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.

(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 see my blog posts on Bluesky at: @jalippitt.bsky.social. Thanks!)

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)

BILLIONAIRES ARE ALREADY BUYING THE 2026 ELECTIONS

SUMMARY: Billionaires are already spending record amounts of money on 2026 election campaigns. Most of this money flows through Political Action Committees (PACs) and goes to Republicans. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and state Democratic committees should ban PAC money from their primary elections because it distorts election results, perverts governments’ policies, and drowns out the voices of working people.

(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!)

One of the problems with great economic inequality in a democracy is that the wealthy will find a way to buy policy decisions and enforcement that favor them. It can be through outright bribes. Or it can be more subtle. Our campaign finance system effectively lets the wealthy buy candidates. First, candidates without access to wealthy people’s money generally don’t even bother to run because they don’t have a chance. Second, during the campaign, wealthy donors fund and support candidates who will do their bidding once elected. Once in office, those elected want to get re-elected, so they curry favor with wealthy donors by supporting policies donors favor to ensure their funding for re-election campaigns.

Although U.S. campaign finance laws limit the amount an individual can give directly to a candidate or a political party, the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision allows unlimited spending by super Political Action Committees (PACs). PAC spending is supposed to be independent of the candidate being supported, but the rules on independence are ignored and unenforced.

Therefore, much of the billionaires’ money flows through PACs. Nine of the eleven richest PACs fund Republican campaigns. Trump’s MAGA Inc. PAC leads the way with $89 million from billionaires. Musk’s America PAC is second at $45 million. The Senate and House PACs for Republicans have received a combined $66 million while those for Democrats have received $37 million. The other five richest PACs all fund Republicans and have between $15 and $10 million.

Billionaires are willing to spend lots of money on campaigns (or bribes) because the return on their investment is huge. A few million dollars can buy them tax cuts worth billions as the Republicans 2017 tax cut bill and the 2025 so-called One Big Beautiful Bill did. The wealthy’s campaign spending also buys them deregulation or contracts for their businesses that are worth billions. In the 2024 federal elections, billionaires accounted for almost 20% of all campaign spending. [1]

Grassroots organizing that gets lots of people to vote and educates them to distrust the advertising they see and hear from wealth-backed candidates can beat billionaires’ money, but it takes lots of work. Public matching funds for small donations to campaigns coupled with links to limits on donation size also make a huge difference as Mayor Mamdani’s campaign in New York City demonstrated. (See this previous post for more information.) Democracy is NOT a spectator sport. It takes work, participation, and voters who are paying attention and not believing the lies of wealth-backed candidates like Trump.

American billionaires are already spending big on the 2026 elections. As of March 1, the 50 highest spending billionaire families had already spent over $400 million on 2026 election campaigns. At this rate they will exceed the record for a non-presidential election and spend over $1 billion by election day. Not surprisingly, 80% of this money is going to Republican candidates or groups because Republicans have been the ones at the forefront of pushing policies that favor the wealthy. This is obscene and undemocratic. This is why we have an oligarchy running our government. [2]

Twelve of the top thirteen billionaire families have given money exclusively to Republicans. The Musk family leads the way at $71 million followed by the Yass family at $55 million and the Brockman family at $25 million. The next ten families have given between $10 million and $16 million each with the one Democratic donor at $13 million.

This is why we must change our tax laws to reduce the wealth of billionaires. (See this previous post for specifics.) They are so rich that they can afford to spend essentially unlimited amounts of money to corrupt our democracy to serve their interests, i.e., to make it an oligarchy. High levels of wealth lead inexorably to concentrated political power. [3] As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote almost 100 years ago, “We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”

Please contact your U.S. Representative and Senators to ask them to support a fairer tax system that taxes wealth and transfers of it. [4]

In addition to the billionaires, special interest groups are also already spending big money on the 2026 elections. Some of these special interest PACs split their money between Republicans and Democrats because they want to buy influence with both parties. A current example is the crypto industry. Its primary PAC, called Fairshake, has already raised $133 million. The vast majority of this comes from two billionaire-backed companies, Ripple and Coinbase. The crypto industry also spent heavily in the 2024 elections and some of the corrupt influence its spending bought is readily apparent. The Trump administration dropped thirteen charges for security law violations against Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange and pardoned its billionaire founder. The crypto industry has been pushing Congress, successfully so far, to leave the crypto industry largely unregulated and the beneficiary of tax loopholes.

Billionaires and special interest PACs spend money in Democratic primaries, often to defeat candidates who strongly oppose their policy interests and sometimes to support candidates who support their interests. The crypto industry has done this frequently, as have the AI industry and pro-Israel interests.

This is why my previous post called for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and state Democratic committees to ban super PAC and dark money (i.e., money where the true donor is unidentified) from their primary elections. A coalition of four Democratic Senators (Merkley [D-OR], Warren [D-MA], Welch [D-VT], and Van Hollen [D-MD]) and Independent Sanders (VT) are pushing Democrats and the DNC to ban money from billionaire- and corporate-backed PACs from Democratic primary elections. They noted in a letter to the DNC that unlimited PAC spending will “distort our elections and drown out the voices of working people.” [5]

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

[1] Johnson, J., 3/25/26, “‘Modern-day royalty’: 50 billionaire families have already pumped over $430 million into midterms,” Common Dreams (https://www.commondreams.org/news/billionaire-spending-2026-midterms)

[2] Americans for Tax Fairness, 3/25/26, “No Kings – No billionaire kingmakers either,” (https://americansfortaxfairness.org/billionaire-kingmakers/)

[3] Bivens, J., 11/17/25, “Raising taxes on the ultrarich,” Economic Policy Institute (https://www.epi.org/publication/raising-taxes-on-the-ultrarich-a-necessary-first-step-to-restore-faith-in-american-democracy-and-the-public-sector/)

[4] You can find contact information for your US Representative at http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ and for your US Senators at http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.

