I’ve never seen anything like it in all my years of consumer reporting. The corruption, retibution, ignorance, destruction of the work of federal agencies, and hate of the first 100 days of Trump’s second administration are shocking and astounding.
Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization, agrees with me. Of the Trump administration’s first 100 days it says, “The Trump administration is arguably the most corrupt and lawless administration in this country’s history.”
Public Citizen has tracked the administration’s grift over Trump’s first 100 days in office. Here are the top highlights:
Appointees and nominees’ conflicts of interest
Donald Trump’s nominees for cabinet positions and other important political appointments are riddled with conflicts of interest. As was the case with Trump’s first administration, his second administration is handing people with clear corporate conflicts of interest – such as stakes in Big Oil companies, long corporate lobbying careers, and seats on major company boards – the power to regulate and oversee corporations.
Donald Trump’s meme coin: A scheme for self-enrichment
As Donald Trump encourages people to purchase his meme coin, Public Citizen has called for an investigation into whether Trump violated federal law barring the president from soliciting gifts. Worse yet, the meme coin can be purchased anonymously, allowing unknown actors, including potentially foreign governments, to direct cash into the president’s pockets. Trump even wants to host a dinner with the top buyers of his coin.
Trump-Melania/Amazon deals
Amazon is paying $40 million to license a documentary and a limited series on first lady Melania Trump. Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos was front row at Trump’s inauguration. Amazon Prime has also begun to stream Donald Trump’s old show “The Apprentice.”
Dismantling the CFPB
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, is a corporate watchdog agency that has returned more than $20 billion to American consumers from corporate scams and other wrongdoing since it was created 2011. The Trump administration’s move to dismantle the CFPB is a transparent attempt to undermine corporate accountability and to facilitate corporate exploitation – making the rich richer at the expense of ordinary Americans.
Watchdog wipeout
The Trump administration has fired more than a dozen inspectors general – government watchdogs whose job it is to root out fraud, waste, and government corruption. Public Citizen Democracy Advocate Jon Golinger called it “a watchdog wipeout cooked up by corporate lobbyists that knocks down the walls that keep corruption from running rampant.”
Ending corporate enforcement
The Trump administration has dropped, withdrawn, or halted investigations and enforcement actions against more than 100 corporations in its first two months in office, Public Citizen has found. Dropped and halted cases include scores of investigations and lawsuits against alleged financial rip-offs, crypto violations, foreign bribery, environmental harms, civil rights violations, and workplace discrimination. Corporations facing federal enforcement actions donated at least $50 million to Trump’s inauguration.
$1 Million-a-Plate candlelight dinner with Elon Musk
The White House hasn’t released the guest list of the Million Dollar-a-Plate candlelight dinners Donald Trump held at his Florida estate. In addition to attendee Elon Musk, the guests could be other government favor-seekers such as federal contractors or the CEOs of companies previously under investigation until the Trump administration stopped enforcement.
FTC firings
President Donald Trump unlawfully fired the two Democratic commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission or FTC. As Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert said, “The only purpose of such a move is to further neuter the FTC, leaving giant corporations free to cheat and scam, imperil our privacy, and grow their monopoly power.”
Trump’s executive orders: Corporate profits before the public good
If there is one consistent theme in so many of Trump’s executive orders, it’s that they all seem tilted to yield more space for corporate exploitation and make less room for accountability. This ranges across a wide spectrum of issues, from undermining the independence of government agencies to boosting fossil fuel production at the expense of the environment and the planet.
Final thoughts
Through the years, I’ve appreciated the actions of consumer groups that work for the public interest in an economy where consumers don’t join together to use their marketplace power. The group’s work is so much more important now that we have corrupt fraudsters running the federal government.
