Trump’s now selling the “Truth”
Insiders get access that you don’t
There’s a reason Donald Trump is leading the movement to make it more difficult to vote. He knows anyone armed with facts will have a tough time greenlighting his circus. Knowledge is power, my Steady friends, and as informed readers, you are the best defense to reclaim our democracy.
If you think the president has accelerated his bewildering, ethics-bending, falsehood-filled conduct as of late, you’re not alone. It is as though he knows — and more importantly, those enabling him know — the clock is ticking on their ability to keep smashing our political and ethical norms.
His latest move is eye-popping, even by Trump 2.0 standards. Late Thursday, as everyone was speculating about the president’s “big news” speech that wasn’t, Trump Media, the parent company of his social media platform, Truth Social, announced it will sell — yes sell — early access to its posts.
Wall Street firms and banks that are willing to pay Trump would get access to posts before everyone else, allowing them to trade and therefore profit from the information. This is White House-sanctioned insider trading with the bonus of lining the president’s already stuffed-by-corruption pockets.
This move has the potential to affect national security and global financial markets. When presidents speak (or post), they often move markets. Remember when Trump posted about enacting tariffs, five hours ahead of the formal announcement? Stocks plummeted. Or when he let the world know the U.S. attacked Iran? Oil futures surged.
“It’s odious, selling access to the highest bidders on Wall Street. Everything he says has market implications,” Dylan Hedler-Gaudette of Project on Government Oversight told Fortune.
The cost to participate in this blatantly unscrupulous “service” was not mentioned, but CEO Kevin McGurn says he expects it to become a “meaningful” revenue source for the struggling company. Trump Media’s share price is down 70% since Inauguration Day.
It is clearly unethical, unprincipled, and corrupt, but, astonishingly, it is not illegal. A decades-old anti-corruption law applies to all federal employees, except the president and the vice president. It was thought that since a president works on so many issues, it would be too difficult to enforce. In practice, all presidents have voluntarily adhered to the spirit of that law. All presidents except this one, perhaps because he believes himself immune from public rebuke.
Trump has mostly enjoyed a pass by many Americans regarding his behavior. After he was elected to a second term, some voters believed if the country is headed in the right direction, so be it. But what happens when the economy is tanking and people can’t afford groceries or health insurance?
A recent YouGov poll now shows the adjectives most Americans associate with Trump are arrogant, opportunistic, reckless, dishonest, and corrupt. Words that don’t apply to Trump? Compassionate, inspirational, honest, and likeable.
His transactional approach to the presidency may finally be backfiring. Just before Trump returned to the White House, an Echelon Insights poll showed that just 8% of Americans said “political corruption” was their biggest issue. In Echelon’s newest poll, that number has more than doubled to 17%. It now polls as Americans’ number two most important issue just behind “cost of living.”
In his second term, Trump has focused on raising his own income rather than elevating the average American’s. Over the past 18 months, Trump’s wealth has exploded. He has added an estimated $3 billion to his net worth, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
Trump’s open exploitation of the gaps in the ethics rules has allowed him and his family to benefit financially in ways no one would have conceived. Between his cryptocurrency ventures, gifted aircraft, and pay-for-pardon schemes, there is almost no area of governance that isn’t tainted by grift.
Eric and Donald Trump Jr. invested heavily in defense and tech companies just weeks after the Iran war began. Those companies were then awarded more than $3 billion in U.S. government contracts, according to The Times of London. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, secured $2 billion from the Saudis in venture capital, while serving as one of the president’s chief negotiators in the Middle East.
Trump, who promised to root out “waste, fraud, and abuse,” still claims to be doing that. According to the White House website, the so-called “Task Force to Eliminate Fraud” is “unleashing an unrelenting, full-scale assault on the fraudsters, scammers, and corrupt operators who have looted billions from American taxpayers.”
The task force wouldn’t have to look far to find the biggest fraudster in town — because Trump claims to have lost money during his second term. “I’m not profiting from anything,” he told reporters.
In the meantime, he is continuing his gaudy remake of the White House and much of the rest of our Capitol. Recently, he decided to replace the grass helipad on the South Lawn with a significantly larger granite one, bypassing federal approvals.
In recent weeks, he has unilaterally littered areas of the White House grounds with bronze statues of Christopher Columbus and Benjamin Franklin, among others.
He is pushing hard to get the Triumphal Arch erected, despite the intentionally slow process for building new monuments in Washington, D.C. To circumvent that long-standing process, Trump has stacked the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation with his cronies in hopes they can change the rules to make such changes easier and quicker.
No one should pretend Trump’s behavior will abruptly change if Democrats regain control of Congress in November, but they will have the ability to do more than just wave as this rolling disaster continues to try to remake our country.
The people in power hope you will stop paying attention. Don’t allow that to happen. Please support independent journalism, especially those willing to speak truth to power, like Steady. Don’t turn away, because the graft, corruption and self-dealing are happening quickly. I thank you for your support!
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Stay Steady,
Dan
2026/06/04
Once again thank you, Dr. Rather for your brilliant description of what is happening. All this unethical, reckless and corrupt behavior is UN precedented. This is a democracy, or at least I thought it was. This villain in the White House doesn’t think so.
And Dan, no need to thank us for our support. We will always be there with you telling the truth and holding STEADY!
Your insight is priceless. Bottom line is, he is running from the law. He does not want to go to jail. These are the underlying principles at work here. It is unabashed self preservation that drives the chaotic machinations of his political team.