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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump Looting Of US Treasury Officially Reaching 'Vault In Die Hard' Levels Of Thieving
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-looting-of-us-treasury-officiallyGary Legum
Thats because it was just a few days ago that we wrote about this. In the Trump era, the amount of grift, chicanery, legerdemain, jiggery-pokery, crookedness, and flat-out hanky-panky being used by Trump allies to suck all of Americas money out of our Treasury like a Galactus-sized Roomba is so vast and so constant that we cannot keep up. Oh, we wrote about one scheme on Monday? Well, now it is Saturday, a dozen new schemes by Trump insiders to clean out Americas bank accounts have emerged, and there will be several more by the time we finish typing this sentence.
Here is a big one, courtesy of ProPublica, which is doing some of the best journalism of the Trump era. It involves Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, a Republican consultant who worked on her last campaign for South Dakota governor, and a $220 million taxpayer-funded ad campaign from DHS that skipped the federal governments normal competitive bidding process because the agency deemed it part of the national emergency at the southern border.
Oh, did we mention that the Republican consultant, Ben Yoho, is married to fascist Chatty Cathy doll Tricia McLaughlin, who serves as Noems chief spokesperson at DHS? Well, consider it mentioned.
. . .
The next president is going to walk into the Treasury and find it resembles a bank vault post-heist. Even the copper wiring might have been ripped out of the walls and flown down to Mar-a-Lago.
Weep while your taxpayer dollars are being used to fund more criminal activities.
Irish_Dem
(79,899 posts)Outside of Moscow people don't have indoor plumbing.
How far with the American people fall after Trump is done looting the entire US?
Walleye
(43,845 posts)erronis
(22,689 posts)If the poverty/malnutrition doesn't kill them, the liver disease will. Mission accomplished (as W liked to tout.)
Stacey Grove
(156 posts)would give you a big, wide, toothless shit-eating smile for some free booze.
Irish_Dem
(79,899 posts)Guess they will find out the hard way the real plan.
Trueblue Texan
(4,197 posts)...and always will.
Justice matters.
(9,413 posts)And these stupid idiots believe them over and over because they "look" tough when they speak.
yellow dahlia
(4,607 posts)I started saying the Kleptocracy will be televised, shortly after the election. It is worse than I thought possible.
Irish_Dem
(79,899 posts)And much of it is being done behind the scenes.
We are only seeing a fraction of the theft.
yellow dahlia
(4,607 posts)Kid Berwyn
(23,014 posts)Steal all they can while destroying the country as fast as they can.
Initech
(107,463 posts)These assholes are going to kill us all.
Kid Berwyn
(23,014 posts)I'd say, "Give them a medal," but we would have to pay for that, too.
There's always hope, just as long as there's two of us who believe in democracy, Initech! Which explains their hatred and murderous actions.
Paper Roses
(7,617 posts)erronis
(22,689 posts)yellow dahlia
(4,607 posts)popsdenver
(1,569 posts)it was rumored that HE and one of his CABAL demanded a personal visit inside the vaults of Fort Knox. Probably just to look at all the Gold to satisfy his Gold Fetish, and know that some how he would be able to grift all of it.
I imagined him trying to corner the phony crypto market, switch the U.S. currency to Crypto, the government would then have to buy all the crypto to put it into circulation, and he would only accept the Gold in Ft. Knox as payment for the massive amounts of crypto he had accumulated. LOL
IthinkThereforeIAM
(3,281 posts)... who took it is the main part of the equation. They want crypto in fast... if Epstein had crypto, the money transfers/"investments"/extortion would be untraceable, ie... unseen and the parties unknown.
That is what these crooks are setting up. A crypto/ponzi schemer by the name of Benjamin Weiner is in deep doo doo for it right now in South Dakota, bilked at least one Iowa venture capitalist out of $4 million, among others.
"Judge Camela Theeler issued the order expanding the role of a receiver at the request of a court receiver appointed in August after multiple legal complaints from former investors of Benaiah and its founder, Benjamin Wiener, accused of bilking millions in a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme."
https://www.thedakotascout.com/p/fraud-investigation-into-sioux-falls
Walleye
(43,845 posts)Do any of the things that he does. He is obviously immune to any criminal prosecution. And he has no morality. Im sure he doesnt even know what the word ethics means. what did the damn Supreme Court think was gonna happen when they gave him this? Are people still giving him the benefit of the doubt? was it Mark Twain? It is easier to fool a man than to convince him hes been fooled.
erronis
(22,689 posts)Editing to exclude the non-RW toadies. Leaving only Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and the hand-maid.
(Wow, I don't think I've ever memorized the list of justices before this fraught time.)
Walleye
(43,845 posts)haele
(15,090 posts)Six of them are just frontmen for the Heritage Foundation and fellow travellers.
Initech
(107,463 posts)Because his 24/7 ass kissing propaganda channels and his social media shitfluencers convince them he is.
John1956PA
(4,839 posts)
pfitz59
(12,327 posts)Have a very Die Hard Christmas!
crud
(1,201 posts)I'm not going to list everything...impossible. But no matter what they do, from pardons, to no-bid contracts, to extra-judicial killings. It's political, or financial, or a coverup, always corrupt.
erronis
(22,689 posts)Now I do - at least understand a bit more.
Everything is pay-as-you-go. No long-term planning for future benefits and rewards. No stockpiling for those emergencies that do happen.
And, of course, all transactions in non-reportable, non-recordable hand-offs. Overseas in untraceable bank accounts or crypto - and better if the crypto market/exchange is controlled by the same crooks.
crud
(1,201 posts)"corrupt" in our news media because the news media is transa...er...Corrupt.
