The Most Corrupt White House In History

This is a transcript of U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn) ‘s speech on the Senate floor to expose the unprecedented corruption of the Trump administration’s first six weeks in office.

Today, the world is littered with corrupt governments, governments where the leaders and the wealthy men who surround them, the oligarchs, steal from people. That’s what they do; the leaders and the leader’s friends constantly keep a hand in the government treasury, stealing taxpayer dollars. They rig the rules of the economy to make themselves fabulously wealthy. They hurt the citizens of those countries.

 Vladimir Putin, for instance, has never had a job outside of government, but he’s reportedly worth $200 billion. One of his many houses cost $1.4 billion to build. Supposedly, the landscaping costs for that house are $2 million annually. That $1.4 billion house was paid for by money he stole from the Russian treasury. In other words, he stole it from the Russian people. Putin and his friends have been doing it for so long and doing it so openly and brazenly. Putin, for instance, wears a watch that retails for half a million dollars. Excuse me, for half a million dollars, even though his official salary is only $140,000, they’ve been doing this so openly and brazenly. They’re so public in their corruption in Russia that it’s just accepted. It’s just mainstreaming the fact that Putin and his cronies steal from the Russian people. 

That’s what’s happening in America today, and it’s heartbreaking for me to say this, but in the first six months of the Trump presidency, Trump and Elon Musk and their billionaire friends have engaged in a stunning rampage of open public corruption. It’s not fundamentally different from what happened in Russia. These are efforts to steal from the American people to enrich themselves. Their strategy is to do it all out in the open, to do it at such a dizzying pace that the country just gets overwhelmed or anesthetized or dulled into a sense that we just all have to accept the corruption, that this is just how the government works.

But this is not how the government works. The events of the last six weeks have been unprecedented. The President and his billionaire friends are not supposed to steal from us. They are not supposed to use their power and access to government levers to rig the rules to enrich themselves. That has always been wrong, and it is still wrong. We do not have to accept this. 

 I want to lay out some of the most significant instances of blatantly corrupt activity that’s happened in just the first six weeks of Trump’s presidency. There is no way to avoid a simple conclusion when you see it all together. This White House is on its way to being the most corrupt in the country’s history, and just because they are doing it out in the open for everybody to see doesn’t mean it’s not corrupt. If you see it all in one place, the gravity of this moment may hit you. I hope my colleagues and the public choose not to normalize a president or his advisors using the Oval Office as a blunt mechanism to make themselves even wealthier. 

We have zero tolerance for corruption and want to avoid becoming a place like Russia, where leaders routinely steal from the public. So, this is a heartbreaking list of about twenty examples of corrupt behavior in the first six weeks of the Trump presidency. We’ll start on January 17. 

On January 17, Trump launched the meme coin. This may be the most corrupt of all the acts because what is the meme coin? The meme coin is a mechanism by which Russian oligarchs or corporate CEOs can send money privately, directly to Donald Trump. Nobody knows who buys the meme coin, but Trump makes money when people buy it. So it is just an open sewer valve that allows anybody who is trying to influence the Trump administration to be able to funnel money to Donald Trump secretly. He reserves 80% of the coin and waits to release that coin until the price jumps back up again, which means he’s waiting for people who want favors from him to buy a bunch of the coin to inflate the value so that he releases more and makes more money.

 It’s a disgusting kind of corruption because this is essentially Trump just posting his Venmo for anybody secretly to wire him as much money as they want. We’ve never seen something like this before, where anybody who has anything to gain from the Trump administration, through manipulating the value of Trump’s meme coin, can funnel money directly to the president and whisper in his ear, that was me who purchased all those coins that jumped up in value, which allowed you to release new coins. I’d like you to take care of me on the back end.

