Grift and Graft, the twin pillars of Trump’s presidency, are the basis of his latest and most daring ploy—awarding himself a $1.776 billion slush fund of taxpayer money to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary, and distributing the money with no public accounting, large chunks going to January 6 insurrectionists no less.

It is a complete bastardization of that dark day’s assault on the Capitol, and conjures for me the children’s nursery rhyme, “Sing a Song of Six Pence”—the wicked king is in the counting house while workers get their minimal daily wage and whiskey. Well, we could all use a drink.

Is it just another stop on the president’s petty revenge tour? Another attempt to rewrite history and turn those who violently assaulted our Capitol—and members of the Capitol Police Department—into wronged patriots? Or could it be something darker, as Democrat Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, told Rachel Maddow: an attempt “to fund or pre-fund Trump’s private militia.”

It’s astonishing how many streams of income Trump and his family have tapped into, coupled with self-aggrandizing projects like the Trump Kennedy Center, the East Wing ballroom, the gold coins with his likeness, the gold Trump cards, the banners (not gold, but oh well) with his face on unfurled outside the Department of Justice, and the planned 250-foot-high arch that would tower over the Lincoln Memorial and present potential danger to pilots........

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