Donald Trump just made history in the wrong way
Donald Trump continues making history in all the wrong ways. If you followed politics back in 2011, you probably remember the time when Mitt Romney, who would lose the presidency to Barack Obama, told a heckler on the campaign trail in Iowa, “Corporations are people, my friend.” There was strong backlash, and the incident highlights the Republican Party’s devotion to the rich and powerful.
Now, 14 years later, Donald Trump has outdone Romney, taking that sentiment a significant step further. Rather than make an eyebrow-raising, impromptu remark, Trump’s move was far more intentional, through a historic action that he and his sycophants know won’t receive much attention thanks to the supersaturated news cycle filled with scandals and threats of their own creation.
In a presidential first, Trump issued a pardon not only to three executives at BitMEX, a cryptocurrency exchange, but to BitMEX itself. The company was fined $100 million in January for violating the Bank Secrecy Act by operating for years without a compliant anti-money laundering and “know your customer” program, enabling customers to sign up without more than a verified e-mail address. BitMEX is incorporated in the Seychelles and has claimed not to operate in the United States. However, much of its customer base was American.
The Trump administration has not yet released the text of the pardon to the public, which helps them avoid scrutiny and further attention. Now, thanks to Trump, it looks like BitMEX’s culpability has been erased. As Axios observed, “There’s never been a better time to be a white-collar crook” while The Hill emphasized the significance of the move on Monday: “Trump makes history by pardoning a corporation.”
Indeed, pardoning a foreign company that conducted business without regard to U.S. law sends a strong-yet-wrong signal. Trump’s move effectively green-lights greedy individuals and corporations alike to worry less about honesty, legality, and accountability. This is today’s Republican Party, and, as Tuesday’s election results show, voters are paying attention.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month