 On January 20, when he was sworn in, he instituted his new energy agenda. Reporting suggested that during the campaign, he met with the oil and gas industry, and they cut a deal in which the oil and gas industry would give them a billion dollars of campaign contributions to receive favorable treatment when Trump was sworn in. And on January 20, when Trump unveils his energy strategy, what does it do? It prefers oil and gas, and it punishes oil and gas competitors. It, for instance, freezes all permits on wind projects, both for the land and the sea. It undercuts permitting processes, not for oil and gas, but for oil and gas as competitors, oil and gas got precisely what they asked for. They made a campaign contribution, and they received favorable treatment.

 Five days later, Trump fires 17 inspectors general. What do inspectors general do? They look for corruption inside these agencies. What do you do if you are trying to engage in corruption or if you are trying to steal from the American people? Two days later, on January 27, Trump fired Quinn Wilcox from the NLRB, which stands for the National Labor Relations Board. Once she’s fired, the National Labor Relations Board can’t function anymore. Why does this matter? The person assigned to review the hiring and firings of these agencies is Elon Musk, who, by the way, has numerous cases before the NLRB.

 The same is true for the people who supported Trump during the inauguration. Almost all of them have active cases before the NLRB. However, the billionaires supporting Donald Trump don’t have to worry about the NLRB now because, on January 27, the NLRB was rendered powerless. 

Three days later, on January 30, Trump awarded over $800,000 worth of stock to several Trump Media and Technology Group board members. This is the publicly traded company behind his social media platform. So now his cabinet members, like Cash Patel and Linda McMahon, own equity in Trump’s media platform, equity that can be cashed out and sold to people who want to buy them out of their interest at any time. Those wishing to buy them out could be individuals with issues before the Department of Education or the FBI. Another avenue in which people who have influence and want to gain influence inside the Trump administration have a conduit to move cash from their pocketbooks, from their treasury, from their bank accounts, into the bank accounts of Trump cabinet members.

 Shortly thereafter, we started to see the DOJ weaponized. On February 23, the DOJ dropped a civil complaint that had been pending against SpaceX, Elon Musk’s signature company. Eight days later, the DOJ dropped a case against a Republican Congressman.

On February 19, two or three weeks later, the DOJ opened up Operation Whirlwind, which seeks to target anyone who tries to obstruct or criticize the work of Elon Musk and Doge. Over the first few weeks, the DOJ is turned into an entity that drops cases against those loyal to Donald Trump and pursues aggressive investigations against those trying to criticize Donald Trump.

On February 1, Trump fired the director of the CFPB and announced plans to shut down and shutter the Consumer Financial Protection Board, again, like the NLRB. This is an agency that was at the moment that it was rendered powerless, investigating Elon Musk and many of the biggest financial backers of Donald Trump. So once again, those with access to Donald Trump, the billionaires close to him now, don’t have to worry about labor violations being investigated by the NLRB. Now, they don’t have to worry about consumer protection actions being taken against them by the CFPB. 

 On February 4, there was the first of two extraordinary meetings in the White House. Donald Trump convened his business partners, the Saudi Golf League and the PGA, to resolve the dispute between those golf leagues. Why? Because Trump has a business interest in that dispute being resolved. The Saudi golf league plays tournaments at Trump’s courses in the United States. If the White House can try to negotiate a settlement between those two groups using its official power, Trump will stand to make money. 

 On February 6, something absolutely stunning happened. Pam Bondi, the AG, issues a memorandum in which she proposes to dull the criminal enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Suppose you are representing a foreign government before the United States. In that case, you have to register so that we know if you are acting on behalf of American interests or foreign interests.

In the prior Trump administration, Trump officials got in big trouble for secretly working for and getting paid by foreign governments without registering. Well, what does Trump announce? They are going to limit the applicability of the enforcement of that statute, making it much easier for Trump’s friends from his MAGA crowd or for the people who show up to Mar a Lago to get paid quietly by foreign governments to influence Donald Trump. 

 On February 10. Aside from the meme coin, the most stunning act of corruption, the Eric Adams quid pro quo in which Eric Adams was indicted for corruption, is let off the hook as charges are dismissed in exchange for the mayor’s pledge of political loyalty to Donald Trump. They literally went on TV and announced the deal that we’re getting rid of the charges against Eric Adams as long as the mayor pledges political loyalty to the President.

