Trump & Cronies’ Top 10 Corruption Scandals

And how YOU are helping fight back -- Publisher's Roundup 53

“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

That famous line was at the center of the classic 1970s film Network – but it is also an apt motto for how my democracy litigation colleagues and I are responding to Donald Trump’s corruption in all its forms. According to the New York Times, there are over 600 cases defending the guardrails of democracy against his assault. We have 252 cases and matters at Democracy Defenders Fund and Democracy Defenders Action alone, with hundreds more by other organizations.

Building on those successes, the time has come to go on offense against corruption by Trump and his cronies. That’s why this week we at DDF, along with wonderful partners, filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s so-called “Gold Card” visa program. It is a blatantly illegal attempt to strip qualified immigrants of a path to citizenship while selling legal status to wealthy foreigners. Forget “give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.” Trump’s maxim is “give us your money, your oligarchs, your privileged few.”

Guess who made that lawsuit possible? You did, Contrarians! All profits from your paid subscriptions go to help support that and our other 251 cases and matters–like our huge win at the Supreme Court this week defending California’s Prop. 50 and counteracting Trump’s attempt to steal congressional seats. If you’re not a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one and joining the fight.

I cover the Gold Card case and nine other outrages in my updated top 10 list of Trump and his cronies’ worst corruption scandals – and of the pushback in the courts of law and of public opinion. There is nothing the American people hate more than corruption, and it has contributed to Trump’s historic unpopularity.

Since we published our first list in December, new schemes have emerged, and old ones have metastasized or featured shocking additional revelations of abusing power for personal or financial gain, corrupting the rule of law, and more. What follows is an updated list, reflecting both brand-new scandals and new developments in cases we flagged before. After you give the list a look, please keep on reading for our usual roundup of all our great Contrarian coverage this week.

1. The Epstein Files Cover-Up

The signature corruption scandal of the Trump administration remains Trump’s association with one of the most notorious child sex traffickers in history – and his administration’s refusal to turn over all of the files about the case so we can be certain we have all Trump-Epstein documents. The administration admitted it’s refusing to disclose about 3 million files, despite a law requiring their disclosure. The Department of Justice wants us to trust that it has good reasons for all that, but the place is run by two of his former defense lawyers, the FBI is helmed by an even bigger Trump loyalist, and they have acted like it too often for us to give them any credence. This scandal is not going away.

Current Status: Democracy Defenders Fund filed a complaint this week with the Office of the Inspector General about the missing documents, and we are litigating and investigating on multiple fronts. We will continue to pursue all legal avenues to ensure the complete release of all eligible files relating to the Epstein investigation, as required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

2. Selling American Residency to the Super-Rich

In September, Trump debuted the so-called “Gold Card,” a program that lets wealthy foreigners effectively buy permanent U.S. residency for a $1 million payment to the federal government. That’s bad enough, but consider this: Rather than asking Congress to create a new visa category, Trump simply ordered federal agencies to treat these massive cash “gifts” to the Department of Commerce as proof of eligibility for elite EB-1 and EB-2 visas. Those are categories Congress reserved for Nobel laureates, pioneering scientists, and individuals whose work serves the national interest. But these employment-based visas are strictly capped – so every Gold Card handed to a millionaire donor necessarily displaces a qualified scientist, engineer, physician, or researcher already waiting in line. (It is worth noting that all available EB-1 visas were granted September 8, 2025, with the cap resetting every year on October 1.) That means that Trump has effectively transformed lawful permanent residency into a luxury commodity, letting oligarchs buy into our country like they buy Ferraris and Picassos.

We’re not letting Trump auction off our immigration system without a fight. This week, we brought suit on behalf of a group of highly accomplished professionals – people who followed the rules, only to find themselves subject to being pushed aside by wealthy applicants who could jump the line with a seven-figure check. And remember: Congress — not the president — has the exclusive authority to set immigration eligibility and raise federal funds. The Gold Card program overrides Congress’s choices — both as to who qualifies for employment-based immigration and how and under what conditions agencies may collect revenue.

Current Status: We will see Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in court (and in the Epstein files).

