Commentary by Stephen Macaulay
On Friday October 17, Donald Trump put this on his social media platform:
“George Santos was somewhat of a 'rogue,' but there are many rogues throughout our Country that aren't forced to serve seven years in prison. I started to think about George when the subject of Democrat Senator Richard 'Da Nang Dick' Blumenthal came up again. His War Hero status, and even minimal service in our Military, was totally and completely MADE UP. This is far worse than what George Santos did, and at least Santos had the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN! George has been in solitary confinement for long stretches of time, and by all accounts, has been horribly mistreated. I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY. Good luck George, have a great life!”.
George Santos, who was elected to Congress in 2020, was voted out of office in 2023 by a bi-partisan majority.
Santos was to plead guilty in 2024 to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft; he went to prison on July 25, which means this “rogue” spent just over 3% of his seven-year sentence in prison.
***
On October 23 Donald Trump granted a pardon to Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Zhao was convicted of violating US anti-money laundering laws; he pled guilty and was sentenced to four months in prison, which he served last year. He also paid a $50-million fine.
Binance the company pled guilty to the charge of bypassing sanctions and was ordered to pay $4.3 billion. The cryptocurrency company was reportedly involved in transactions that facilitated monetary activities of various terrorist organizations (e.g.,
Al Qaeda, ISIS) as well as child sexual exploitation networks.
As a press release from the Department of Justice from November 2023 put it:
“’Binance turned a blind eye to its legal obligations in the pursuit of profit. Its willful failures allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers through its platform,’ said Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen. ‘Today’s historic penalties and monitorship to ensure compliance with US law and regulations mark a milestone for the virtual currency industry. Any institution, wherever located, that wants to reap the benefits of the US financial system must also play by the rules that keep us all safe from terrorists, foreign adversaries, and crime or face the consequences.’”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described Zhao’s conviction as part of the Biden administration’s “war on cryptocurrency.”
Sounds like a “war on terror,” medium of exchange notwithstanding.
Of course, there would have been no convictions had the Biden administration simply ignored the law.
But there’s the little issue of Article II, Section 3 of the US Constitution, which says the president is obligated to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”
Something that seems so pre-January 2025.
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On July 31 Donald Trump said that the construction of the White House ballroom wouldn’t have an impact on the then-existing building, which he described himself as being “the biggest fan of.” He said there would be “total respect to the existing building.”
On October 20, the White House East Wing demolition commenced.
On October 21 the official White House website included an article that described the public reaction to the demolition as being “manufactured outrage” that is largely among “unhinged leftists and their Fake News allies.”
As of October 24, the East Wing of the White House is completely demolished.
“Total respect.”
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Let’s go back to the George Santos case. He pled guilty. He was convicted.
But the whole rationalization related to Richard Blumenthal is, well, not particularly reasonable.
Blumenthal acknowledged in 2010 that he had mispresented his military service.
He was in the US Marine Corps Reserve during the war in Vietnam. He was not deployed to Vietnam during that time.
After The New York Times broke the story in 2010 Blumenthal held a press conference and said took “full responsibility” for being insufficiently clear about what he did or didn’t do (i.e., serve in Vietnam).
Blumenthal was in the Marine Reserve for six years.
So while he didn’t serve in Vietnam, he served in the military.
Which means what Donald Trump describes as “minimal service in our Military, was totally and completely MADE UP” wasn’t made up. Blumenthal did serve.
Donald Trump did not serve in the military in any capacity (stints as Commander in Chief notwithstanding).
He had four student deferments during the 1960s and a fifth medical deferment (bone spurs in his heels).
What does this have to do with George Santos, who pled guilty of wire fraud and aggressive identity theft?
Nothing.
But, as Donald Trump put it, “Santos had the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!”
Odds are Blumenthal, US Senator representing Connecticut, a Democrat, doesn’t “ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!”
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Then Zhao and Binance.
Zhao did his time. And paid a fine. Binance paid big, too.
Again, the pleas were of guilt.
It could be argued that the reason there were guilty pleas was simply out of convenience: better to spend a few months in prison (more than Santos, however) and spend billions of dollars than go through some legal slog.
For Zhao the slate is clean.
He can now resume his position as CEO of Binance and the company can return to business in the US.
Asked about the pardon, Donald Trump said, “A lot of people say he wasn’t guilty of anything.”
And who might “a lot of people be”?
And didn’t Zhao plead guilty? Do people do that when they aren’t guilty?
While this gets a little tricky, DT Marks DeFi LLC owns 60% of WLF Holdco, which controls World Liberty Financial. DT Marks DeFi is a Trump-affiliated company.
World Liberty Financial is largely — but not exclusively — run by Donald Trump and his family.
World Liberty Financial is hosted by Binance.
Go figure.
***
Finally, the East Wing.
Donald Trump, throughout his career, has positioned himself as a Master Builder.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly in September, apropos of seemingly nothing, he said this:
“Many years ago, a very successful real estate developer in New York, known as Donald J. Trump, I bid on the renovation and rebuilding of this very United Nations complex.
“I remember it so well. I said at the time that I would do it for $500 million, rebuilding everything. It would be beautiful. I used to talk about, ‘I'm going to give you marble floors, they're going to give you terrazzo.’ The best of everything. ‘You're going to have mahogany walls, they're going to give you plastic.’ But they decided to go in another direction, which was much more expensive at the time, which actually produced a far inferior product. And I realized that they did not know what they were doing when it came to construction and that their building concepts were so wrong, and the product that they were proposing to build was so bad and so costly, it was going to cost them a fortune. And I said, ‘And wait until you see the overruns.’ Well, I turned out to be right.”
Perhaps the people at the UN had an inkling of what would happen were they to turn the project over to the Trump Organization.
It is also interesting that Donald Trump has been acutely critical of Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell for the construction cost overruns for the renovations of the Federal Reserve headquarters.
The initial estimate was $1.9 billion. It is now up to $2.5 billion. That’s an increase of 31.6%.
Powell’s job was rumored to be at risk because of the cost overruns at the Fed HQ.
The East Wing has been torn down. No construction work other than that has been undertaken.
Yet the cost for the ballroom has gone from $200 million to $300 million. That’s an increase of 50%.
“And I said, ‘And wait until you see the overruns.’ Well, I turned out to be right.”
Macaulay is pundit-at-large at The Hustings.