This was so corrupt that six or seven DOJ officials resigned because they refused to withdraw those charges. But the deal went through because the seventh or the eighth of a ninth official finally filed the withdrawal. And now, in America, it is 100% clear that if you want to get away with corruption, you want to steal from your constituents. You’re an elected official in this country; all you have to do is sign up for political loyalty with Donald Trump, and he will instruct the Department of Justice to let you get away with it.

On February 10, he instructed the DOJ to stop enforcing US laws prohibiting companies from paying bribes overseas. Here’s an example. Goldman Sachs was engaged in outright bribery. They were paying bribes to Malaysian officials to get a contract to manage the resources of the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund. American companies should not be overseas bribing foreign governments that compromise America’s reputation and America’s national security. But now we will pause enforcement of the laws that stop American companies from bribing foreign governments because corruption is now being normalized. This is what you do if you want to normalize corruption: you make it legal for American companies to engage in bribery overseas. That makes it easier for Trump to get away with corruption.

Two days later, on February 12, the State Department announced it would buy $400 million worth of armored Teslas. Okay, so now it’s even more blatant and brazen. The State Department will buy many products from Elon Musk that were not previously scheduled to buy.

 The Biden administration had a blueprint for buying electric vehicles, but it was around $483,000 worth of cars. Trump revised that spending blueprint so the federal government would pay $400 million for armored Teslas from Elon Musk. 

That’s February 12. That same day, Elon Musk’s people infiltrated the Department of Labor. Reporting suggests that during that infiltration, Elon Musk’s representatives got access to enforcement information at OSHA, not only against Elon Musk’s companies, and by the way, Space X has an employee injury rate that is Nine times higher than the industry average, but also workplace safety violations against Elon Musk’s competitors. Here’s the message: if you are close to Donald Trump personally and support him politically, you can get secret access to enforcement data against your country, your company, and your company’s competitors.

 That’s what happened on February 12. Three days later, some suspicious firings at the FDA were again related to Elon Musk’s financial interests. Elon Musk owns a medical device company called Neuralink. It is currently being reviewed by the FDA. On February 15 and 16th, all over a weekend, 20 people were fired from the FDA Office of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices by Doge, run by Elon Musk. Clear message: you will get fired if you aren’t on the right side of Elon Musk’s application.

Now, whether that was explicit or not, if the guy firing you has a pending application before your department, aren’t you going to think twice? Aren’t you going to think twice about ruling against his interest? This is why this is all unprecedented. It makes us feel normal because it’s been happening every day. But never before in American history have we allowed someone who has a pending application for approval of a medicine or a medical device to decide who gets hired and who gets fired at the regulatory agency deciding on that medical device. 

But this happens every day because on February 15, that same weekend. There’s an announcement that the FDA cuts are going to be even deeper, perhaps as big as 50%, which means that hundreds of drugs and devices won’t get approved at the FDA, and you know who benefits from that, the folks that are selling the snake oil products. And guess who’s selling the snake oil products? The people who work for Donald Trump selling Vita gummy scams. The director of the FBI is selling vaccine reversal pills. When the FDA gets gutted, those selling unregulated products stand to gain.  

Four days later, on February 19, we find out that the IRS is going to be cut by 7,000 people. The biggest chunk of the folks who are going to be laid off are the people who audit billionaires, millionaires, and corporations. And so once again, Elon Musk and the people standing behind Donald Trump on inauguration day are going to get off because the IRS just had its enforcement powers and audit powers gutted. 

That same day, on February 19, you start to receive word that advertising on Elon Musk’s platform is starting to grow again. The report on February 19 indicates that American companies have come to the collective decision that they need to keep advertising on Elon Musk’s platform because Elon Musk has so much regulatory power inside the federal government that they need to make sure that they’re paying Musk through Twitter and x so that if they ultimately need something from the federal government, they can get it this again. This is why we have never, ever in the history of this country, allowed the richest man in the world, somebody who controls major companies, also to have an official position inside the government. Because it opens up these clear avenues where people will do business with him privately to try to curry favor with him publicly. 