3. World Liberty Financial

Trump’s crypto company, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), was near the top of our list when we debuted it in December – and things have only gotten worse. New reporting last week revealed that the “Spy Sheikh,” Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan — the United Arab Emirates’ national security adviser and one of the most powerful men in the Gulf – had quietly amassed a secret stake in Trump’s crypto venture through a web of investment vehicles designed to obscure his involvement. His hidden investment in Trump’s crypto business created an extraordinary conflict of interest: a foreign national security advisor with direct financial ties to the sitting U.S. president’s private enterprise. And it may already be paying off, as, months later, the UAE secured a deal for millions of the most advanced computer chips from American company NVidia, a “coup” for the tiny nation. The White House has denied any impropriety here.

Current Status: WLFI is flush with Gulf cash – but these revelations may make Trump’s crypto conflicts so unpalatable that there are consequences. Perhaps even the crypto industry PAC’s $193 million midterms war chest won’t be enough to get uneasy Democrats to vote for legislation creating a market structure for cryptocurrency without any checks on Trump’s ability to influence the market to his benefit.

4. The Meme Coin Grift

Trump’s meme coin represents perhaps his most brash self-enrichment scheme, one unlike anything we have ever seen from an American president. According to the website, the token is “intended to function as an expression of support for, and engagement with, the ideals and beliefs embodied by the symbol “$TRUMP“ — and not as an investment or security. But of course this slice of code was listed on various crypto exchanges and immediately surged in price. Since its launch, the coin’s value closely followed Trump’s announcements, with wild fluctuations. The president even hosted an exclusive dinner for meme coin “investors” who spent tens of thousands to buy the digital token. This access auction was a scheme so brazen — even for Trump — that it left ethics experts like us stunned. The White House denies any conflicts of interest.

Current Status: The Trump-dominated Securities and Exchange Commission has shown zero interest in examining Trump’s meme coin activities. This makes defeating the new crypto market bill even more important. We have been sounding the alarm, and our fight continues.

5. Tom Homan’s $50,000

With Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan back in the news as he took center stage in Minnesota’s ICE invasion, Democracy Defenders Fund this week expanded our investigation of his conduct. We launched additional FOIA requests about his alleged acceptance of a $50,000 payment from undercover federal agents posing as business executives. Homan has denied wrongdoing. But if Trump is going to thrust him into the country’s civil rights flashpoint, then we have to have transparency. A tape of the alleged payoff reportedly exists. Let’s see it. The secrecy surrounding these meetings raises the same fundamental question that follows so many Trump officials: Is government power being secretly shaped by those with money and access? The American people deserve to know what kind of person has taken control of immigration actions in Minnesota and whether he can be trusted to wield that power.

Current Status: If we don’t promptly get the materials we are asking for, we are prepared to pursue all legal remedies. If Trump and Co. don’t believe us, they should take a look at our 252 cases and matters.

6. The USD1 Binance-UAE Deal

Less than two months after Trump’s WLFI launched USD1, its stablecoin, a UAE state-backed investment firm announced that it would use USD1 to finance a $2 billion investment in crypto exchange Binance, which was then under SEC investigation. In May, Binance decided to list USD1 – and, days after the announcement, Trump’s SEC dropped its securities case against the exchange. And then there’s Trump’s treatment of Binance’s head Changpeng “CZ” Zhao. He pleaded guilty to money laundering in 2023 and got a Trump pardon this past October. The White House defended Zhao, criticized his prosecution, and blamed the Biden administration for creating a “war on cryptocurrency.“

Current Status: With last week’s latest revelations of the UAE’s crypto influence campaign with the “Spy Sheikh’s” role in WLFI (#3 above), it’s worth keeping an eye on this while we wait for the next shoe to fall.

7. Trump’s Qatari Boeing

In May, Qatar presented Trump and his administration with a $400 million Boeing 747, ostensibly to use as Air Force One — a present reportedly worth more than all foreign gifts bestowed on all former American presidents combined. As my colleagues and I noted in a legal complaint, the Trump administration is apparently illegally transferring nearly $1 billion from a nuclear weapons program at the Defense Department to retrofit the jet, a gross mismanagement of key federal funds. And it will barely have time in the air before Trump’s term ends and it gets “donated” to Trump’s presidential library for his continued use. Meanwhile, after the transfer, Qatar got a guarantee that the United States will defend Qatar through “diplomatic, economic, and, if necessary, military” measures and a new “military facility” for Qatar’s Air Force at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. Trump has defended the transfer of the plane as a legitimate “gift,” and the White House said that “any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws. President Trump’s administration is committed to full transparency.”

