Is the Public's Trust Broken?
Full (9-Minute) Version
1500 words | ~10 minutes spoken
Preface: It is mutual trust . . .
that holds human associations together.
(H.L. Mencken (American journalist)
Trust is the easiest thing in the world to lose,
and the hardest thing in the world to get back.
(R.M. William, Australian bush entrepreneur)
Let's see if we can help restore a bit of trust. I'd like to think we can get the facts right, say it together, and repeat it persistently. And form a lasting network of trust going forward.
Here are some ideas for addressing one of the most critical concerns that we all might have. I invite you to use this as a spark or support for your conversations, as a template where you can include your experiences, or as a ready-to-use address for the community that you care about.
Speak it, share it in conversation, share it in your social media.
A Simple Standard
Most of us learned a basic rule early in life: when someone puts their trust in you, you don’t betray that trust to enrich yourself, your family, and your friends.
The Founders pointedly crafted the Constitution to make sure that no President could abuse that public trust to benefit themselves, their family, or their friends. Because the power of office comes from the people it serves, to be used on their behalf. Not to enrich the person who holds the office.
Are those rules holding? Let's review four situations that you can check for yourself. As we examine them, ask yourself: "does this look right?"
One: Pardons in Exchange for Donations
The president has the power to pardon people convicted of federal crimes.
Trevor Milton founded Nikola, an electric vehicle company. A federal jury convicted him of lying to investors. The court was about to order him to repay roughly $680 million to the victims. But Milton and his wife had donated at least $3 million to Trump’s 2024 campaign. Before the court could act, Trump pardoned him.
The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, referred to this as "public corruption.” A bipartisan Congressional group has sent letters to 17 pardon recipients, asking about their financial connections to the president.
Two: The Crypto Coin
Three days before his inauguration, Trump launched his own cryptocurrency, $TRUMP. He personally profits by charging a fee for every trade of $TRUMP.
In April of 2025, he announced that the top 220 investors in the coin by May 12 would be invited to dinner with the president. The top 25 would receive a private reception and White House tour. Some buyers said outright they purchased it hoping for political favors in return.
The price jumped more than 50 percent. The coin generated more than $320 million in trading fees for Trump's family and partners — acquired in mere months from a coin that he promoted as occupant of the Oval Office.
Republican former chair of the House Ethics Committee, Charles Dent, described the arrangement as “completely out of bounds” on ethical, legal, and constitutional grounds.
Let's turn next to family ties.
Three: The Trump Sons, Federal Money, and a Father’s Influence
Four separate business deals, one recurring pattern:
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump invest in a company;
Their father’s administration shapes that industry through executive orders, diplomatic negotiations, or Federal purchasing decisions;
Significant Federal financial commitment and generous profits follow;
Requests for congressional oversight go unanswered.
(1) In August 2025, Trump Jr.’s venture firm took a stake in Vulcan Elements, a rare earth magnet startup. Three months later, at the personal direction of White House adviser Peter Navarro — a close personal friend of Trump Jr.’s — the Pentagon issued the largest loan in its strategic capital office’s history: $670 million, approved in weeks rather than the months normally required. Missing was the independent technical review that a Trump executive order had waived. Vulcan’s valuation jumped tenfold.
(2) In late 2024, both Don Jr. and Eric started advising and buying shares in companies that would position them to profit from government related drone projects. Don Jr. in Unusual Machines, and both brothers in Dominari and American Ventures.
In June and December, 2025, President Trump issued executive orders prioritizing domestic production and banning imports of foreign made drones.
In October, 2025, Unusual Machines received orders from the U.S. Army for drone motors and other components.
Through other acquisitions and mergers, by March 9, 2026, the American Ventures investment won the brothers an interest in Powerus Corp, a military drone company. Unusual Machines also invested in Powerus, and became a supplier of their drone parts.
On April 30, 2026, the Air Force awarded Powerus a contract — the value undisclosed — through a limited procurement order rather than competitive bids.
(3) In August 2025, the brothers invested in Skyline Builders, which through mergers formed Kaz Resources. In September 2025, President Trump joined a call with Kazakhstan’s president and personally helped secure for Kaz Resources the rights to the world’s largest undeveloped tungsten deposit. The U.S. government committed up to $1.6 billion to back the project.
(4) The Trump administration has proposed several rollbacks on gun safety regulation, from narrowing background checks to loosening restrictions tied to mental illness.
Now the Trump ATF wants to allow dealers to mail guns to homes, abandoning in-person pickup and background checks. Gun dealers will use online processes instead. Who would profit? Donald Trump Jr., who has sat on the board of GrabAGun (called the “Amazon of guns”) since March, 2025 and holds a stake in it.
