The first month of Donald Trump's second term as President of the United States has unfolded about how we all thought it would. As we at Move to Amend know too well, corruption and bribery have long been ugly facets of American governance. For Trump and his new Gilded Age cronies, however, corruption seems to be the priority.
One of Trump's more recent moves was signing an executive order freezing enforcement of the Federal Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), a law prohibiting companies operating in the United States from bribing foreign officials to influence business dealings in those countries.
Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International said the FCPA made the United States a leader in addressing global corruption - to the point that many countries have since adopted identical statutes. According to Gary Kalman, executive director of Transparency International U.S., Trump's order "diminishes - and could pave the way for completely eliminating - the crown jewel in the U.S.'s fight against global corruption."
The FCPA has been used by the Justice Department to win massive settlements from corporate bad actors such as Glencore, Walmart, and Goldman Sachs. In fact, Trump himself faced FCPA constraints attempting to build a hotel in Azerbaijan over a decade ago. Perhaps most telling, however, is that the FCPA was just recently used to win settlements totaling over $1.5 billion from suppliers and subsidiaries of Tesla, the electric vehicle company infamously run by Elon Musk, Trump's billionaire campaign financier and newest partner in crime.
Trump's order pauses enforcement of the FCPA for 180 days and, in an unusual move, directs new Attorney General Pam Bondi to not only prepare new guidelines for enforcement, but also review current and past actions related to the law to determine whether any FCPA enforcement actions were "inappropriate." Among these prior enforcement actions Bondi is set to review, there are at least four cases that involve Tesla suppliers or their subsidiaries.
On the same day Trump signed the order, the Justice Department also told federal prosecutors to drop their corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who has pleaded not guilty of accepting illegal campaign funds and gifts in exchange for his influence as mayor.
This example of Trump's blatant corruption (one of many) comes just one week after a Trump appointed federal judge permanently blocked a 2023 Minnesota foreign influence campaign finance statute that prohibited companies with foreign investors from making campaign contributions in Minnesota elections.
The Minnesota law, supported by Move to Amend's Minnesota affiliate, represented a huge step in the fight against corporate influence over elections. The enjoining of this law encapsulates the struggle to enact common sense statutory reforms to limit runaway corporate power that will not eventually be overturned, and is exactly why we need the We The People Amendment to settle this Constitutional dispute once and for all.
It is pretty obvious what is going on here. For scoundrels like Trump and Musk, corruption is the norm - it is how they amassed the influence they currently have. Trump's purported reasoning for getting rid of the FCPA is that "so many others are corrupt, we’re fools for playing by the rules." Lately in the current topsy turvy political world, every accusation seems to be a confession. Trump himself is corruption personified, and so he and his cronies envision a world that is just as corrupt as they are. A nefarious element of this targeting of the FCPA is that it will, in effect, open the floodgates for a "wild west" of international business, encouraging companies to engage in unfair business practices to remain competitive.
It's been said before, but enough is enough. It is well past time for this circus to come to an end. We are in the midst of a new Gilded Age, one more corrupt and unequal than ever before. The corporate capture of our government will be the end of us if we do not nip it in the bud. We need to take the lessons from the first Gilded Age and usher in a new era of progressive reform in response, just as our predecessors did. It is not going to happen on its own, we must seize our power and be the change we want to see. This new era starts with the We The People Amendment and a government that is truly accountable to the people, not corrupt private interests.
We are excited to continue meeting this challenge head on - and we invite you to join us in forging a better world. We will be having an online training session about Organizing for the We The People Amendment next Monday, March 10th @ 5:30 pm PT/ 8:30 ET via Zoom (RSVP HERE). For those unable to join, please visit movetoamend.org for plenty of other ways you can get involved, or consider making a grassroots donation using the button below.
As always, keep fighting the good fight!
In solidarity,
Tara, Cole, Alfonso, Shelly, George, Daniel, Kelsey, Jennie, Keyan, Michael, Katie, Cat, Hanaan, Jason, Jessica, & Greg
Move to Amend National Team