Current Status: We’re waiting for the Government Accountability Office to act on our complaint — but it’s hard to imagine a clearer conflict of interest.

8. Melania’s Amazin’ Flop

Amazon’s Melania film had its lavish Washington, D.C., premiere last week, and it went about as expected: a high-profile commercial event designed to elevate — and monetize — the Trump brand. Black carpets, media spectacle, and exclusive distribution through Amazon’s Prime Video platform were deployed to attempt to transform Melania Trump’s story into something in line with the $40 million Amazon paid for the rights. That was about $26 million above the nearest bidder, which raises questions about what Amazon was really paying for here. Unfortunately for Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Melania Trump, and director Brett Ratner (who was already having a bad day after surfacing in the Epstein files), the movie scored a putrid 6% on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviewers describing it as, “primarily a film about a woman walking into and out of rooms,” and an “unbelievable abomination of filmmaking.”

Current Status: Melania’s 6% rating leaves it in the rarified air of films like 1997’s Mortal Kombat Annihilation (4%), and 2010’s The Last Airbender (5%).

9. Trump’s Foreign Real Estate Boom

Trump is set to more than triple his foreign properties during this term, as real estate developers are working on at least 23 Trump-branded projects. These projects are a global feeding frenzy for foreign governments looking to curry favor with the president. To take only a few examples, Trump is building a hotel, golf course, and residences in Oman on property owned by the government. A Saudi real estate firm (with close ties to the Saudi government) is the Trump Organization’s partner in various real estate deals, including a new Trump Hotel in Dubai and a residential tower in Jeddah. In November, the Trump Organization announced a project in the Maldives with the same Saudi firm. The very next day, Trump met with Saudi Crown Prince and Jared Kushner buddy Mohammed bin Salman and announced an “Economic and Defense Partnership” with the kingdom. Hard to come up with better reasons why the Constitution prohibits the president from accepting foreign emoluments. When asked about possible conflicts of interest in the context of Trump’s then-upcoming trip to the Middle East, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that it was “ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit.”

Current Status: Each individual property may constitute an emoluments clause violation. We at Democracy Defenders Fund include leaders of the team that won multiple emoluments cases against Trump in his first term, and we ain’t playing. Watch this space!

10. Trump’s D.C. Renovation Racket

In the middle of the longest government shutdown ever, as federal workers were going without pay and standing in bread lines, Trump ordered the destruction of the historic East Wing to build a massive, $300 million-plus ballroom. And that’s only one of his Washington, D.C., personal vanity projects, which also include renaming the Kennedy Center after himself. When that caused artists and audiences to hemorrhage, Trump suddenly announced he planned to close the center for supposed renovations. We can’t help but wonder if it’s to avoid the additional embarrassment of no one showing up. Trump says he’s raised private money for both these renovations, but the ballroom donors include corporations that have received billions in federal contracts – and about a dozen facing federal enforcement actions.

Current Status: We and partners are litigating the Kennedy Center renaming on behalf of Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), with the government’s filing due on March 1. nd we are considering all legal steps to address the closing if it moves forward. Others are litigating the ballroom case, and initial signs point to a tough ruling for the White House.

I’ll periodically update this and my other Top 10 Trump trackers. So many scandals, so little time. And in each one, I will also cover the Democracy Movement pushback made possible by your paid subscriptions. And now for our usual review authored by my wonderful colleagues of all this week’s coverage at the Contrarian:

Attacks on the Fourth Estate

The Killing of The Post

Jen Rubin gave an obituary for her former employer and once globally essential news organ. “The layoffs are solely the responsibility of inept, incompetent, and inattentive ownership and management. It inherited a great American paper and left it in the rubble.”

Intimidating the Press

Erwin Chemerinsky wrote on the arrests of Don Lemon and Gail Fort as a textbook “part of the authoritarian playbook”: a clear escalation in Trump’s war with the press that should raise alarms everywhere.

The Face of Authoritarianism

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf analyzed how the Trump regime is using a 1994 law intended to protect women’s access to reproductive health against journalists. “Truly, this is the FACE of authoritarianism.”

