Accomplished Scalawags

Thursday, June 04th, 2026

Bill Bonner, from Gualfin, Argentina

‘The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.’

--Antonio Gramsci

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When the money goes, everything goes. And when the money is fraudulent at its root, it’s not long before every branch and leaf is contaminated.

But one of the wonders of a corrupt age is that the public doesn’t seem to mind. The voters are flogged, fleeced, and sent home in their underwear — and then, when the next election rolls around, they line up at the polling station and clamor for another beating. There is perhaps no spectacle in all of democracy quite so edifying as a free people demanding, with tears of gratitude, to be robbed again.

Politico:

Trump pardons real estate developer indicted under his own DOJ

Tim Leiweke was charged with conspiring to rig a bid to build a Texas sports arena.

Bloomberg:

SpaceX’s initial public offering will likely make President Donald Trump’s already wealthy administration even richer. Ten officials ranging from special envoy Steve Witkoff to Small Business Administration head Kelly Loeffler reported financial interests in Elon Musk’s rocket company or in xAI, the artificial intelligence and social media firm it merged with in February, according to their most recent public financial disclosures.

Alternet.com:

Trump Jr. made $1.8 billion on a startup that got White House-ordered funding

When the Pentagon announced a $620 million loan last year to a small North Carolina startup linked to Donald Trump Jr., defense officials and the company tried to tamp down suspicions of cronyism.

Interviews and Defense Department records reviewed by ProPublica show that the request to loan hundreds of millions of dollars to the firm linked to Trump Jr. was made by Peter Navarro, a White House adviser to President Donald Trump and a friend of Trump Jr.’s.

“The call came from the White House: We have to get this done,” the [source] said.

No capital allocator in his right mind would touch a deal blessed by Pete Navarro. The man is a monument to bad judgment, a walking museum of failure and muddled thinking, with a record nearly as gaudy as that of his patron in the Oval Office. But it would be unsporting to single him out. He is merely one barnacle on a very large ship, now riding very low in the water.

The political/business world of 2026 seems to have achieved a crescendo of con...a fortissimo of fraud. Like a carnival barker, it bellows from the highest platform — the White House itself — and bends down to whisper sweet come-ons to every bumpkin, yokel, and naïve lout who passes by.

The president’s family is said to have enriched itself by billions since The Donald was elected for the second time. An exact accounting is beyond us...and anyone else. Were the $6 billion put into Jared Kushner’s fund because foreign investors saw in his unblemished mug the makings of a money genius? Or because he is married to the president’s daughter? We don’t know...but influence peddling has never been such a thriving trade. And no one has ever had so much influence to sell as the 46th president of the USA.

Yet the truly astonishing thing — the thing that would have set Mr. Barnum himself back on his heels — is the temper of the marks. The people at whose expense all this influence is hawked do not merely tolerate the grift. They admire the grifter. They love him for it. A full third of the population — and we must assume a few among them can still add two and two without using their fingers — would ask for nothing finer than to be skinned, personally and lovingly, by the First Family.

Occasionally, of course, they suffer buyer’s remorse.

Those who curried favor with Trump by joining his Board of Peace, for example, may wonder what they actually get for it. MSN:

“Several countries that pledged billions of dollars have not actually given any money,” The Daily Beast adds, noting that it “has no real funding despite receiving billions of dollars in pledges.”

“Zero dollars have been deposited,” into the Board of Peace’s World Bank-backed fund, a source told the FT, The Daily Beast reports.

Those who bought into Trump’s Liberty Financial (run by crony Steve Witkoff’s son) may have their doubts too. The Funny Money Era seems to have bent the republic towards Trump...and here, in what must be counted among the more delicious episodes in history, Trump sells them — even funnier money! CoinMarketCap:

Investments in Liberty Financial have faced significant challenges recently. The company has experienced a $4.84 million loss across various assets, with its crypto holdings showing unrealized losses.

And even the luxury swag buyers may be less than happy, The Mirror:

MAGA supporter in tears after buying Trump watch

The poor man paid $640 for a MAGA watch. He then felt not only disappointed, but insulted. The watch came with ‘Rump’ on its face.

But these are mere glitches in the machine — stray pebbles in an otherwise smoothly grinding mill. By and large the griftees are delighted. They have found professionals at last, virtuosos of the swindle, and they stand in line with their mouths open, their wallets unfurled and their hats in their hands, happy beyond measure to have their pockets picked by such accomplished scalawags.

Regards,

Bill Bonner

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