Trump pal funneled millions of Israeli gov’t cash into US media Responsible Statecraft
Our Mob Boss President
Jamelle Bouie writes that each US president molds the presidency in his own image and Trump has constructed a “government as protection racket and the president as mob boss”.
So what manner of presidency has Trump devised for himself?
You could call it the pecuniary presidency, a presidency not devoted to the public good or to the preservation of the union or even to some narrow ideological crusade, but to the quest for personal enrichment. A presidency devoted to the aggrandizement of a single person, not to satisfy a grand design for the nation but to squeeze a few million here and a few billion there out of the public coffers for your own benefit.
This isn’t the “honest graft” of Tammany Hall — corruption as the price paid for public improvement. It is petty theft. It’s stealing from the Treasury and using your authority, enhanced by the baroque theories of your allies on the Supreme Court, to make yourself unaccountable. It is government as protection racket and the president as mob boss (a role that Trump has clearly embraced).
As I wrote last month:
I’ve found it useful to think of DJT’s 2nd term primarily as a heist: a theft of money & power from the American people by a con man who finally found the perfect score.
Trump feels like he’s running the largest casino in the world and he’s gonna take his deserved cut.
Here Are the Adversaries Trump Has Threatened and Prosecuted
President has asked Justice Department to investigate more than four dozen enemies, leading to a spate of prosecutions
New York Times: Trump Clears Way for Corporate Tax Dodge Hidden in the Fine Print
Jesse Drucker & Dyland Freedman, Trump Clears Way for Corporate Tax Dodge Hidden in the Fine Print (New York Times, May 29, 2026)
A year ago, the Trump administration withdrew from a global effort to curb offshore tax-dodging by multinational companies. That decision has been a huge gift to corporate America, enabling companies to avoid at least $40 billion in income taxes since the beginning of 2025.
The cost of toxic leadership in the workplace – and how to avoid it
Minters breaks the big law silence: AI is eating graduate jobs
Financial Review: “MinterEllison has become the first major Australian law firm to admit out loud a growing fear across the world: artificial intelligence-led automation may hurt lawyer numbers, and graduates will be hit first.
Minters has cut its graduate cohort for 2025-26 by almost a third from the previous year, to 72, partly because artificial intelligence automates routine lower-level work. “Client demand remains strong, but the way work gets done is changing, and we are being deliberate about how we shape our workforce,” MinterEllison chief people officer Rachel Banks said.
“Responsible use of AI is improving efficiency in some of the more routine work graduates traditionally start on, while demand continues to shift towards complex matters.
That combination has led us to take a more targeted approach to intake this year.” Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, Norton Rose Fulbright, Allens and Mallesons also cut their graduate numbers for this financial year. But all said AI was not the main driver of the reduction, and pointed instead to factors such as seasonal variations and earlier over-hiring…”
