documents Case With A Cushy Post. Though the case was dropped, Trump faced a criminal lawsuit for allegedly refusing to return classified documents after leaving office. Prosecutors named Walt Nauta in the case for “moving boxes out of a Mar-a-Lago storage room before and after the National Archives and Records Administration asked Trump to return boxes that contained classified documents.” Nauta pleaded not guilty to federal charges, and Trump’s DOJ dropped the case against him. Now, Trump picked him to lead the Naval Academy, where he will be in charge of the developing new Naval trainees “morally, mentally, and physically.”
- National Park Service For Me, But Not For Thee. Public Domain reviewed records showing that at least three NPS probationary employees at the White House, including park guides, were exempted from mass firings specifically because they worked at the White House. Trump fired nearly 1,000 workers from the National Park Service in February. In other words, Trump fired National Park Service workers who serve normal Americans, but made sure that his lawn would still have his gardeners and maintenance staff.
- The White House Installed Starlink Across Its Campus. Elon Musk has reportedly donated Starlink terminals to the White House. A White House data center will route them from a complex miles away. This follows previous reports suggesting that the General Services Administration installed Starlink. Starlink, as well as other Musk companies, have an array of contracts and regulatory matters decided by the Federal government. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt claimed Starlink would improve Wifi connectivity at the federal campus. According to the New York Times, however, it is unclear whether “Starlink internet service will significantly expand wireless internet capacity in buildings where fiber cables already provide access.”
- JD Vance Gave Speech At A Summit Dedicated To Boosting Andreessen Horowitz’s Involvement In Defense Technology. JD Vance spoke at a summit hosted by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz on Tuesday. The firm aims to expand investments in sectors that often profit from lucrative government contracts, such as defense. Andreessen and Horowitz both donated lavishly to Trump’s election campaign. As a former Peter Thiel employee, Vance comes from the same Silicon Valley venture capitalist milieu as Andreessen. Andreessen Horowitz is invested in a number of companies developing defense and aerospace technologies as well as defense contractors like Anduril. A blog posted ahead of the summit was titled “DoD Contracting for Startups 101.” As the title suggests, it is a step-by-step guide to apply for government contracts.
- Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s Hedge Fund, Cantor Fitzgerald, Bought A $1.5 Billion Stake In Strategy. Following the White House’s crypto summit in early March, Cantor Fitzgerald has bought a colossal $1.5 billion stake in MicroStrategy. Recently renamed “Strategy”, the firm holds more Bitcoin than any other corporation in the world. Cantor is reportedly leveraging Lutnick’s seat at commerce “as hard as they can,” driven by a “Trump halo around Cantor.” Despite formally divesting his business ties to his son, Lutnick’s “grip on his various businesses is bolted tight”, according to reporting from Bloomberg.
- Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Announced The SEC Is Dropping Its Case Against The Firm. The CEO of Ripple, a crypto digital payments company, announced the SEC dropped a years-long lawsuit against the company. According to Business Insider, the SEC dropping the case against Ripple would mean that the Crypto market would see “one of its biggest regulatory hurdles cleared away.” In its 2019 lawsuit, the SEC had alleged the company illegally raised $1.3 billion through unregistered sales of its token, $XRP. The SEC’s move follows the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to pause investigations and drop cases against Crypto firms.
We are continuously updating resources to keep you up to date on Trump and Musk’s all-out assault on everyday people and the Constitution.
This includes:
No Corporate Cabinet, a central hub documenting corporate corruption and conflicts of interest among those jockeying for power in the Trump administration. We’ve published profiles on Trump nominees like Paul Atkins, Linda McMahon and Chris Wright – check back for more profiles in the days to come.
Our tracker of the Trump administration’s failure to comply with court orders, and the programs and services being disrupted by its non-compliance. We are also tracking the actions judges take to attempt to enforce their orders.
A list of all of the individuals who have ever been reported to be affiliated with Elon Musk’s DOGE, with links to the original reporting.
Profiles of the agents behind DOGE attacks, including conflicts of interest that might make their unfettered access to the federal government dangerous to the public.
A list of the agencies that DOGE has visited, keeping you up to date on what Elon Musk is looking to illegally gut.
An aviation tracker of administration attacks on air safety.
Agency Spotlight—Our tracker of appointments to leadership positions at thirty-nine federal independent agencies.