THE ESCALATING CORRUPTION IN OUR ELECTIONS

The corruption of Trump and his cronies is omnipresent. The November elections are an opportunity for election and campaign contribution corruption. Trump is using government money in efforts to buy votes, while big campaign contributors get tangible benefits from the Trump administration.

SUMMARY: The corruption of Trump and his cronies is omnipresent. The upcoming November elections have become another opportunity for both new and old types of election and campaign contribution corruption. Trump has made multiple promises to give – and in some cases has delivered – government money directly to voters in both explicit and implicit efforts to buy votes. The linkages between campaign contributions and tangible benefits from the Trump administration are more numerous and blatant than in the past. Just 172 billionaires have spent $1.7 billion on the 2026 elections already.

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The corruption of Trump and his cronies is omnipresent and is happening through many different avenues. The upcoming November elections have become another opportunity for both new and old types of election and campaign contribution corruption.

In a new form of election corruption, Trump has made multiple promises to give – and in some cases has delivered – government money directly to voters in both explicit and implicit efforts to buy votes. He’s doing this far more brazenly and blatantly than any other politician I can think of in at least the last 50 years. Here are the most notable examples: [1]

In October, sent $90 to over 20 million seniors enrolled in Medicare. To pay for this, the Trump administration is diverting money from the $2 billion Medicare Improvement Fund, which is supposed to be used to improve Medicare services. The Trump administration’s rationale for making these payments is that “the best way to improve Medicare is to put healthcare dollars back where they belong – in the hands of our Medicare beneficiaries – and make coverage more affordable.”
In September, sent $500 to roughly 1 million Americans who were supposedly overcharged when they purchased health care under the Affordable Care Act during the Biden administration. (Note: Trump and Congressional Republicans terminated the subsidies for purchasing health care under the Affordable Care Act that the Biden administration had put in place. This led to health insurance costs increasing dramatically for millions of people and millions dropped their health insurance as a result.)
Will give $1,000 to all children born from 1/1/25 – 12/31/28 (i.e., during Trump’s second term) whose families open “Trump Accounts” on their behalf. These tax-free accounts, which others can add to, have also been called “money account for growth and advancement” or MAGA accounts. Wealthy individuals have pledged to help fund these accounts, which appears to be a blatant effort to curry favor with Trump. I received an email from the Social Security Administration on October 21 promoting the “Trump Accounts” and stating that they are available to nearly 70 million American children. (Note: These accounts were created by the July 2025 Big Beautiful Budget Bill that also cut food assistance, health care subsidies, and other spending that supported children and their families.)
In September, Trump announced that every American citizen would receive $5,000 if Republicans retained control of the U.S. House and Senate.

With an eye on the November 2026 mid-term elections, Republicans in Congress and Trump scheduled implementation of many of the spending cuts in the July 2025 Big Beautiful Budget Bill to occur after the election. In addition to the above payoffs, Trump has said on more than one occasion that Americans would receive a tariff dividend of at least $2,000 sometime in 2026. This appears unlikely to happen.

The more traditional corruption of campaign contributions and spending – traditional since the Supreme Court in 2010 allowed unlimited spending by wealthy individuals and corporations – has grown in size and explicitness. Perhaps most notable and explicit has been Elon Musk’s spending of at least $276 million in an effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress. (This is as of early October. Newer reports put it at $445 million.) Musk’s money comes from his ownership in a number of companies including Tesla and SpaceX. The value of his companies and his wealth is based on tens of billions of dollars of government contracts and subsidies. [2] (Note: As you probably remember, Musk spent at least $250 million to help Trump get elected in 2024 and was rewarded with effectively a co-presidency role and leadership of DOGE for several months, as well as with government contracts worth billions.)

