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The cost of Donald Trump’s garish ballroom that’s replacing the East Wing of the White House keeps increasing, from $200 million to $300 million and now $350 million in a matter of days. That’s because the cost of construction isn’t nearly as important as having an inventory of donations available for corporate America to pony up. These contributions—or if you prefer, bribes—work in two directions. One, they represent cash that companies can give to secure favors from the government. Two, they serve as a disciplining function from Trump: People giving to his ballroom can’t easily speak out against his abuses of power. It’s no real surprise that the formal editorial page of The Washington Post offered a limp defense of the ballroom, when the company founded by the Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos, is one of the donors.
The White House has said it would allow ballroom donors to remain anonymous, but they’re the ones who put out all the names of the donors. The double game of bribery and disciplining only works if the names are public, and it certainly wouldn’t do for Trump to pay for his own ballroom out of a $230 million extortion from the Justice Department; that wouldn’t leave any room to demand tribute from the corporate sector.
The result is among the most corrupt displays in American history, with a president agreeing to do corporations’ bidding in exchange for financing a personal shrine and staying aligned for the duration of his presidency. We’ve seen other instances of personal self-aggrandizement and favor-trading, from pardoning convicted felons who partner with his crypto company to handing out contracts to businesses linked to his family to letting personal friends and patrons fund the Defense Department. (That’s all just in the last week!) But the ballroom is literally being built on a foundation of corruption, as a monument to it, on the very grounds of the White House.
Which raises the question: What do all these companies in on the ground floor, so to speak, really want? Most of the companies that officially donated to the Trump ballroom have been in the Prospect’s crosshairs for some time, and in going back through our archives we can divine why they’re debasing themselves to play this corrupt game.
Click through to read a rundown of the companies—and their interests—ranging from Silicon Valley oligarchs and crypto seeking a return on investment to old-fashioned antitrust cover-ups and monopolization. |
