✈️ America’s Most Corrupt President Rides World’s Largest Metaphor for Corruption
Donald Trump flew west on his new Air Force One, a $400 million gift from Qatar, dogged by questions about obscene profiteering in office, and his own enduring rage over a bestselling book.
On this day in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, a historic measure prohibiting racial discrimination in education and employment and outlawing racial segregation in public places.
Good morning! Martin and Swin here. At Zeteo, we’ve spent time this week at Donald Trump’s so-called Great American State Fair, on the National Mall in DC. We’ll have more to report soon (it’s going as well as you’ve heard, and yes, it does add another layer to the thesis, Trump Literally Can’t Do Anything Right), but until then, we need to talk about the president’s unbridled corruption. Since last year, multiple sources close to Trump have quipped that thanks solely to his second presidency, and his willingness to use it to line his and his family’s pockets, Trump will finally be able to say he’s an actual billionaire as opposed to a “fake” one. 😂 😭 The line might be funny… if it weren’t so immensely sad for a nominally democratic society.
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ we follow Trump’s chemtrails of corruption west to North Dakota, via his first flight on his new Air Force One, the totally normal, not staggeringly wrong gift from his friends in Qatar. We also take a trip back inside a presidential brain still absolutely furious about bestselling book Regime Change and consider other events from another insane day in DC and further abroad. Let’s dig in.
‘He’s Pretty Busy as President’
Famously, The Onion’s front page for April 16, 1912, about the sinking of the Titanic, reads: “World’s Largest Metaphor Hits Ice-Berg.” On Wednesday, Donald Trump was taking off rather than sinking, but the gag came to mind nonetheless. The world’s largest metaphor for the most corrupt U.S. president’s second administration – the new Air Force One, a $400 million gift from Qatar, a suitably emiratic symbol of this kakistocratic regime – made its maiden flight from Maryland to Medora, North Dakota, where Trump teed off celebrations of America’s 250th birthday at the Theodore Roosevelt library.
A reporter asked about financial disclosures that showed Trump’s staggering profit from the presidency: at least $2.2 billion in 2025, including about $1.4 billion from family crypto ventures, more than anyone else in the sector. “What message,” the reporter asked, “does this send to average Americans, especially those who may be struggling financially?”
Trump’s response is worth quoting in full, if only to show how he avoided the question by lying and blathering at length.
“I don’t get involved in my personal… we have funds that run my money. Well I’ve made a lot of money before I became president, and they invest my money, and I don’t talk to them. I never… I don’t even speak to them. So, I have many people. I don’t know what they call it, ‘closed accounts’ or something. You put your money in, and that’s it. I don’t talk to them, they’re big institutions, and they run it. But yeah, I’ve had a great career in business. I’ve had a great career. I don’t know if I’ve had a better career in politics or business, but I had a great career in business. And you know, you saw the cash and you report the different things, and what they do is, we gave it, I think it’s called a blind account, but they basically, they take it, and I purposely, I never speak to any of the people that run the money, but they’re big institutions, and they invest in whatever they invest.”
It was nonsense: horseshit d’oeuvres, if you will, for the speech Trump gave in the Dakotas, surrounded by cosplay Rough Riders. Trump has clearly, undoubtedly, obscenely profited from the presidency second time around. Consider just some of the many, many stories of insider dealing and ruthless profiteering.