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Welcome to Week Ten 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 first nine issues here and follow us on Bluesky and X for #CorruptionCalendar updates.
This week, unsurprisingly, the administration and its allies continued to enrich themselves at the expense of everyday people. As President Donald Trump and his family expanded their cryptocurrency ventures, Trump’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau actually sought to return money it had previously obtained from a mortgage lender that settled with the agency over claims of racial discrimination.
ADMIN CASH-IN
- Trump’s “Media” Company Becomes the Crypto Company It Was Destined to Be. Trump Media and Technology Group, which operates Truth Social, announced a partnership with Crypto.com to offer exchange-traded funds, which “are expected to comprise digital assets as well as securities with a Made in America focus spanning diverse industries such as energy.” Shares of TMTG jumped nearly 10% on the news. Trump owns 58% of the company.
- But Wait, There’s More! Trump’s World Liberty Financial Launches a “Stablecoin.” World Liberty Financial, a venture of the Trump family, announced Tuesday that it would be launching a stablecoin—essentially a cryptocurrency meant to track the dollar. The Trump administration, of course, regulates stablecoins and the crypto industry—an obvious conflict of interest. Indeed, Trump has already signed an executive order promoting the use of stablecoins, and he has expressed support for efforts in Congress to create stablecoin legislation.
- VP Sells Home for $170,000 Above Asking Price… To a Lobbyist and Federal Contractor. Forbes reported on Monday that Vice President J.D. Vance sold his home in Alexandra, Virginia for $170,000 more than asking price to Christopher Garcia, a former lobbyist, current government affairs consultant, and political appointee during the first Trump administration. Garcia is the current CEO of Health Supply US, a medical equipment supplier that has received $179 million in federal contracts.
- Happy Easter! (#Ad). The White House’s traditional Easter Egg Roll has long been privately funded, but this year, the Trump administration is reaching new heights by allowing corporations to actually brand the event. Companies can obtain “naming rights for key areas or elements,” “sponsor logos featured on event signage,” “custom-branded baskets, snacks/beverages, or souvenirs,” and more. It appears to be an opportunity for some new actors to get in on the latest craze of paying to have one’s brand image boosted by the White House.
CORPORATE ABUSE LET LOOSE
- CFPB Moves to Return Money to Mortgage Lender That Allegedly Discouraged Black People From Applying for Loans. In 2020, the CFPB—at the time run by Trump appointee Kathy Kraninger—sued Townstone, a mortgage lender, for racial discrimination. The company’s marketing podcast, which allegedly generated most of its business, repeatedly featured racist comments from its hosts, discouraging Black applicants from applying for loans. On Wednesday, the Trump administration decided to try to return to Townstone the money the CFPB had already received from the company as part of a settlement that the parties reached last year.
- The CFPB Is Supposed To Fight Corporate Abuse. Its Absence Is Already Hurting People. Last Friday, right around the time we sent out last week’s Corruption Calendar, the Progressive Change Institute came out with a video documenting a victim of Trump and Elon Musk’s illegal gutting of the CFPB. Terry Ouverson was defrauded out of more than $45,000 through CashApp and PayPal. Per Terry, “PayPal agreed to make restitution until the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was shut down by the Trump administration. I think it was the threat of having CFPB that motivated Cash App and PayPal to at least respond to requests or demands for reimbursement.”
- IRS Greenlights Tax Cheats. According to The Washington Post, Trump and DOGE’s mass layoffs at the IRS could decrease revenue collections by 10%, in part because the agency “has dropped investigations of high-value corporations and taxpayers … because it’s had to triage resources to keep internal systems operating.” (Read more about this in our latest newsletter.)
- Trump’s Attempted FTC Firings Leave Insulin Price Case in Limbo. The Prospect’s David Dayen has a great piece on how Trump’s power grab has made it so that there is no one to hear an FTC case against pharmacy benefit managers illicitly raising the price of insulin. President Trump attempted to illegally fire two Democratic FTC commissioners, and the two non-fired, Republican commissioners have recused themselves from the case. As Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya told Dayen, “Right now we have no idea what’s going to happen to that lawsuit that staff alleges is critical to help people get access to cheap insulin.”
