Member-only story

Trump’s Presidency Is Over, But the MAGA Scam Goes On

Conman-in-chief finds new way to squeeze cultists

Manny Otiko
4 min readDec 2, 2020
A MAGA rally (Mikeanthony2429/Wikipedia)

Donald Trump’s presidency is ending the same way it started — with a giant con. Trump, a failed businessman and reality TV star, ran for the presidency on a lark. He just wanted the headlines. According to fixer Michael Cohen, Trump said his presidential run was going to be the world’s greatest infomercial. But to Trump’s chagrin, the GOP accepted him, and the American public bought his BS. They thought the man who never held political office could do the most difficult job in the world.

But during Trump’s strange political journey, he discovered something that all Republicans, who claim to hate the government, realize. Running for office is a great money maker and being in government presents you with a host of financial opportunities. Trump, whose finances have always been a mess, went hog wild in office. Apart from cleaning up by selling MAGA hats and other junk to his acolytes, he quickly got on board the government gravy train by steering business to his properties. While other politicians at least tried to take money under the table, Trump was brazen about it.

The Trump Quid Pro Quo

Foreign governments and Republican politicians soon figured out that you had to spend money at…

--

--

Manny Otiko
Manny Otiko

Written by Manny Otiko

Manny Otiko writes about race, politics and sports. He has been published in Salon and LA Weekly. Follow him at @mannyotiko.bsky.social

Responses (6)