[5] Prager, S., 4/27/26, “Bernie Sanders lead Senators in demand to end super PACs in Democratic primaries,” Common Dreams (https://www.commondreams.org/news/sanders-dnc-dark-money)

WHAT DEMOCRATS SHOULD BE DOING

Democrats should be taking steps now to lay the ground work for electoral successes and policy making in the future. Running against Trump is not enough; Democrats need to state what they are for. They should ban super PAC and dark money from their primaries and support progressive policies.

SUMMARY: Democrats should be taking steps now within the national party and at the state level to lay the ground work for electoral successes and for policy making in the future. Running against Trump is not enough; Democrats need to clearly state what they are for. Americans support progressive policy solutions. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and state committees should ban super PAC and dark money from their primary elections.

(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!)

While Democrats have very limited influence on national policy right now, there’s a lot they should be doing now within the national party and at the state level to lay the ground work for electoral successes and for policy making in the future. My previous two series of blog posts on fair taxation and the affordability crisis identified policies that Democrats should be supporting at the national and state level, and enacting now at the state level.

Electorally, running against Trump is not enough; Democrats need to clearly state what they are for. Sure, Trump is a convicted criminal and unpopular, but nobody cares about that if they cannot afford basic needs and they think Trump and the Republicans will address the affordability crisis better than Democrats. That’s what happened in 2024 in a nutshell.

Voters will not believe Democrats are serious about addressing the affordability crisis if they don’t unequivocally embrace progressive remedies, as Senators Warren (D-MA) and Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), among others, have been doing. Opponents, including Democrats, call their policies “too progressive,” which is code for opposition to any policy that favors working Americans over the oligarchs.

The real split among Democrats is between (a) Democrats on the take from the oligarchs of the crypto industry, Big Tech and AI businesses, and Wall Street; and (b) Democrats who are standing up for working Americans and against the oligarchs and their monopolistic companies. It’s that split that deprives Democrats of unity and of a consistent message that resonates with the real frustrations of everyday Americans. Democrats need to acknowledge the failures of our rigged economic system and clearly advocate for structural changes to the status quo that would: [1]

Boost pay including by raising the minimum wage
Build more affordable homes and crack down on corporate landlords
Increase Social Security checks
Provide universal child care
Block price gouging
Strengthen unions
Establish universal health care
Tax the wealthy and giant corporations
Stop members of Congress from buying and selling stock and crypto assets (i.e., insider trading)

For years, polling data have repeatedly shown that Americans support progressive policy solutions to the challenges they face in their daily lives. For example, over 70 percent of Americans support Medicare for All, which would make health insurance more affordable and health care more accessible and less fraught. Seventy percent believe our tax system is unfair, while 66% support universal free child care. More broadly, 66% of Democrats now view socialism favorably, while only 42% view capitalism favorably. [2]

To enact this policy agenda and to get Democrats to unequivocally support it, billionaires must be stopped from buying our elections and our policy making process. A Democratic Party that worries more about offending wealthy donors than enacting policies that support working Americans will not succeed. Democrats should refuse campaign money from organizations and individuals opposed to basic workers’ rights and a strong social safety net.

As a first step, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and state committees should ban super PAC and dark money (i.e., money where the true donor is unidentified) from their primary elections. Unfortunately, the DNC recently voted for a resolution that simply condemned the influence of dark and corporate money in Democratic primaries. It needs to go further and ban such money, which it can do, given that it sets the rules for its own primary elections. Corporate and Republican-linked super PACs and dark money organizations spent over $200 million in 2024 Democratic primaries. Their goal, sometimes successful, was to defeat progressive Democrats, particularly ones opposing Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinians. [3] The Israel, crypto, and AI interests have been, and will in 2026, skew Democratic primaries and candidates to ones supporting their interests, which are not the interests of mainstream Democrats and Americans.

A ban on super PACs and dark money would force Democrats to turn to smaller donations from regular people, as Senators Warren (D-MA) and Sanders (I-VT) and New York City Mayor Mamdani have successfully done. This is what democracy, as opposed to oligarchy, looks like.

I encourage you to contact your state and local elected officials, as well as your U.S. Representative and Senators, to ask them to support policies that support working Americans. If any of these officials are Democrats, I urge you to point out that just running against Trump isn’t enough, as we saw in 2024, and that they need to run on what they stand for. [4]

If you’re frustrated that the Democrats aren’t unequivocally supporting working Americans, you might want to look at and perhaps support the Working Families Party. They’ve put forth a platform, their Working Families Guarantee, which is reminiscent of FDR’s economic bill of rights. It includes:

A home you can afford
Healthcare you can rely on
A good job to support your family
Childcare when and where you need it
Paid family and medical leave
Taxing the rich, and
Getting big money out of politics.

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

[1] Warren, E., 1/12/26, “The Democratic Party is at a crossroads,” The Nation (https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/elizabeth-warren-democrats-2026-midterms/)

[2] Meyerson, H., 1/7/26, “The Democratic base is social democratic,” The American Prospect (https://prospect.org/2026/01/07/democratic-base-socialist-democratic-zohran-mamdani-medicare-for-all/)

[3] Wilkins, B., 4/10/26, “DNC half-measures condemning dark money won’t cut it, says Sanders as he demands total ban,” Common Dreams (https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-dark-money-ban)