- Boeing Looks for Leniency. Last year, Boeing reached a plea agreement with the Biden administration, agreeing to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and pleading guilty to defrauding the Federal Aviation Administration ahead of two plane crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. But now the company is seeking to downsize the penalties for a crime it already said it committed, apparently expecting the Trump administration to be a bit more friendly to the interests of corporate criminals.
- A Grim Milestone Reached. According to Public Citizen, the Trump administration has “dropped, withdrawn, or halted” investigations and enforcement actions against more than 100 corporations during its first two months. In the words of Public Citizen research director Rick Claypool, “Trump’s corporate pardons show the president’s true base is the billionaire executives and corporate elites lining up to indulge their greed at the trough of Trump’s corruption.”
- Studying Harmful Health Effects of Climate Change? Not So Fast, Says NIH. ProPublica scooped on Monday that the National Institutes of Health “will no longer be funding work on the health effects of climate change.” As Dr. Lisa Patel, executive director of The Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, told the outlet, “This is an agenda item for the fossil fuel industry, and this administration is doing what the fossil fuel industry wants.”
MUSK’S MALFEASANCE
- Musk Attempts to Buy Another Election. The Wisconsin Supreme Court race takes place on Tuesday, and once again, Elon Musk is paying voters. You can get $100 to sign a petition “in opposition to activist judges,” and on Thursday, Musk announced that he had given $1 million to a random voter who signed the petition (which had no mention of such a giveaway). Musk and his groups have spent over $20 million on the race so far. Musk’s Tesla also just happens to be suing the state of Wisconsin.
- SpaceX Routes Secret Foreign Investment Through the Caymans. Defense Contractors Typically Don’t Do That. An article from ProPublica this week revealed that “Elon Musk’s aerospace giant SpaceX allows investors from China to buy stakes in the company as long as the funds are routed through the Cayman Islands or other offshore secrecy hubs.” Out of 13 experts the outlet spoke with, 12 of them “said they had never heard of a U.S. company with such a requirement and could not think of a purpose for it besides concealing Chinese ownership in SpaceX.”
- Musk’s SpaceX Seems Likely to Receive Contracts From Musk’s Government. The New York Times’ Eric Lipton had a great piece this week noting places where Musk’s SpaceX seems much more likely to receive federal contracts than they were in, say, October 2024. In particular, Lipton notes that SpaceX is well-positioned to get taxpayer money from the Defense Department and NASA, while SpaceX’s Starlink could be tapped by the Federal Communications Commission and Commerce Department for their broadband initiatives. What’s more, the Federal Aviation Administration and White House have already installed Starlink satellite dishes. Congrats to Musk!
MISCELLANEOUS: SIGNALGATE’S SUGGESTION, THIEL’S TIES, AND FLAGRANT FAVORITISM
- Signalgate Signals That Trump Admin Will Flout Freedom of Information Laws. Much attention this week, understandably, went to Signalgate. But while the belligerence and incompetence has been duly noted, it is important to also note that the use of Signal (in particular, disappearing messages) by federal officials is inimical to the principles of open government. In order to hold the government to account, the public must be able to view government records, and thus the government must keep and maintain those records. So messages shouldn’t just disappear.
- One More Thiel-ite in Government. Peter Thiel is a far-right ideologue (he once wrote “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible”) with far-reaching interests in federal contracting. People connected to him through companies like Palantir and Anduril—the latter of which received a $22 billion contract from the Defense Department in February—are already all over the government. On Tuesday, the Senate voted 74-25 to confirm Thiel’s former chief of staff, Michael Kratsios, as director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
- Trump Poised to Cancel Federal Spending on Clean Energy… In Blue States. Of seven “hydrogen hubs” awarded funds by the Biden administration under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, Trump’s Department of Energy is looking to cut funding for four. Those four are all primarily within blue states, whereas the three that it is not looking to cut are all primarily in red states.
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.
A list of high-level career officials who leave agencies on their own accord, especially when the Trump administration forces them to choose between following the law or Trump’s illegal orders.
The material consequences of the administration’s abandonment of the public interest.
Public Health Trackers following the administration’s response to and management of public health crises, especially measles and bird flu outbreaks.