"The Lobbying Disclosure Act is enforced by the US Attorney for DC, an office currently held by former Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro. Those who “knowingly fail to comply” with the law are subject to civil fines maxing out at $200,000, while those who “knowingly and corruptly [fail] to comply” face up to five years in prison.

In the case of the revamped East Wing and ballroom, only one corporation reported its donation to the fund on lobbying disclosure files. Yet twenty-six other firms have been identified as donors by media reports or the White House itself. Those include corporations with lucrative contracts or high-stakes legal matters before the Trump administration in the last year.

That includes Micron, which last year shut down its consumer-facing computer chip business after accepting more than $6.1 billion in data center semiconductor contracts from the Trump administration; Union Pacific Railroad, which is seeking merger approval for its plan to create the company’s first single-line transcontinental megarailroad; and Palantir, the Silicon Valley surveillance giant that recently scored a historic ten-year, $10 billion Pentagon contract (as well as one for bossware at the Agriculture Department.)

“The hidden influence being exerted on the current Trump administration by lobbyists — who are also not making the required disclosures — is unprecedented,” said Kedric Payne, vice president, general counsel, and senior director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center."

https://jacobin.com/2026/04/dark-money-trump-legacy-projects

#Lobbying #USA #Trump #DarkMoney #Corruption #Clientelism

Dark Money Is Flowing Into Trump’s Legacy Projects

Funneling millions to the Trump administration through undisclosed donations, a slew of corporations and lobbyists are potentially violating disclosure laws to help bankroll the president’s ballroom and other pet projects.

@wdlindsy

#nepotism #clientelism #favoritism #corruption

are not all these crimes or felonies ?

What makes Trump unusual, is the synthesis of Berlusconi's #shamelessness, Andrew Jackson's #grievance (election fraud obsession), Napoleon III's institutional #vandalism (in the name of "people against system"), Longian #clientelism, Chavista #polarization, George Wallace-style cultural #backlash, P.T. Barnum's #hoax culture, Caligula's murderous #arbitrariness, Nero's #narcissism, and Mussolini's corporate strongman aesthetics. Compound into a single organism sustained by #X and #FoxNews
President Trump threatened to increase tariffs on South Korean exports because the country had not ratified a trade deal with the United States quickly enough.
#Korea #USA #trade #tarrifs #economics #clientelism #riggedmarkets
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/business/economy/trump-tariffs-south-korea.html
Trump Says He Will Raise Tariffs on South Korea to 25%

President Trump threatened to increase tariffs on South Korean exports, including cars, citing the country’s slow ratification of a trade deal.

The New York Times
@harld
Een beetje
En krijgen er #projectBeethoven voor terug
#clientelism

@womenknowhistory @earlymodern @histodons @historikerinnen

They argue that #clientelism had a key function in #earlymodern #diplomacy, as the #emdiplomats needed confidants and stable relations both at their home institutions and the place of #diplomatic action in order to fulfil their tasks successfully. Diplomats could be patrons as well as clients. (6/8)

#emdiplomacy

📣New article📝

In "One client, four votes: Ethnopolitical clientelism and its socioeconomic consequences during state capture in Montenegro" Miloš Bešić and Bojan Baća analyzes 33,889 cases from a longtidunal dataset spanning 2007-2020 to show the consequences of clientelism in Montenegro.

https://doi.org/10.1177/00016993241301943

#sociology #socialscience #politicalscience #Montenegro #Clientelism #academicjournals
@sociology @politicalscience @academicchatter

Veranderwens (@[email protected])

#tv-spotjes van de #VVD 'Ik ben #Dilan, en ik sta aan jouw kant' Betaald met de tonnen van bedrijven die invloed kopen op regeringsbeleid https://www.volkskrant.nl/columns-opinie/een-stem-op-de-vvd-is-levensgevaarlijk-voor-de-rechtsstaat~bb83c6fc/

Mastodon.nl

Wherein George Monbiot reminds us that HS2 was originally a Labour project, and "the case for HS2 always was a baggage train of bullshit."

#HS2 #RishiSunak #Labour #GeorgeMonbiot #clientelism

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/28/hs2-fiasco-clientelism-profit-big-projects?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Every time a project like HS2 becomes a costly fiasco, we wonder why. So let me tell you: it’s clientelism

The relationship between those profiting from these big projects and those in power is such that no one truly costs or controls them, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

The Guardian

'Every time a project like #HS2 becomes a costly #fiasco, we wonder why. So let me tell you: it’s #clientelism

The relationship between those profiting from these big projects and those in power is such that no one truly costs or controls them'
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/28/hs2-fiasco-clientelism-profit-big-projects

Every time a project like HS2 becomes a costly fiasco, we wonder why. So let me tell you: it’s clientelism

The relationship between those profiting from these big projects and those in power is such that no one truly costs or controls them, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

The Guardian