Welcome To the Pump and Dump

The King wants a new toy!

May 30, 2025

Corruption is no stranger to the Presidents of the United States of America. It perpetually lurks in a dark corner of the office that has no corners.

The founding fathers, as they peered out far into the future, could see that we would need to be protected from men who would be corrupt. Those who would have a restless desire for power. Those who would believe themselves to be above the law.

Anti-Corruption Clauses of the Constitution

These are the clauses in the U.S. Constitution that deal with corruption.

The Foreign Emoluments Clause: Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

Impeachment Clause: Article 2, Section 4

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

The Domestic Emoluments Clause: Article 2, Section 1, Clause 7

The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.

Presidential Scandals Involving Financial Corruption

The Constitution of the United States was ratified on June 21, 1788. In the 237 years since its ratification, only one President has ever been sued for violating the Emoluments Clause (Can you guess who?). There have been a few scandals, though, involving financial gain and corruption.

The Whiskey Ring (1871): This scandal tarnished the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. A group of whiskey distillers, primarily located in St. Louis, conspired to bribe U.S. Treasury officials to not only evade taxes but to keep the liquor taxes for themselves. The plan was hatched by General John McDonald and Grant’s private secretary, Orville Babcock. Benjamin H. Bristow, Secretary of the Treasury, organized an investigation that exposed the ring and resulted in 238 indictments and 110 convictions. Grant was not suspected, Orville Babcock was indicted but was acquitted due to Grant testifying to his innocence.
The Crédit Mobilier Scandal (1872): A major scandal during the Gilded Age, a period of industrial growth and economic westward expansion. It involved several U.S. Congressmen and Vice President Schuyler Colfax. Thomas Durant, vice president of the Union Pacific Railroad, secretly formed the shell company Crédit Mobilier of America to siphon off profits from inflated government contracts for building the transcontinental railroad. The profits were used to bribe politicians, such as the Speaker of the House and the Vice President. The haul came to a cool $44 million. The scandal further damaged the reputation of President Ulysses S. Grant. In true American fashion, there were a couple of slaps on the wrists, but no one went to jail.
The Teapot Dome Scandal (1921-1929): Considered the most damaging presidential scandal in American history up to that point. It occurred during the presidency of Warren G. Harding. After Harding transferred supervision of the leasing of naval oil-reserve lands from the Navy to the Department of the Interior in 1921, Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall secretly leased the naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, to private companies at below-market rates. The leasing was not illegal, but Fall had taken bribes, and in 1929, he became the first former cabinet minister to go to prison.

That’s it. Over 237 years, only three major presidential financial scandals have occurred. However, the individual for whom the Emoluments Clause was written has finally made an appearance.

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Welcome to the Pump and Dump

As I look at the list above of presidential scandals involving money, bribery, and deceit, I feel compelled to quote my departed cousin, Nathan Swerdlove, “pishachs.” We have entered the golden age of presidential corruption. Nothing that came before can compare.

The American voters, in their infinite wisdom, have chosen, with the second-highest vote total in U.S. history, a plurality of 49.8% of the vote, to return to the White House, for a non-consecutive second term, a twice-impeached President. A convicted felon who has brought a breathtaking level of corruption to the Presidency. How is that possible? Was the first term, which was filled with treasonous, seditious behavior and a wanton disregard for the health and safety of the American people, tossed into a collective memory hole?

While the first term’s outrages centered on foreign bribery and sedition, the first 4-plus months of the second term have mainly been focused on revenge and corruption for personal financial gain. No longer hidden in some dark recess of the Presidency, corruption has risen to center stage, for the world to see. If there were a Gold Medal award for Presidential corruption, it would certainly go to President Donald J. Trump. I can see him on the podium, with the American Flag behind him, beaming with pride, as he accepts the Gold Medal.

The monetizing of Donald Trump’s second term began shortly after the November 2024 election, before he raised his right hand and swore an oath to faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States and to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Crypto - Who could ask for anything more?

It’s time to talk about cryptocurrency, a grifters dream come true. Cryptocurrency is a digital form of money or currency that is not controlled by any government. It operates on a decentralized network, using what’s called blockchain technology to record transactions.

Crypto operates in a language all its own. Bitcoin, blockchain, block height, block reward, brain wallet, coin, token, DAO, Ether, faucet, fork, genesis block, hardware wallet, hash, mainnet, memecoin, node, NFT, nonce, rug pull (this one is important to the Pump and Dump), stablecoin, zk-SNARKs.

Is your head spinning yet? Mine is, just from compiling that list. It’s simply complex, but a crafty grifter like our President is smart enough to see opportunity and get the right people to set up the con. What’s the con? That would be called World Liberty Financial (WLFI).

The Rise of Trump’s Crypto Firm / World Liberty Financial has eviscerated the boundary between private enterprise and government policy in ways without precedent in modern American history. The firm, largely owned by a Trump family corporate entity, has erased centuries-old presidential norms.1

We have arrived at the Presidential Pump and Dump, which has set the stage for the greatest series of grifts in the annals of American politics.

World Liberty Financial was co-founded by Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East Special Envoy, his son Zach Witkoff, and the Trump family. On October 15, 2025, before the Inauguration had even taken place, WLFI began a public sale of an initial offering of 20 billion tokens, priced at $0.015 each. The sale underperformed, raising only $11 million, well under its initial funding goal of $300 million. So WLFI lowered its goal to $30 million. Here comes the Pump.

