The New York Times recently published an article Are We Losing Our Democracy? where they looked at various signs of dictatorship or autocracy and whether we had crossed that line. (I also provided the text in a Facebook post for those without NY Times access). I am going to look at each segment in turn and provide my own thoughts.
#11 - Uses Power For Personal Profit
Authoritarians often turn the government into a machine for
enriching themselves, their families and their allies. Mr. Trump glories in his
administration’s culture of corruption.
A fallacy about the super-rich who run for public office that they have so much money that they can't be bribed. That story was told about Trump as he campaigned for the presidency in 2016. It's a fallacy because rich people don't look at their bank accounts and list of assets and at some point decide that they have enough. It's never enough. In some ways it's a method of keeping score. Or maybe it's simply greed. Trump has always found ways to enrich himself at the expense of those around him. When he was busy bankrupting casinos and his companies were losing money on real estate transactions, he always made sure that he personally got paid, even if the company that he was was running was failing. There's plenty of information available documenting this.
He openly uses the presidency as an opportunity to pad his
bottom line, in ways that range from the comically petty (like charging the
Secret Service up to $1,200 per night for rooms at his hotels) to the
shamelessly greedy (like the $40
million that Amazon paid for the rights to a Melania Trump documentary
or his recent demand that the government pay
him $230 million because he was investigated for breaking the law). He
solicits favors from foreign governments, including an
airplane from Qatar. His children also profit from their father’s position,
through real-estate deals, crypto, a private club in Washington and more. And
he rewards those who enrich them, recently
pardoning the head of a cryptocurrency firm who worked with the Trump
family.
In the first six months of this year, the Trump
Organization’s income soared
to $864 million, up from just $51 million a year earlier, according to a
recent Reuters analysis. It’s worth noting that recent Supreme Court decisions
have made corruption harder to police.
His second term has seen an expansion of his monetizing of the office. The Supreme Court decision effectively immunizing him from virtually any act, and Congress's unwillingness to remove him from office, even if they do impeach him, has emboldened him to turn the White House into an extension of his businesses.
And he doesn't even try to hide it any more.
More information in this NY Times article.
Part I - Stifling Dissent and Free Speech
Part II - Persecution of Political Opponents
Part III - Bypassing the Legislature
Part IV - Using The Military For Domestic & Political Purposes
Part VI - Declares National Emergencies Under False Pretenses
Part VII - Vilifies Marginalized Groups
Part VIII - Attempt to Control Information & The News Media
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