Pressing Forward in the Face of Intimidation

Shalise Manza Young gave us the hidden-in-plain-sight linkage between the unconstitutional arrests of four journalists and activists: bald-faced racism. “Black journalists don’t have the luxury of looking away from the Trump madness.”

Election Interference & MAGA Reconstruction

The War of Southern Aggression

Michael Podhorzer gave us a (characteristically) brilliant analysis of MAGA’s long-term plan, in which everything from election interference to ICE terror is another front: nothing less than the Reconstruction – or Redemption – of the North.

Tulsi Gabbard Is Most Dangerous When She Needs to Be Useful

Brian O’Neill wrote on why the Director of National Intelligence’s cameo — during a raid on the state’s FBI election office — matters beyond Georgia. It’s the latest example of Trump’s loyalists competing to further undermine public trust in America’s institutions.

Trump FBI Executes an Electoral Smash & Grab

Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO of Fair Fight, joined Jen from Fulton County HQ as she gears up to help ensure that Trump’s election-meddling won’t work.

The Big Game (Now Served With ICE)

The Dangerous Spectacle of ICE at the Super Bowl

Jeff Nesbit wrote on the universally unwanted imposition of ICE on the Super Bowl. “Levi’s Stadium will no longer be just a football field — it’ll become a tinderbox where two levels of American law enforcement are on a collision course.”

Trump and ICE Have Overshadowed Super Bowl Week for the NFL

Carron J. Phillips wrote on the recurrent phenomenon of Americans waking up to poisonous politics and realizing (demanding) that sports are about more than sports. “How can we expect American athletes — particularly Black ones — to step up and help this country confront its problems, again — especially considering that America has never made an effort to protect them?

NFL Owners in the Epstein Files & Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Moment [podcast]

This week on the podcast, Pablo Torre discussed why powerful, wealthy figures are rarely held accountable in the United States and what Bad Bunny’s presence at the Super Bowl means in our supercharged political moment.

50 Years Ago, Up With People Changed Super Bowl Halftimes

Frederic J. Frommer gave us a welcome sunnier lens on Super Bowl Sunday, with a look back at “when a cheesy musical group of clean-cut youths took stage at football’s premier event.”

Fighting Back

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week we saw even more protests against ICE nationwide: Illinois, Texas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Washington, California, Missouri, Rhode Island, Tennessee: Americans coast-to-coast show no signs of backing down in the face of tyranny. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.

The Minneapolis Protesters are Showing What it Takes to Change Minds

Nat Kendall-Taylor wrote on what we can learn from the “narrative masterclass” being taught by Minnesotans demanding both individual accountability for ICE violence and systemic change for the politics that caused it. “This how moments become movements.”

How to Fight Trump’s War to Rig the Election, with Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries joined Jen to discuss how Democrats are fighting back on multiple fronts, including countering Trump’s attempts to manipulate the midterms, demanding ICE reform, Epstein accountability & more.

Culture, Cartoons & Fun Stuff

This week our cartoonists took on the demise of The Washington Post (The Darkness Descends, Michael de Adder; Death by 1,000 Cuts, Nick Anderson), what Bezos thought was worth more (Ready for Her Close-up, Nick Anderson), and the grim absurdities of ICE cruelty (Don’t Ask, Don’t Kill, RJ Matson; ICE Application, Jeff Danziger; Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling).

Musicians Speak Out in Defiance of ICE while Honoring the Many Voices that Make Us Great

Meredith Blake wrote on last week’s Grammy Awards, at which artists like Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish denounced ICE and celebrated those being targeted by the Trump administration – a stark and welcome contrast from the lily-livered Golden Globes.

The Librarians, Our Unlikely Heroes

Katherine Stewart heralded an upcoming documentary airing on PBS about some of democracy’s most stalwart defenders: librarians, who risked their jobs and their safety to resist the wave of reactionary book-burners.

Oven-Baked Parmesan Panko Crusted Chicken

Jamie Schler gave us an easy weeknight recipe and an evergreen message: happiness matters, whenever it finds us.

Contrarian Pet of the Week

Last but never least, meet Simone! Lorraine Forte’s tabby enjoys purring for Dad and “editing” for Mom.