Alan Zendell, May 11, 2015

Since it’s been reliably reported that Donald Trump doesn’t even read his daily security briefings most days, we can reasonably conclude that he doesn’t spend much time studying history, either. But the people who wrote Project 2025 do, and many of them are quite intelligent and talented. Whether you despise Project 2025 or subscribe to its ideology, we can all recognize what a brilliant manifesto it is.

What it proposes is hateful, but the strategy it describes is masterful. It’s based on an updated version of the playbook Adolf Hitler used to seize and hold power, combined with everything organized crime figures know about evading the law. It was also cleverly worded. Compare the phrase “Christian Nationalism” with Bernie Sanders’ “Democratic Socialism.” Which is more likely to turn off average Americans?

Sanders chose an unfortunate way to describe his brand of progressivism. The authors of Project 2025, however, understood that Christian Nationalism sounds a lot better than Fascist Oligarchy, although It should be clear to every American that that is exactly where Trump wants to take our country. More Americans hate that than love it, yet the Trump machine at times looks unstoppable. How that can happen in a democracy?

In a real democracy, it can’t. No matter who tells you otherwise, the United States is not a democracy. It’s a broken republic that’s been hijacked by a  minority of right-wing zealots. It’s those zealots who are running things, not Trump. That should be obvious from the fact that this administration’s most obvious attribute is chaos. The people who wrote Project 2025 understood from the start that Trump was the perfect front man for their plans.

They salve his ego. They feed his narcissism. They support the illusion that he’s as powerful as he fantasizes he is, but what makes the sinister symbiosis work is that they showed him how to use the presidency to enrich himself. Trump doesn’t give a damn about the presidency. He doesn’t give a damn about the United States or the Constitution, either, except that if it all implodes, he stands to lose billions.

The truth is that Trump administration-2 is already the most corrupt presidency in the history of our country. It’s also an object lesson in shell games, because that’s what Trump has always been about. Does that surprise you? It shouldn’t. He brags about it all the time.

He lies, exaggerates, and makes up insane fantasies, knowing that his base thinks it’s great entertainment. But as his base loses millions of jobs, as the government services they depend on evaporate, as tariffs destroy their businesses and make everyday life so expensive, they have to choose between food and doctors, how do you think they’ll react when they see how much Trump has stolen? We don’t know the extent of his crimes yet, but three-and-a-half months in, the list is impressive.

Access to the president has become a commodity, and the White House sets the prices. Anyone who wants to influence Trump’s policy decisions can join the Executive Branch, a private club set up by Donald Trump, Jr. All it takes is a $500,000 entry fee. More than a hundred people have already joined, putting millions in the Trump family’s pockets. Then there are the million-dollar-a-plate dinners with the president, the understanding among foreign leaders that a great way to get Trump’s attention is to book a $10,000-a-night suite at one of his properties while they’re in town, sales of Trump-endorsed bibles, and coins with his face on them. The government of Qatar, as a prelude to trade negotiations, offered to build Trump a $4.5 bllion golf resort and want to gift Trumpa $400 million airplane. But those are peanuts.

The real money is in other currency. Trump’s crypto business, a wonderful vehicle for laundering money, has reportedly earned the Trump family more than 1.5 billion dollars since he’s been in office, while most of the people who were persuaded to invest in the venture are losing money. But perhaps the worst of his crimes is helping his friends and family profit from the volatility of our financial markets.

Trump can make markets crash or boom just by opening his mouth. In the midst of chaos, when no one is sure what’s real, if he tells his billionaire friends he’s going to increase tariffs tomorrow, would you be surprised if they shorted the markets? Trillions of dollars can change hands in a single day, and the people behind Project 2025 know exactly how to manipulate that to their advantage.

Insider trading is a felony under federal law. If Trump’s cronies in the Securities and Exchange Commission, the FBI, or the Congress chose to investigate, there’d be a ton of evidence. It’s even possible that some of Trump’s friends would go to jail. But you know who wouldn’t? Donald Trump, because the Supreme Court gave him a license to steal as long as he’s in office.