Kathleen Clark, government ethics expert and Professor of Law at Washington University described what she sees across all of these situations: “It’s bribery. It’s graft. It’s exploitation of public power for private financial gain.”
Four investments. Taxpayer dollars directed to companies where family members held stakes. Congressional subpoenas blocked. No disclosure. No accountability. A clear pattern. Does this look right?
Four: The DOJ Agreement
On January 29, 2026, Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against his own government — the IRS and Treasury Department —over a contractor’s leak of his tax returns six years prior. He withdrew the lawsuit on May 18. That same day, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — Trump’s former personal criminal defense lawyer — announced an agreement in Trump’s favor.
So, first Donald Trump personally sued the government he controls. Then he dropped the case, before any judge could look closely. And immediately afterward, his own appointee signed an agreement in his favor. It was called a “settlement.”
Andrew Weissmann, Law Professor and former Assistant U.S. Attorney remarked, “It was entirely collusive. . . . one party making an agreement with the same party.” In plain terms: Trump dictating terms on both sides — escaping tax investigations, and creating a fund to reward those on whose loyalty he depends.
The agreement did two things. First, it created a $1.776 billion fund, using your tax dollars to pay people who believe they were targeted by the government. That might include those convicted of attacking the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. The President appoints, and can remove, five people to manage the fund.
Second — and this stopped legal experts cold — the IRS was permanently barred from conducting any examinations of taxes to date for Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization.
Thirty-five former federal judges petitioned the court to reopen the case. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams asked Trump’s legal team: was this ever a real lawsuit at all, or was it done just to create the appearance that a court had blessed the agreement? Were the court and the public, in the judges’ own words, “the victim of a fraud”?
A second federal judge, Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia, has now ruled the fund unconstitutional and has blocked it. And yet Attorney General Todd Blanche, though he has tried to say the deal is dead, may still move forward with this or a similar scheme to pay out $1.776 billion.
Who is Paying the Price?
Corruption diverts resources from their intended purpose — and toward family, friends, or those willing to pay for favors or access. When a government contract goes to a connected company rather than the most qualified one, the costs ripple outward: the qualified company loses revenue, its employees lose income, and talented workers lose the incentive to excel. Meanwhile, the contract likely delivers less value for the taxpayer's dollar. Worse, when corrupt behavior goes unpunished, others adopt that same behavior to compete. Merit is no longer rewarded; connections are. The quality of goods, services, and of governance declines. The public suffers from lost services, higher costs, and erosion of trust in both business and government. The same business and government which they are counting on to improve their lives.
People get this. In a survey of voters in states where political leanings are somewhat evenly split, people see the problem this way: between 67-70% agreed that
Government is not working for ordinary people;
Politicians are rigging the system to benefit themselves at our expense;
Political corruption is costing taxpayers money.
We can take action
Congress can tighten the laws and penalties for graft, monitor and enforce ethics rules, and assure ethical appointments to Federal offices — while curbing unchecked presidential power. Ask how members of Congress, and prospective members, will use their powers to protect and restore the public's trust. Ask if they will use their powers to hold officials accountable.
Conversations raise awareness. Awareness turns to action. This is not a moment to sit out. Your voice belongs here.
Talk about these issues with your family, friends, faith community, and neighbors. Share reliable information.
One of the most effective tools you have as a citizen is your vote. Plan now to vote in every election: check your registration, make your voting plan, and encourage the people in your life to do the same. Find registration and nonpartisan voting information at vote.org and vote411.org.
Thank you for being here and for being involved.
Sources (in order of appearance)
1. Milton conviction / FEC contributions: U.S. v. Milton, S.D.N.Y.; FEC.gov; CBS News 5/7/26.
2. Bipartisan Congressional probe (17 recipients): CBS News 5/7/26.
3. Cato Institute quote: NPR 5/13/26.
4. $TRUMP coin / dinner announcement / price jump: CNBC 1/17/25; CNBC 4/23/25.
5. Buyers seeking political favors: New York Times, April 2025.
6. Bloomberg 19/25 foreign nationals: Bloomberg analysis, April 2025.
7. Charles Dent quote: NPR / CBS News, April 2025.
8. Chainalysis $320M+ trading fees: Chainalysis, cited CNBC 5/6/25.
9. Vulcan / Navarro / $670M loan: ProPublica, DoD records, 5/28/26.
10. Brothers’ drone investments (Unusual Machines, Dominari, American Ventures, Powerus): SEC filings; CNBC; Bloomberg 4/30/26.
