How Donald Trump Has Perfected the System of Self-Enrichment.
Donald Trump, the president who once promised to "drain the swamp," has in truth created a new ecosystem – one in which corruption is no longer concealed but elevated to method.
Within just a few weeks, he announced plans to accept a Boeing 747 worth $400 million as a gift from the Qatari government – to be used as a replacement for Air Force One for now, and later as the centerpiece of his presidential library. At the same time, he is selling direct access to himself through a cryptocurrency bearing his name – $TRUMP – fueled by Chinese capital. In Saudi Arabia, his family is constructing a new Trump Tower.
It is not about America. It is about the money
All the chaos, the provocations, the institutional breakdowns – they serve only one purpose: to enrich himself. What looks like erratic politics is, in truth, a concerted strategy of seizure.
Trump is not only different from his authoritarian role models in Budapest, Moscow, or Ankara because of his shamelessness – he is the first Western head of state in modern times who does not conceal corruption but markets it as a sign of strength. Those who criticize him are hunted. Those who know him benefit. And those who know too much remain silent – because they are part of the system that protects him.
And the people? They watch.
A people that mostly remains silent, even as the corruption unfolds before their eyes. A people that has grown accustomed to the spectacle – to the roar of lies, the flicker of scandals, the constant sawing away at the rule of law. A people that has long ceased to name wrongdoing, because wrongdoing has become the backdrop.
Trump thrives on this silence. It is the stage on which he performs – as businessman, as outsider, as king. But in truth, he is none of these things. He is a profiteer of brutality, a plunderer of the common good. And his empire is built on the capitulation of a nation that has forgotten how to be outraged.
Silence is his accomplice. And corruption is his business model.
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