Etiquette



DP Etiquette

First rule: Don't be a jackass.

Other rules: Do not attack or insult people you disagree with. Engage with facts, logic and beliefs. Out of respect for others, please provide some sources for the facts and truths you rely on if you are asked for that. If emotion is getting out of hand, get it back in hand. To limit dehumanizing people, don't call people or whole groups of people disrespectful names, e.g., stupid, dumb or liar. Insulting people is counterproductive to rational discussion. Insult makes people angry and defensive. All points of view are welcome, right, center, left and elsewhere. Just disagree, but don't be belligerent or reject inconvenient facts, truths or defensible reasoning.

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Trump's final descent into the moral rot of full-blown kleptocracy



A NYT article (not paywalled) reports the last step into total corruption of djt. He is now open to business with anyone or anything (corporation, criminal organization, dictatorship, etc.) that can pay him in exchange for a solid return from djt in return for an adequate payoff.

Trump Media Enters Deal With Crypto Trading Platform
The agreement will allow the president’s social media company to market investment products, including crypto, to retail investors through a series of exchange-traded funds

Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, which has become Mr. Trump’s main online megaphone, said on Tuesday that it had signed a binding agreement with a crypto trading platform and a newly created Florida investment firm to launch a series of exchange-traded funds, or E.T.F.s, by the end of the year.

The move to market E.T.F.s to investors is part of a strategy by Trump Media to generate a more reliable source of revenues after failing to attract sufficient advertising dollars to Truth Social.

In the deal, Trump Media will team up with Crypto.com, a digital asset trading platform with more than 140 million customers, and Yorkville America Digital, a company with ties to the founders of Yorkville Advisors, an investment firm based in Mountainside, N.J. 
Any investment products sold by the companies are likely to require regulatory approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is led by Paul Atkins, a business-friendly lawyer who was nominated by Mr. Trump. Republicans now hold a 3-to-1 majority on the commission.
Crypto.com and Yorkville America Digital, like djt and maybe many other corporations, have public track records of varying degrees of corruption. The MAGA/djt-corrupted SEC will approve the deal and the MAGA/djt-corrupted FBI and DoJ will not lift a finger. The DoJ disbanded its national cryptocurrency enforcement team, reducing or completely ending investigating cryptocurrency crimes. Shortly after Justin Sun, a crypto entrepreneur facing SEC fraud charges, invested $75 million in Trump's World Liberty Financial, the SEC suspended its investigation against him. The SEC has stated that memecoins fall outside their authority, effectively removing regulatory oversight from an area where the Trump family has significant financial interests (and link 1, link 2).[1] 



Crypto.com’s CEO, Kris Marszalek, has a documented history of fraudulent business practices predating his crypto ventures. Under his leadership at ENSOGO (a Southeast Asian e-commerce platform), Marszalek allegedly deceived investors and abandoned the company before its 2016 bankruptcy, leaving stakeholders financially stranded. Just 11 months later, he launched Monaco, a cryptocurrency credit card project that raised $26 million through an initial coin offering (ICO). Investors were promised rewards tied to the Monaco token ($MCO), but Marszalek abruptly rebranded the project as Crypto.com after acquiring the domain for $12 million, phasing out $MCO in favor of a new token ($CRO) at unfavorable exchange rates. In addition to that, Marszalek has other sleaze in his past including this from March 2025.


Kris Marszalek, one of djt's
fine crypto business partners

Congress will remain neutralized by corruption and paralysis. The MSM will mumble, fumble, stumble, bumble and generally be useless as usual, e.g., the NYT article content sucks.[1]

This media deal with Crypto.com expands djt's cryptocurrency interests. At the same time he has dismantled and gutted regulatory oversight of crypto. That creates multiple avenues for corruption through regulatory capture, policy influence, and direct financial benefit to djt and his family.

In my opinion, djt's systematic dismantling of cryptocurrency enforcement while his affiliated ventures receive investments from people previously under investigation constitutes corruption. The structure of these crypto deals creates opportunities for outside interests to buy favors by investments that used to be illegal campaign contributions. Now that ethical guardrails have been obliterated, there very likely will be unprecedented levels of corruption, self-dealing, and regulatory capture in the cryptocurrency industry and everything else djt can sink his kleptocracy claws into.


Footnote:
1. Reporting on this is split, negative, neutral, and positive. I am very negative, but IMHO for damned good, evidence-based reasons. I asked about djt's trustworthiness. I got an expected answer for expected reasons.
Q: You assert that all sources confirm Trump’s pro-crypto policies, but Citation Needed uniquely ties them to self-interest rather than economic strategy. What empirical or fact basis is there in Trump's public track record, including self-dealing, mendacity and criminality, to believe that he is significantly motivated by anything other than self-interest?

A: Donald Trump’s pro-crypto policies and broader political decisions are inextricably linked to a documented 50-year pattern of self-enrichment, rule-breaking, and institutional exploitation. This analysis synthesizes empirical evidence from legal records, financial disclosures, and behavioral analyses to demonstrate that self-interest—not economic strategy or public welfare—drives his policy agenda.

Self-dealing 
Trump Foundation Self-Dealing: The foundation admitted to IRS violations by illegally transferring assets to Trump or his affiliates, .... 8.

Trump University Fraud: A $25 million settlement in 2016 resolved claims that Trump defrauded students through deceptive marketing .... 8.


Presidential Conflicts of Interest
As president, Trump institutionalized self-enrichment through unprecedented conflicts:

3,700+ Documented Conflicts: CREW tracked over 3,700 instances where Trump’s official actions intersected with his financial interests, including foreign governments spending $16 million at Trump properties and federal agencies directing $3.6 million to his businesses 3 6.

Mar-a-Lago Commercialization: Trump filmed a Tesla commercial at the White House in 2025, days after Elon Musk donated $100 million to his campaign—a direct exchange of political access for financial support 7.
 
Criminality and Rule-Breaking
As of 2024, Trump faced 88 felony charges across four cases, including:

Election Interference: Conspiring to overturn the 2020 election via fake electors and pressuring state officials 2.

Classified Documents: Willful retention of national defense information at Mar-a-Lago and obstructing investigations 2.

Business Fraud: Falsifying records to conceal hush money payments 2.


Mendacity as Operational Strategy
Trump’s reliance on falsehoods—over 30,573 documented during his presidency—serves to obscure self-interested motives 4:

"Flood the Zone" Tactics: Adviser Steve Bannon advocated overwhelming media with disinformation to prevent scrutiny of individual actions, a strategy Trump employed during the 2020 election "Big Lie" 4.

Financial Misrepresentation: The Trump Organization routinely inflated asset values to lenders while deflating them for tax purposes, a practice central to New York’s $464 million civil fraud judgment against him 6.

.... more analysis .... 


Conclusion: Self-Interest as Governing Philosophy
The empirical record leaves little ambiguity: Trump’s crypto policies—like his real estate ventures, presidency, and legal defenses—are extensions of a lifelong pattern where self-enrichment supersedes strategy, legality, and public trust. From defrauding students to weaponizing regulatory agencies, his actions consistently prioritize personal gain, establishing a through-line that renders alternative explanations (e.g., ideological commitment to crypto) implausible without radical behavioral change. Until confronted with meaningful accountability, this pattern will persist as his defining operational mode. (emphasis added)

That sounds right to me.