Under this White House, almost everything has a price. A pardon came weeks after a $50 million job offer. Proximity to the president was promised in exchange for a donation. Policy favors went to the industry asked to write a billion-dollar campaign check. The buyers keep paying, the Trump family keeps collecting, and Americans are left footing the bill — including $1.6 billion in tax dollars for Trump’s vanity projects. This week’s roundup documents it all.
This Week in Corruption: A $50 Million Pardon Payday, Big Oil’s Billion-Dollar Return, and Trump’s D.C. Makeover
- A Billionaire’s Family Handed Trump’s Former Lawyer a $50 Million Contract. Weeks Later, He Had His Pardon: Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini wanted clemency after pleading bribery-related charges down to a misdemeanor. His daughter gave $3.5 million to Trump’s super PAC, and hired Alina Habba, Trump’s former personal lawyer, as general counsel of Concord Partners, a company the daughter had formed just weeks earlier with no public profile. The contract was worth $40 million, with bonuses that could push it above $50 million. Habba finalized the deal while still serving as U.S. attorney in New Jersey and as a senior adviser to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi. Weeks later, Trump pardoned Herrera. In Trump’s orbit, favors come with a price tag, and now the insiders are fighting over the receipts.
- Lawsuit Says Trump Illegally Pocketed Millions From a Foreign Government Through His Family’s Crypto Firm: A Circle shareholder sued Trump Thursday under the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause, which bars officeholders from taking payments from foreign states without Congress’s consent. The suit alleges Trump received more than $75.5 million after taking office from the sale of a World Liberty Financial stake to a firm backed by UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Trump allegedly benefited again when a Tahnoon-chaired UAE government fund used World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin to pay for a $2 billion Binance investment. The complaint ties those payments directly to official favors: Commerce approval of advanced Nvidia chip sales to an Abu Dhabi AI firm Tahnoon chairs, and conditional approval in August of a World Liberty trust bank co-owned by the Trump family and UAE government. The framers saw this exact threat coming and banned it.
- Trump Asked Big Oil for $1 Billion in Exchange for Policy Favors. He Has Delivered on Every Ask: In May 2024, Trump privately told oil executives to give $1 billion to his campaign, calling it a good deal given the tax and regulatory breaks they’d get in return. He promised to lift the pause on new LNG export permits, expand drilling in the Gulf and Alaska, roll back electric vehicle mandates and emissions limits, and ease FTC scrutiny of industry mergers. He has delivered on each, including repealing the endangerment finding that gave the federal government authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. A Brennan Center analysis traces billions in industry gains to those policies, including millions for oil executives personally.
- Eric Trump Helped Take a Gaza War Drone Maker Public. Now It Has a $40 Million Pentagon Contract: Israeli drone maker Xtend went public in September through a reverse merger backed by American Ventures, a firm that counts Eric Trump as an investor. Eric also invested personally. CEO Aviv Shapira says Xtend has supplied the Israeli military with 10,000 drones since the Gaza war began. The company just won a $40 million Defense Department contract and hired MAGA influencer CJ Pearson for communications. Shapira insists Eric has nothing to do with defense contracting, but Xtend joins a long list. According to a Washington Post analysis, the Trump brothers’ investments have produced at least $3.2 billion in government business.
- Trump Stacks a Federal Review Panel and Bulldozes a Public Park for a Course Designed by His Own Golf Architect: The administration installed four political appointees in place of career officials on the National Capital Planning Commission, which meets Nov. 5 to review Trump’s planned 250-foot arch. At East Potomac Park, Trump’s championship course would eliminate a road used by cyclists and runners, a playground, and a picnic area. It would also shrink a 36-hole public facility to a single 18-hole course with fewer tee times. The Park Service cut about 400 trees this month and has targeted 300 more, even as Todd Blanche’s Justice Department swore in court that no plans were final. Judge Ana Reyes said there was “no universe” in which the timing was a coincidence. The Interior Department won’t say what the project costs or who pays, and one estimate puts the seawall repair alone at $400 million. D.C. families lose their park so the president can have his showpiece.
- Trump’s Vanity Projects Have Cost at Least $1.6 Billion in Tax Dollars: A new report from the Center for American Progress looks at the $1.6 billion in taxpayer dollars used to promote the president’s image or personal brand and what that money could have been used for instead. From the gold-plated ballroom to his vanity arch to the Trump banners hung from federal agency buildings, this money could have covered wiping out debt on school lunches, fulfilling the disaster aid withheld from states with Democratic governors, and much more.
The pattern couldn’t be clearer: week after week, Trump and his allies treat the federal government as a tool for self-enrichment – burying accountability, rewarding friends with taxpayer money, and cutting deals that prioritize personal profit over national security. Want to follow and share these stories in real time? Follow Trump Affordability Campaign on X or Bluesky