11. U.S. Army orders to Unusual Machines, Oct. 2025: Unusual Machines press release / SEC filing.
12. Drone executive orders (Jun. & Dec. 2025): Federal Register.
13. Powerus Air Force contract, Apr. 30, 2026: Bloomberg 4/30/26; Air Force announcement.
14. Kaz Resources / Kazakhstan tungsten / $1.6B: Financial Times 4/30/26; SEC investor filings; bne IntelliNews.
15. ATF proposed gun rule (not finalized): ATF proposed rulemaking; Reuters; NPR.
16. Trump Jr. GrabAGun board (Dec. 2024); 1.1% stake: Washington Post 7/2/26; company filings.
17. GrabAGun CEO quote: earnings call May 2026; IBTimes 7/3/26.
18. Kathleen Clark quote: Los Angeles Times, citing Clark, professor of law, Washington University in St. Louis; June/July 2026.
19. DOJ lawsuit filing (1/29/26) and dismissal (5/18/26): Senate Finance Committee letter; CBS News 5/18/26.
20. Weissmann NPR quote: NPR 5/20/26.
21. $1.776B fund / Blanche non-denial on Jan. 6 defendants: CBS News 5/20/26; NPR 5/20/26.
22. IRS audit bar: Settlement addendum; CBS News 5/20/26.
23. 35 judges / Judge Williams order: CourtListener.com, Case No. 26-20609-CV-WILLIAMS, DE 65, 5/29/26.
24. Judge Brinkema ruling: E.D. Virginia, Democracy Forward v. Treasury, 6/12/26.
25. Voter registration: vote.org (nonpartisan).
Survey Source: Letter, From: Lake Research Partners, Re: Public Opinion on Affordability, Accountability, and Corruption. August 2026.
Is the Public's Trust Broken?
6-Minute Version
800-word version | ~6.5 minutes spoken
A Simple Standard
Most of us learned a basic rule early in life: when someone puts their trust in you, you don’t betray that trust to enrich yourself and your friends. We apply it to anyone who holds authority over others — police officers, judges, teachers — and especially to the highest offices in the land. The power of office comes from the people it serves, not to enrich the person who holds it.
The Founders wrote the Constitution to prevent exactly that. Are those protections holding? I want to walk through four situations with sourced facts you can check yourself. For each one, ask: does this look right?
One: Pardons in Exchange for Donations
The president has the power to pardon people convicted of federal crimes. That power is real and legal.
Trevor Milton founded Nikola, an electric vehicle company. A federal jury convicted him of lying to investors, and the court was moving toward ordering him to repay $680 million to the people he defrauded. Milton and his wife had donated at least $3 million to Trump’s 2024 campaign — documented in Federal Election Commission filings. Before the court could act, Trump pardoned him.
A bipartisan group of congressional investigators has sent letters to 17 pardon recipients asking about their financial connections to the president. The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, described the pattern as reflecting “an increasingly casual perspective on public corruption.”
The question isn’t whether he had the power to pardon. He did. The question is what the pattern tells us about whose interests are being served.
Two: The Crypto Coin
Three days before his inauguration, Trump launched $TRUMP, his own cryptocurrency, collecting a fee on every trade. In April 2025, he announced that the top 220 investors would be invited to dinner with the president, with the top 25 receiving a private White House reception. The price jumped more than 50 percent. Some buyers said outright they purchased it hoping for political favors.
A Bloomberg analysis found 19 of the top 25 coin holders were likely foreign nationals. Charles Dent, a Republican and former chair of the House Ethics Committee, called the arrangement “completely out of bounds” for ethical, legal, and constitutional reasons. Chainalysis found the Trump family and partners took in more than $320 million in trading fees — in mere months from a coin he created while occupying the Oval Office.
Three: The Trump Sons, Federal Money, and a Father’s Influence
Three deals, one pattern: Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump invest; their father’s administration shapes that industry through executive orders, diplomacy, or purchasing decisions; federal money follows; and oversight requests go unanswered.
(1) Trump Jr.’s firm invested in Vulcan Elements in August 2025. Three months later, at the personal direction of White House adviser Peter Navarro — a close personal friend of Trump Jr.’s — the Pentagon issued the largest loan in its strategic capital office’s history: $670 million, approved in weeks without the independent review which was waived by a Trump executive order. Vulcan’s valuation jumped tenfold.
(2) Beginning in late 2024, the brothers acquired interests in drone companies. President Trump signed orders prioritizing domestic production and banning foreign-made drones. By April 2026, the Air Force had awarded a contract — without competitive bids and value undisclosed — to Powerus, where the brothers were both invested.