Linkages between campaign contributions and tangible benefits from the Trump administration are more numerous and blatant than in the past. The Center for American Progress has tracked the contributions to MAGA Inc., Trump’s main political action committee (PAC), and the benefits donors have received. Overall, MAGA Inc. has raised over $400 million in contributions of over $100,000. Just 108 donors contributed 79% of this total (an average of $3 million each) and each one received a tangible benefit from Trump or the government. Here are some highlights:

65 donors of roughly $97 million benefited from regulatory actions affecting the companies in which they work or invest.
20 donors who along with friends and relatives contributed $88 million received appointments to government agency and advisory board positions; sometimes ones that had influence over the industries in which they work or invest.
7 donors of $79 million had investigations or enforcement actions terminated or reversed.
6 donors of $42 million received government contracts worth at least $11 billion.
2 donors who contributed $4.5 million were connected to presidential pardons.

An analysis of the industries that are contributing – and looking for favorable actions from the government – finds the following:

Crypto companies and executives contributed $88 million
AI and data center builders contributed $37 million
Fossil fuel companies and executives contributed $30 million
Nursing home companies and executives contributed $10 million
Health insurance and benefits companies contributed $6 million

This is just for MAGA Inc. So, both in terms of campaign spending and the corruption of Trump and his administration, this is just a tip of an iceberg. As of early October, the 15 billionaires spending the most on the 2026 elections have contributed roughly $1 billion (about $67 million each on average). The next 157 biggest billionaire spenders have spent a total of approximately $700 million. Over half of MAGA Inc.’s money is coming from these 172 billionaires. [3] These numbers have grown by hundreds of millions of dollars since this analysis was done and will continue to grow until election day.

For lots of good news see Jess Craven’s Chop Wood Carry Water blog’s most recent good news Sunday post here.

[1] Metzger, B., Edmonds, L., & Hennessey, G., 10/1/26, “Here’s all the free money Trump’s talked about giving Americans during his second term – and where it all stands,” Business Insider (https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-checks-free-money-status-doge-tariff-rebate-warrior-dividend-2025-12)

[2] Cox Richardson, H., 10/21/26, “”Letters from an American blog,” (https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-21-2026)

[3] Johnson, J., 10/7/26, “172 billionaire families have spent record $1.7 billion on 2026 midterms so far: Analysis,” Common Dreams (https://www.commondreams.org/news/billionaire-family-spending-2026)

STANDING UP TO TRUMP AND CORPORATE OLIGARCHS

Oligarchy Definition A small group of people having formal and informal power based on (1)wealth; (2) connections; and (3) privilege.

American oligarchs have spent 45 years and billions of dollars undermining democracy and skewing government policy in their favor. We need to stand up and make Trump and corporate CEOs understand that the long-term success of their companies and our country depend on the trust and support of us, their customers and voters. We did this in a big way with the reaction to media executives pulling the Jimmy Kimmel show off the air. We need to do it again and again.

SPECIAL NOTE: We need millions of Americans at the No Kings protests on October 18 in defense of democracy. Please support this however you can. You can find an event near you here.

(Note: If you find a post too long to read, please just skim the bolded portions. Thanks for reading my blog!)

(Note: Please follow me and get notices of my blog posts on Bluesky at: @jalippitt.bsky.social. Thanks!)

American oligarchs, i.e., wealthy individuals and their large corporations, have spent at least the last 45 years undermining democracy and skewing government policy in their favor by: (See this previous post for more details.)

Increasing, coordinating, refining, and hiding their spending of billions of dollars on election campaigns. They spent over $10 billion in the 2023-24 federal election cycle alone.
Spending billions of dollars on lobbying the federal government, currently to the tune of $4 billion a year.
Moving tens of thousands of people through the revolving door between jobs in their corporations and in the government agencies that regulate them.

These efforts have been very successful; their return on investment has been extraordinary. Trump and his anti-democratic, authoritarian, and fascist administration are the culmination of this work that has undermined our democracy and skewed government policies and our economy to favor the oligarchs. Examples of skewed government policies include the following.

The individual income tax rates on oligarchs’ incomes have been cut from 70% in 1980 and 92% in the 1950s to 37% today. Income taxes on income from wealth, i.e., long-term capital gains, have been cut from 28% in 1980 to 15% in 2012 but are back up to 24% today. Note that the tax rate on income from wealth (i.e., unearned income) has always been much lower than the tax rate on income from work (i.e., earned income). This benefits the oligarchs and entrenches and exacerbates wealth inequality. Furthermore, increases in wealth that aren’t cashed in aren’t taxed at all. As a result, the richest billionaires pay about 3.4% in income tax on their incomes while the average American pays 14.5%.