MineralMan
(150,652 posts)This is just generalities. What actually happened? What moneys were taken? How? By Whom? Where did it go?
I can't make any real information out at that link.
erronis
(22,689 posts)I agree that the hard reporting is not present. But it may never be if the transactions are cloaked, as they seem to be.
Knowing a tiny bit about DoD budgets, which were somewhat translucent, the stuff happening now is intentionally opaque.
MineralMan
(150,652 posts)to the truth. In fact, none of us will have any access to actual facts about any of this. We will have to wait and see what develops.
Farmer-Rick
(12,487 posts)Then don't care if the work gets done or not a lot of the time. Frequently the contracts are illegal in that they pay for illegal purchases, like campaign advertising or tearing down historical buildings with asbestos with no remediation.
But I'm sure there is a lot more going on including kick backs and bribes. But Justice Thomas and his right wing Nazi pals are just fine with it.
That kick back to Republicon Senators who were involved in the Smith investigation was in the "clean" CR bill. Also in the "clean" CR bill was the destruction of the cannabis market, the end to many food safety laws and of course the increase costs of healthcare.
MineralMan
(150,652 posts)The problem is compounded by the DOJ and FBI being in MAGA pockets. There is no real investigation going on and no reporting from investigations.
We simply do not know, in most cases, any of the details. That makes it almost impossible to draw valid conclusions from the misinformation or lack of information we have. Being aware of that should help us not to state speculations as facts, I hope.
Wiz Imp
(9,016 posts)This is a great example of classic investigative reporting which is totally missing from the mainstream media today.
https://www.propublica.org/article/kristi-noem-dhs-ad-campaign-strategy-group
On Oct. 2, the second day of the government shutdown, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived at Mount Rushmore to shoot a television ad. Sitting on horseback in chaps and a cowboy hat, Noem addressed the camera with a stern message for immigrants: Break our laws, well punish you.
Noem has hailed the more than $200 million, taxpayer-funded ad campaign as a crucial tool to stem illegal immigration. Her agency invoked the national emergency at the border as it awarded contracts for the campaign, bypassing the normal competitive bidding process designed to prevent waste and corruption.
The Department of Homeland Security has kept at least one beneficiary of the nine-figure ad deal a secret, records and interviews show: a Republican consulting firm with long-standing personal and business ties to Noem and her senior aides at DHS. The company running the Mount Rushmore shoot, called the Strategy Group, does not appear on public documents about the contract. The main recipient listed on the contracts is a mysterious Delaware company, which was created days before the deal was finalized.
No firm has closer ties to Noems political operation than the Strategy Group. It played a central role in her 2022 South Dakota gubernatorial campaign. Corey Lewandowski, her top adviser at DHS, has worked extensively with the firm. And the companys CEO is married to Noems chief spokesperson at DHS, Tricia McLaughlin.
IthinkThereforeIAM
(3,281 posts)... and it adds to the chaos they seem to love, "if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, then baffle them with B.S.".
markodochartaigh
(5,046 posts)they are so crooked you can just screw them into the ground.
E. Normus
(111 posts)skullduggery
Deminpenn
(17,299 posts)Last edited Sun Nov 16, 2025, 11:19 AM - Edit history (1)
but the dem party should be working right now to identify and detail all the taxpayer funded grift by individuals associated with Trump, friends of Trump, bribers of Trump, WH political appointees, cabinet members, the president and VP. The cost of actions such as firing and rehiring of federal employees, the rebranding the dept of defense, frivo;us and poltical prosecutions and lawsuits, etc, should also be compliled. Then financial sanctions can be applied to those individuals immediately upon a dem being sworn as president. Every dime of taxpayer money these individuals wasted or caused to be wasted needs to be paid back in full.
3825-87867
(1,806 posts)Remember when he questioned whether Ft Knox still had gold?
Lots of nice gold stuff in the Whitewashed House.
Can some House Member or Senator conduct a field trip to Ky and check to see if OUR gold is still there?
Asking for more than 77 million people.
Dave Bowman
(6,685 posts)
Javaman
(65,130 posts)We will wake up one morning to the headline that Fort Knox is empty
yellow dahlia
(4,607 posts)leftstreet
(38,868 posts)RainCaster
(13,385 posts)It's more grifting...
OldBaldy1701E
(10,225 posts)Anyone?
Anyone at all??
BlueWaveNeverEnd
(12,892 posts)kimbutgar
(26,826 posts)MW67
(87 posts)They support the way the people they elected are using ,Our tax dollars , point out the various and obvious ways they are lining their pockets , then remind them if they do support it or really don't care, they have nothing to complain about if the other side does the same in the future, same argument can be made for handing of DoJ , allowing campaign mega donors inside the sensitive areas of government , ECT.
eppur_se_muova
(41,009 posts)Faisal, the story goes that Faisal's first act was to send a messenger to the treasury to see how much money was left after Saud's lavishly self-indulgent excesses. The messenger returned and said "seventy-two!". Faisal was shocked -- after decades of multibillion-dollar cash flows from SA's oil, they only had $72 million in the treasury ?? Not millions, the messenger corrected -- seventy-two riyals. Eventually, Faisal was able to save the world's largest oil producer from bankruptcy -- and just try to imagine the chaos if he hadn't. We may find something similar becomes part of our national history before long.
OhioBack2Blue
(86 posts)....sorry no money for old or new programs. Same as it ever was.
xuplate
(160 posts)Rowdyag
(173 posts)Where did the $40billion to Argentina come from? Any sorta sane appropriation process (just for show).