(3) The brothers also invested in Skyline Builders, later merged into Kaz Resources. President Trump personally joined a call with Kazakhstan’s president and helped secure for that group the rights to the world’s largest undeveloped tungsten deposit. The U.S. government committed up to $1.6 billion to back the project.
Kathleen Clark, Professor of Law at Washington University and a government ethics expert, described the pattern: “It’s bribery. It’s graft. It’s exploitation of public power for private financial gain.”
Four: The DOJ Agreement
On January 29, 2026, Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS and Treasury Department over a contractor’s leak of his tax returns. He withdrew it on May 18. That same day, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — Trump’s former personal defense lawyer — announced an agreement in Trump’s favor.
The agreement created a $1.776 billion fund from the U.S. Treasury — your tax dollars — controlled by five people Trump appoints and can remove. Weissmann noted that Blanche would not rule out January 6th defendants applying for payments. And the IRS was permanently barred from any future tax examinations of Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization.
So, Trump sued the government he controls, dropped the case, and his own appointee settled it in his favor. Andrew Weissmann, a lead Mueller investigation prosecutor, described it on NPR: “It was entirely collusive. This is just one party making an agreement with the same party.” In plain terms: Trump dictating terms on both sides — escaping tax investigations, and creating a fund which could reward those whose loyalty he depends on.
Thirty-five former federal judges asked the court to reopen the case. Judge Kathleen Williams asked Trump’s team: was this ever a real lawsuit, or was it filed to make a backroom deal look like something a court had blessed? A second judge, Leonie Brinkema, ruled the fund unconstitutional and blocked it by court order.
What’s to Be Done?
The people who can tighten ethics laws, enforce accountability, and curb unchecked presidential power sit in Congress. You hire them. You can fire them — with your vote, your voice, and your presence this November.
Make sure you and everyone you know is registered at vote.org. Vote as if it’s the most important vote you’ll ever cast. For the safety and stability of this country, it may be.
Thank you.
Is the Public's Trust Broken?
3-Minute Version
400-word version | ~3.5 minutes spoken
Most of us learned a basic rule: when someone puts their trust in you, you don’t betray it to enrich yourself and your friends. The Founders built that principle into the Constitution. Tonight I want to ask whether it’s holding.
One. Trevor Milton, founder of Nikola, was convicted of defrauding investors of $680 million. Before the court could order repayment, Trump pardoned him. Milton had donated $3 million to Trump’s campaign — documented in FEC filings. A bipartisan congressional probe is now examining 17 pardon recipients for similar ties. The Cato Institute called the pattern “an increasingly casual perspective on public corruption.”
Two. Three days before his inauguration, Trump launched $TRUMP, his own cryptocurrency. He offered dinner at the White House to the coin’s top 220 buyers, with the top 25 receiving a private White House reception. Some buyers said outright they bought it hoping to influence U.S. policy. Bloomberg found 19 of the top 25 holders were likely foreign nationals. The price jumped more than 50 percent. The Trump family took in more than $320 million in trading fees while he sat in the Oval Office.
Three. Four deals, one pattern: the Trump sons invest; their father shapes that industry through executive orders or diplomacy; federal money follows; oversight is blocked. Trump Jr.’s firm invested in Vulcan Elements — three months later the Pentagon issued a $670 million loan at a friend’s direction, without competitive bidding. Both brothers invested in drone maker Powerus — three months later the Air Force awarded a contract. Both invested in Skyline Builders — President Trump personally helped secure the world’s largest undeveloped tungsten deposit for the group, backed by $1.6 billion in U.S. financing. Congressional subpoenas were blocked every time. Kathleen Clark, Professor of Law at Washington University, called it “bribery… graft… exploitation of public power for private financial gain.”
Four. Trump sued the IRS — his own government — for $10 billion, then dropped the case. His former personal lawyer, now Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, immediately signed a deal in Trump’s favor. Andrew Weissmann called it “entirely collusive.” The deal created a $1.776 billion taxpayer fund Trump’s allies can apply to, and permanently barred the IRS from ever auditing Trump or his family. In plain terms: Trump dictating terms on both sides — escaping tax investigations, and creating a fund to reward those whose loyalty he depends on. A federal judge has ruled the fund unconstitutional. Another is asking whether the court was “the victim of a fraud.”
The people who can fix this, who must fix this, sit in Congress. You hire them. You can fire them.
Register at vote.org. In November, vote as if it’s the most important vote you’ll ever cast. For safety and stability, for the sake of this country, it may be.
Thank you.
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