Corporate income tax rates have also been cut from 46% in 1980 to 21% today. Moreover, tax loopholes allow corporations many strategies to avoid taxes. In particular, multi-national corporations artificially shift profits to foreign countries with very low taxes. Corporations have also been allowed to move jobs to low-wage countries and to resist and undermine workers’ unions. Roughly one out of every three private sector workers was a union member in the 1950s; today it’s one out of every 15. [1]

Antitrust laws have basically been unenforced for the last 45 years. As a result, many sectors of the American economy are dominated by a few, large, monopolistic corporations. Reduced competition means corporations can raise prices, cut quality, and strong-arm employees. Deregulation has left consumers vulnerable to poor products and frustrating services.

All of this has led to 45 years of dramatically growing income and wealth inequality. The 50% of Americans with the least wealth now, collectively, have only 2.5% of national wealth (less than $23,000 each on average). The wealthiest 1% of Americans own 33% of national wealth (about $15 million each on average). Pay for CEOs is now 1,094% higher than in 1978, while a typical workers’ pay has only increased 26%. As a result, the CEO-to-worker pay ratio grew from 31 times a typical worker’s pay in 1978 to 281 times in 2024. [2] And CEOs now believe that their only responsibility is to maximize returns for shareholders; other stakeholders, including workers, customers, and communities, are not a matter for concern.

The oligarch’s successful assault on our democracy and public policies has resulted in many Americans losing their economic security, as well as their trust in government and democracy. Many of them don’t feel it’s worth voting because they don’t believe it’s going to make any difference. They believe government is controlled by special interests working to benefit themselves. These Americans are angry and fearful about the future. Therefore, they are willing to believe the lies that Trump tells them about bringing back their good jobs and wages. And they are willing to overlook his undermining of democracy.

We, American consumers, need to make corporate CEOs understand that the long-term success of their companies depends on the trust and support of us, their customers. We did this in a big way with the reaction to media executives pulling the Jimmy Kimmel show off the air in response to President Trump’s displeasure with him. We’ll need to do this again and again to wake up CEOs and to get them to focus on the long-term instead of pleasing the would-be dictator in the White House in the short-term.

The spinelessness of corporate CEOs in the face of Trump makes it clear that they “are poorly suited to be custodians of democracy or counterweights to presidential overreach.” [3] “Capitalism is compatible with democracy only if democracy is in the driver’s seat. … [Otherwise] It fuels despotism.” [4]

We, the American public, consumers and workers, must stand up for democracy and for its regulation of corporations and capitalism. Otherwise, we’ll continue down the slippery slope to oligarchy, authoritarianism, and fascism. We can stop this slide, as we did in the Jimmy Kimmel case.

I look forward to seeing millions of Americans engaged in the No Kings protests on October 18 and in many, many other smaller protests daily. Thank you for all you’re doing! Please keep up this great and important work to save our democracy!

Find an October 18^th No Kings event near you here and participate and support it in whatever way you can.

For lots of current good news see Jess Craven’s Chop Wood Carry Water blog here.

[1] Economic Policy Institute, retrieved from the Internet 9/29/25, “State of Working America: Unions,” (https://data.epi.org/unions/union_members_historical/line/year/national/percent_union_members_historical/overall)

[2] Gould, E., Bivens, J., & Kandra, J., 9/25/25, “CEO pay increased in 2024 and is now 281 times that of the typical worker,” Economic Policy Institute (https://www.epi.org/blog/ceo-pay-increased-in-2024-and-is-now-281-times-that-of-the-typical-worker-new-epi-landing-page-has-all-the-details/)

[3] Edelman, L., 9/23/25, “Why corporate leaders are appeasing Trump,” The Boston Globe

[4] Reich, R., 9/26/25, “Why are we so polarized? Why is democracy in such peril?” Blog post (https://robertreich.substack.com/p/why-are-we-so-polarized)