 The next day, on February 20, the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices monthly meeting was canceled and not rescheduled. And so we were very worried that Robert F Kennedy Jr, who makes money off of his attacks on vaccines, would continue those attacks when he took over HHS because, if faith in vaccines continues to plummet, it is very likely that RFK Jr will make money. Why? Because the not-for-profit that he will likely return to the company they will return to after he leaves makes money as vaccine misinformation spreads. He also continues to collect fees for referring cases to a company that handles claims of personal injury due to vaccines. When the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is canceled, it is a clear indication that this campaign of assault on vaccines will continue. Unsurprisingly, it is likely to make RFP Junior even more money. 

 On February 26, we see Trump’s Maga hats for sale on his website, displayed in the Oval Office, and it’s just a reminder that so many people inside Trump’s universe continue to sell merchandise on the side to make money. Donald Trump has always done this, and we’ve just accepted it, even though it is a kind of corruption in and of itself.  Cash Patel, the director of the FBI, is still selling cash-branded merchandise, even while he’s going to run the FBI, Elon Musk and others are selling Doge merchandise. So, as they trumpet their brand inside the government, they’re making money off their brand outside of the government. 

 On February 26, maybe the third most significant brazen corruption event happened. News breaks that Elon Musk will have the FAA cancel a contract with Verizon that has been in the works for years and instead substitute Starland for Verizon. It’s just extraordinary that this is happening in plain view of everybody. Elon Musk takes his private company, uses his access to the government to shove it out of the way of his competitors, and instead inserts himself and his company again. We’ve never seen this? Ever before in American history. It’s happening daily, and now we get to this week. 

This week, Wired News reports that guests are paying millions of dollars to dine with Donald Trump at Mar a Lago, and business leaders are being targeted with advertisements that sell access to a one-on-one meeting with the president of the United States for $5 million. Some advertisements say that if you’re a business CEO, you pay Donald Trump $5 million, and you can get a meeting with him. This isn’t okay, and yet, because it happens every single day, every single day, they’re asking us to pretend that this is normal.

The last thing on the list is an offer to meet with the president for a million dollars, or $5 million, if any previous president had sent out an advertisement suggesting that you can meet with them for a payment of a million to $5 million in and of itself, we would deem that to be unacceptable, but Donald Trump and Elon Musk believe that because they have arranged this dizzying pace of corruption in Which Not a day goes by in which something doesn’t happen inside our government, in which Elon Musk or Donald Trump used their power to rig the rules to enrich themselves, that we are all going to feel that it’s normal.

This is how democracies die when the very powerful people steal from us so regularly, so openly, so unapologetically, that we come to believe that it’s normal.  I understand that many Americans may think that all of this stuff just used to happen quietly, and the only difference is that Trump and Musk are just putting it all out in the open.

And I’m not saying that there haven’t been instances of corruption. Democrats and Republicans in this body have been accused of and convicted of acts of corruption. It has been a fact of life in American politics for a long time, but never before has the corruption happened this openly or this frequently, and so I lay it all out for you this afternoon in the hopes that it is not too late for us to decide to stand up as a body and as a nation to say that this isn’t okay.

The Trump meme coin is not okay. It’s not OK for people who have an interest before the federal government to be able to funnel money to the President of the United States anonymously. It’s not okay for Elon Musk to have access to Department of Labor enforcement data against him or his competitors that nobody else gets access to. It’s not OK to cancel contracts going to Musk’s competitors and substitute in his own business just because he can do it as a friend of Donald Trump. The rule of law matters; doing things by the rules matters. This level of corruption had not occurred behind the scenes prior. It is not just that the cover got pulled off of it all, but it’s our decision as a body and as a country to decide not to normalize this scale of corruption. 

To hear Senator Chris Murphy’s complete video, click here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hycoCYenXls