Where Sympathy Ends

I had a discussion with my friend Pete Strzok about struggling with sympathy for Trump's scam victims.

While recording the bonus episode of Cleanup on Aisle 45 the other day with Pete Strzok, we began discussing the nosedive taken by trump’s DJT stock, and while he and his wealthy friends could walk away with millions, the hundreds of thousands of small MAGA cult investors conned into buying shares will see at least half their investment all but disappear. 

I began to struggle with whether to laugh at them, or feel sorry for them.

On one hand, if you don’t know by now that every dollar you give to this con-man will be lost, then shame on you. But on the other hand, I’ve long stood up for victims of predatory scam artists. Do these folks know, for example, that the Securities and Exchange Commission issued high risk warnings for DJT? Or that he owes nearly half a billion dollars in fines for fraud? Or that his business was convicted on 17 felony counts of defrauding taxpayers? Or that his charity stole from veterans and children with cancer and was forced to close and none of them can operate a charity in New York now? Or that millions of dollars raised through political emails have been funneled through shell companies to unknown recipients? Or that he’s filed for bankruptcy half a dozen times, or had to shut down his steak business, his wine business, or pay settlements on his fraudulent university? 

Maybe they truly don’t know.

I wonder because I think of all the wealthy people who have long scammed people using predatory tactics. I stand with people who are receiving student loan forgiveness because of predatory lending practices and high interest rates. I stand with the victims of the subprime car loan king who illegally repossessed cars from active duty military members by posing as a florist, or by charging exorbitant interest rates. (That was the guy who guaranteed trump’s bond in his $464M fraud case, by the way.) I think about the victims of subprime mortgages who didn’t need assets or income to qualify and didn’t understand their interest rate would triple after five years - or were told not to sweat it because real estate never crashes and they could refinance before the five year arm expired. 

Scams like that is why the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau exists. To protect us from junk fees and predatory lenders - both of which republicans have sued to block. It’s why agencies like the EPA, FDA, USDA, HHS, NIH and ATF exist - to keep our air and water protected from wealthy profiteers, to keep our medications and food safe, to enact common sense gun and tobacco regulations, and to develop life-saving vaccines. All of which the republicans are trying to block because it limits the profits the wealthy can stockpile on the backs of citizens. 

It’s why Biden funded the IRS with the Inflation Reduction Act - to go after wealthy tax cheats that deprive us of revenue to fund these agencies and programs like social security and medicare. All of the things the bought-and-paid for, corrupt supreme court are after - so they can strip power from the agencies that protect us and allow the wealthy to continue to profit off of us while the IRS remains underfunded. Record profits from deregulation and no one to look out for the little guy. We should look out for the Supreme Court ruling effecting the Chevron Doctrine later this week.

So on one hand, do I feel bad for those who have fallen victim to trump’s scams in the same way my heart goes out to folks who’ve been tricked by the wealthy to forgo their own lives, liberty, and happiness to benefit the richest of the rich? Or do I believe that if by now you are unable to see that everything trump does is part of a scam to separate you from your money, then I’m afraid you never will.

~AG