Grifter-in-Chief doesn’t just sock it to billionaires--he’s gouging his red-hatters, too

Reporting and commentary from Florida for all Americans

By J.C. Bruce

Tropic Press

Grifters gotta grift.

So, I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that The Washington Post discovered that Donald Trump’s fundraising for his new ballroom/bomb shelter has turned into a massive pay-to-play scheme in which donors are rewarded with lucrative government contracts and pardons.

Watchdog groups have found that more than half of the corporate donors to the $400 million project have won—or renewed—contracts worth more than $50 billion.

Big tech companies with regulatory issues before the federal government have also been generous. Apple and the chip-maker Nvidia each gave $25 million. Shareholders don’t sit still for that unless they get payback.

And pardons. In his first term, Trump issued 237 pardons and clemencies. So far in his second term, that number has ballooned to more than 1,600.

A big chunk of that is due to his release from prison of the rioters and looters he urged to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, of course.

But others include more lucrative arrangements. For instance, The Post reported that Julio Herrera Velutina, a Venezuelan-Italian citizen accused of bribery, had his charges reduced to a misdemeanor after his 20-something daughter gave $3.5 million to MAGA Inc. The daughter, Isabela Herrera, then committed to giving an additional $2.5 million to the ballroom fund. After which, Trump pardoned him.

Those ballroom donations, by the way, are funneled through a trust that keeps the transactions secret. You can imagine how happy Trump has been about all this leaking out. No wonder he’s been screaming that whistleblowers should be shot.

Bad enough—although hardly surprising—that Trump is grifting his fellow felons and millionaires and billionaires, but you might think, given how blindly faithful they’ve been, that he’d cut his cultish MAGA followers a little slack.

Hahahahaha.

Now comes the news that the iconic red Make America Great Again hats — the required uniform for the Grifter’s slavish tribe — have skyrocketed in price.

This comes after Trump has promised to make America affordable again, too.

When Trump was running for president in 2015, his online merchandising operation sold the caps for $25. Go to the store now, and they are $55—a 120 percent price hike.

Can’t blame tariffs for that. They’re made in California. It’s all pure profit.

Go to his online store, and you can also pick up an official Trump Fight Fight Fight Chronograph Red Agate wristwatch for $899.

He doesn’t appear to be selling smartwatches, however. I mean, given his customers, what's the point?

In other news of the politically weird…

John Morgan, founder of the nation’s largest personal injury law firm, Morgan & Morgan, has long been seen as a supporter of liberal causes. Not unusual for trial lawyers who make their living suing insurance companies and other deep-pocketed corporations.

Morgan famously underwrote successful efforts to raise the state’s minimum wage and legalize marijuana, for instance.

But now, he’s pushing Republican gubernatorial nominee Byron Donalds of Naples.

Politico Florida Playbook reports that Morgan hosted a fundraiser for Donalds at his Orlando home last weekend, a gathering that featured a call-in from Donald’s biggest benefactor, Donald Trump, who is also scheduled to fly to Southwest Florida on Friday to stump for Donalds in person.

Why isn’t Morgan backing Democratic nominee David Jolly? Morgan’s answer: Jolly never called. “Don’t ask … don’t get.”

Jolly denies that.

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J.C. Bruce