A No-Bid Contract to Rat Out Immigrant Minors

The Trump administration didn’t put that in writing, of course. It didn’t have to.

I wrote in July about how Donald Trump, despite rhapsodizing about the virtues of competitive bidding (“it sharpens their game, makes them bid competitively on price, and encourages them to give me the best quality product possible”) doesn’t practice competitive bidding when he plays with somebody else’s money. Trump’s a pro-bid businessman turned no-bid president.

After my article appeared, a chastened White House sent a government-wide memo telling agencies to stop giving out no-bid contracts. Just kidding! The no-bid contracts march on. The nonprofit Project on Government Oversight, or POGO, estimated the Trump administration spent $265 million on no-bid contracts in 2025. In 2026 POGO projects the number will be closer to $300 million.

The New York Times reported August 1 that Trump paid almost $7 billion to purchase, on a no-bid basis, 11 icebreakers—more than twice as many as the Coast Guard has said it needs. Most of these will be from Finland, per an agreement with its president, Alexander Stubb, hashed out while Trump and Stubb played a round of golf. But to calm any Buy America objections, the Trump administration also contracted with an American company, Bollinger Shipyards in Raceland, Louisiana. That’s a no-bid contract, too. Bollinger’s chief executive, the Times reports, has donated $1.7 million to Republican candidates over the past decade.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported last month that Trump’s sons Donald, Jr., and Eric have invested in........

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