In steps the President-elect, who on January 17th, 2025, announced he is launching the $TRUMP memecoin. The token rose $8 billion in valuation in 3 hours. The trading fees alone amounted to $100 million. By January 19th, the coin reached a value of over $14.5 billion. The value has since slipped by two-thirds, the Dump. How much cash flowed into the Trump family coffers is unknown.

Not wanting to be left out of the action, on the day before Trump announced his memecoin, his rarely seen wife, Melania, announced $MELANIA, her memecoin. A handful of anonymous traders were brought in, and they snared a $99.9 million payday by selling the coins at peak value before it went public. This is a classic pump and dump. This is all before the President's right hand was raised.2

A memecoin is a type of cryptocurrency based on an online joke or celebrity mascot. It has no practical function other than speculation. After $TRUMP’s initial surge, its price plummeted, costing investors a cumulative $2 billion.3

My Dinner with Donald

Next up in the Presidential Pump and Dump competition is Dinner for my closest 220 friends, who are holders of the $TRUMP memecoin, at Trump’s Virginia golf club. The grand prize for the twenty-five top backers was a private reception with the man himself, President Donald J. Trump. The average price to buy into such a glorious evening is a mere $1 million. Chicken feed for those who want to touch the hand of greatness. The haul was a modest $394 million, but what the hell, it’s not bad for one evening’s work spent hanging out with the rubes. According to Nicholas Pinto, a 25-year-old social media influencer, who managed to grab on to $360,000 in $TRUMP, the food was “Trash,” “Walmart steak, man.”4

Fly Me to the Moon

We have now arrived at the pinnacle of presidential corruption and a blatant violation of the Foreign Emoluments Clause, Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8 of the Constitution of the United States of America.

President Trump, not content to fly around in the same plane that was used by Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, himself, and Joe Biden and too impatient to impatient to wait for the two new Boeing 747 jumbo jets that had already been ordered in 2018 to replace the aging two Air Force Ones currently in use, went looking for a way to get himself into a new SAM280005 before his second term ends.. It must be such an embarrassment to land this beater, the current Air Force One in foreign capitals.

In his spare time, he searched for a temporary replacement. As luck would have it, the Royal Family of Qatar, who are owners of one of the largest fleets of private jets in the world, were shifting toward leaner, more versatile aircraft. Sitting at their airport, unused, gathering dust and costing millions to maintain, was the 747 used by Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, who served as Qatari prime minister from 2007 to 2013. In 2020, the plane was put on the market. Big surprise, there were no takers. The price for this airplane when sold to the Qataris was $367 million. There is a very limited market for such an airplane. As a result, it’s been sitting in a hanger in Qatar, unused, eating up millions of dollars in maintenance, since at least 2020.

There’s a sucker born every minute6

Sworn in on January 20, 2025, we know the newly inaugurated President made it clear he was not happy with his current ride. The new Air Force One he ordered from Boeing in 2017 will not likely be ready until 2027. He gets wind of a luxurious jet sitting unused and on the market in Qatar. There are weeks of secret negotiations between Washington and Doha. The Pentagon and the White House military office get involved, aided by Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff of World Liberty Financial fame.

In February, Qatar agreed to send the plane to Florida, at a cost of about $25,000 per hour of flying time or a cool $375,000, so the new President can inspect it at his leisure while he’s enjoying some downtime at his club at Mar-a-Lago. It’s love at first sight.

As he flies back to Washington on his aging Air Force One, the wheels start turning in Trump’s head. How is he going to get that airplane for his own use? Not only while he’s serving the American people, but when he’s out of office. He thinks it’s only going to take a quick paint job and a few other upgrades, and he can be jetting around the friendly skies in style.

Of course, it’s going to take a lot more than that to bring this luxury aircraft up to the standards of an Air Force One.

Converting a Qatari-owned 747 jet into a new Air Force One for President Donald Trump would involve installing multiple top-secret systems, cost over $1 billion and take years to complete, three aviation experts told NBC News7

Who do you think will get stuck with this bill? Why, of course, the American taxpayer. Will the plane be ready before the already-ordered Air Force Ones are completed? Will the plane ever be secure? His scheme is to donate this plane to his Presidential Library when he’s out of office, even though it’s not his; supposedly, it’s a gift to the United States of America. Or is it a gift to him personally? If it is, do you think he will report it on his income tax return?

Either way, the whole episode is a farce. It’s patently unconstitutional, in direct violation of the Emoluments Clause. It is an impeachable offense, fit for trial in the Senate, but don’t hold your breath. Ironically, the Congress could approve the whole sordid deal and make it legal, but our President hasn’t taken that route, even though the Air Force has already taken possession of the plane, maybe?

You can’t make this stuff up. And you can’t write fast enough to keep up with it, as there is one sort of corruption or another happening like every 15 minutes.8

Who Could Have Known?

What made anyone think this would turn out any other way? What made anyone think that Trump would be different in the 2.0 version? This should never have happened. Had the United States Senate done its job, Trump would have been removed from office during his first term and would have been unable to ever run for office again.

Money, Money, Money by the Pound

This short clip from the Disney Movie Pete’s Dragon, sums up in about a minute what The Trump Regime is all about.

Welcome To the Pump and Dump

The King wants a new toy!

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