Donald Trump’s second term isn’t just a sequel to the chaos of his first. It’s something darker, more brazen, and more dangerous: a full-scale looting operation dressed up as governance. If his first term broke norms, his second is vaporizing institutions. The plan isn’t to lead. It’s to extract.
Let’s start with the meme coin.
Three days before taking office, Trump launched a cryptocurrency. $12 billion in value was wiped out. His family pocketed $100 million in trading fees. One of the top donors to the platform saw their DOJ case dropped after making Trump $56 million. If this happened in another country, we’d call it kleptocracy.
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Now add in DOGE—the Department of Government Efficiency. Created by Trump and effectively controlled by Elon Musk, DOGE claims it’s saving money. In reality, whistleblowers say its teams have raided federal agencies, disabled security logs, and stolen sensitive labor data. One even left a backdoor tool on GitHub labeled "NxGenBdoorExtract."
And yet the administration claims DOGE has saved $1 trillion. Fact check? Most of that was fake. They canceled contracts that never existed. They double-counted phantom cuts. But the lie worked. It flooded the headlines. The truth got buried.
Meanwhile, a tech startup with deep ties to Musk, Peter Thiel, and JD Vance—called Ramp—is being fast-tracked to take over a $700 billion government payment program. They’ve never held a government contract before. Career procurement officials are being sidelined so the money can go straight to loyalists.
This is not efficiency. This is extraction.
Oversight? Gone. Trump fired 18 inspectors general—the very people who investigate fraud, abuse, and government waste. In their place: yes-men, cronies, and ideologues loyal only to Trump. And if you think that’s the end of it, look at the IRS.
Trump nominated Billy Long—a former Congressman whose $130,000 campaign debt was magically paid off just after the announcement. The donors? Many had tax issues with the IRS or were connected to fake tax credit schemes. Long himself worked with some of those very firms after leaving office.
This isn’t just corruption. It’s a system of personal payoff and political protection. The very agency meant to hold wealthy tax cheats accountable is now being run by someone who benefited from them.
So how do they get away with it?
Simple: distraction. Every time there’s a scandal or a scandal brewing, the administration throws gasoline on the culture war. Trans bans. Immigration panics. Drag show hysteria. DEI crackdowns. Crime fearmongering. Book bans. Anything to keep the media and public attention off the actual theft.
While you're watching the outrage cycle about Maya Angelou being removed from library shelves, they’re handing $25 million contracts to Thiel-backed firms. While you’re doom-scrolling about shoplifting, they’re auctioning off federal land and gutting anti-corruption laws.
Peter Wehner called Trump “America’s Mad King.” He’s not wrong. But this king doesn’t just rage-tweet. He signs executive orders that hollow out agencies, fires experts during health emergencies, and directs an AI-powered, billionaire-led smash-and-grab of public resources.