The Trump era will be recalled for many things: mentally unstable Donald "The Chosen One" Trump's cruelty to families at the Mexican border, his bullying of individual citizens, his undermining of our alliances and support for Moscow's strategic goals, his racism and misogyny, his pathological lying, his impeachment and so much more. Certainly, the pervasive, open grifting by Trump, his family, and his allies will go down in history as unique and perverse.
Aside from his nepotistic children, one of the glaring examples of shameless grifting is Trump's 2020 campaign manager, bearded alt-right propagandist Brad Parscale. Parscale has been profiting handsomely from his position, siphoning off donor funds to his and other allied businesses, buying multi-million dollar homes and a Ferrari. He's made sure to grease the palms of Trump family members and hangers-on, including Eric Trump's wife Lara and Greasy Don Jr.'s mistress Kimberly Guilfoyle, as a recent New York Times article noted. That same article describes how Parscale has managed to rope the Republican National Committee into the Trump campaign (and his own business dealings):
"President Trump’s campaign manager and a circle of allies have seized control of the Republican Party’s voter data and fund-raising apparatus, using a network of private businesses whose operations and ownership are cloaked in secrecy, largely exempt from federal disclosure.
Working under the aegis of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, with the cooperation of Trump appointees at the Republican National Committee, the operatives have consolidated power — and made money — in a way not possible in an earlier, more transparent analog era. Since 2017, businesses associated with the group have billed roughly $75 million to the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and a range of other Republican clients. [snip]
Elected Republicans have learned the political peril of insufficient fealty. Now, by commanding the party’s repository of voter data and creating a powerful pipeline for small donations, the Trump campaign and key party officials have made it increasingly difficult for Republicans to mount modern, digital campaigns without the president’s support." (our emphasis)Rest assured that that "powerful pipeline for small donations" will find a way into Parscale's ever deepening pockets. Perhaps by November, he'll have enough to buy another million-dollar mansion and a second Ferrari, to which we say to Trump's gullible base, suckers!
(photo: Big-time grifter Parscale hawking a "KAG" cap, that he gets a piece of the sales for.)
