Letters from an American - The Most Corrupt U.S. Administration in History

Episode Date: May 16, 2026

Vance visits Maine and claims the Trump administration is combating endemic fraud in our public services. States that don't comply with federal rules will have funds cut. Admin will withhold $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments from California. Admin and Republicans blaming political opponents for their own fraud and corruption. Admin seems nervous after seeing Orban dumped. Trump’s administration labeled the most corrupt in history. Trump fired or demoted 20 inspectors-general, pocketed $4B from crypto, freed/pardoned cronies for money. Trump's sons and son-in-law are using their political connections to build private wealth. Trump uses his Birthday UFC White House fight to funnel more money to supporters. Trump visits China with delegation of billionaires. Trump's lawsuit with the IRS. Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribeYou can also find me: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

May 14th, 2026. Vice President J.D. Vance was in Maine today to tout what the Trump administration claims is its push to combat fraud in public services. Vance blamed Democrats for fraud in Medicaid programs and vowed that the Trump administration would stop such fraud by refusing to distribute funds to states that were not cooperating with the federal government's anti-fraud efforts. He announced yesterday the administration, intends to withhold $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments from California. This alleged push against fraud is part of an old playbook the Republicans have used since at least 2000, in which they accuse the Democrats of their own weak points and misdeeds. This play was often associated with Republican strategist Carl Rove, but in 2024,

Caroline Wazer of Snopes noted that it is a is most usually associated with Nazi propaganda in the 1930s. Accusing opponents of what you yourself are doing muddies the waters and makes it hard for real accusations against you for the same thing to stick. Experts say fraud in federal programs is a real problem, but that it is carried out primarily by transnational criminal organizations, not by individual recipients.

rhetoric claims a high rate of improper payments, but the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services itself stresses that improper payment measurement is not a measure of fraud. Rather, that term identifies payments where the paperwork provided by the state or provider was incomplete. Those numbers have been high recently because the government allowed states greater flexibility during the COVID-19 public health emergency. According to the nonpartisan Maine Center for Economic Policy, Maine care is overseen by both state and federal agencies and the most recent federal review found that only about 0.1% of total program spending was in incorrect payments. Indeed, last month, Reed Shaw of Just Security noted that the administration's claim to be rooting out fraud appears simply to be

a new way to punish perceived political enemies that might have a better chance of getting through the courts than the administration's previous attempts did. Accusing Democrats of fraud will also accomplish the political goal of muddying the waters to make it harder for voters to see that the Trump administration is the most corrupt U.S. administration in history. And concern about voters' perceptions of corruption must be uppermost in the minds of administration advisors right now, since new Hungarian prime minister Pater Majar's landslide victory over Trump ally Victor Orban was driven in large part by voters' fury at Orban's corruption. Muddying the waters for voters is the best the Trump administration can

hope for, because for all the administration's claims to be fighting fraud, Trump's corruption is mind-boggling. He has fired or demoted 20 inspectors general, the people key to oversight, and in 2024 alone, the people he has since fired or sidelined identified more than $50 billion in waste and abuse. Matthew Purdy and Luke Broadwater of the New York Times noted in March that in both terms, as of March 26, Trump has also pardoned or commuted the sentences of more than 70 donors or allies who were convicted of fraud. One, Philip S. Forms, was convicted of stealing $1.3 billion from Medicare. Stephen Greenhouse of The Guardian reminded readers today

that in January, David D. Kirkpatrick of the New Yorker reported that the Trumps have pocketed about $4 billion, primarily through cryptocurrency enterprises. Greenhouse notes that Trump's sons Eric and Don Jr. have invested in a drone manufacturer that is trying to sell weapons to Gulf countries currently at risk from the war their father started in Iran, and that the Pentagon recently awarded a $24 million contract to a robotic startup for which Eric is the chief strategy advisor. Even as Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is acting as a chief negotiator for the U.S. in the Middle East, he's been trying to raise $5 billion from investors there

for his investment firm. Saudi Arabia's public investment fund, a sovereign wealth fund overseen by Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman or MBS, has already invested to $2 billion with Kushner. And then there are Trump's vanity projects to remake the national capital, As Greenhouse notes, corporations and billionaires

have dropped millions of dollars in donations for Trump's ballroom where the East Wing used to be and his proposed presidential library in Miami. In December 2025, Karen Eurish, Kenneth P. Vogel and Charlie Smart of The New York Times estimated that Trump had raked in more than $2 billion for his projects or causes, more than half a billion of it from 340,000,

146 people who each gave at least $250,000. Some of those people have received presidential pardons, others have been given jobs, and all have received access to the president. On May 11th, Jonathan Allen, Peter Nicholas, Matt Dixon, Henry J. Gomez, and Alan Smith of NBC News reported that Trump is using the planned Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC event to be held on his birthday on the White House lawn as a new way for donors to funnel money to him. Although the UFC is paying for the event and expects to lose as much as $30 million on it, and although tickets are technically free, Trump is picking who gets most of the tickets. Sponsorship packages that include ringside seats have been selling for a million dollars or more. Neither the White House nor the UFC would comment on where the money is.

going. A Republican lobbyist told the NBC news journalists, it's basically been added to the list of approved entities to give undisclosed money to and get credit with Trump. They're raising a ton of money, and have used it as another unofficial vehicle for corporate donors to give and gain favor with Trump. And now Trump is in China on a state visit on which he took along 17 CEOs of companies, of companies, many of which do business in China, including billionaires Elon Musk and Tim Cook of Apple. Together, the members of the delegation are worth more than a trillion dollars.

Trump also took his son Eric, who runs the family business. As economist Paul Krugman said today, he might as well have been walking around Beijing with a sign that says, in block capitals, of course, this is Trump, bribe me. On Tuesday, a group of Miami residents sued Trump, his library fund, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Miami-Dade College and its trustees, and Florida officials to stop the construction of Trump's presidential library, charging that state officials violated the Constitution's emoluments clause

when they transferred almost three acres of prime waterfront land worth between $67 million and $300 million, to Trump's library foundation for $10. Trump has already said he wants to build a hotel on the site rather than a traditional library. Andrew Duren and Alan Fuhr of the New York Times reported Tuesday that the Department of Justice was working with Trump to settle his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, after a contractor during Trump's first term

leaked tax returns from thousands of wealthy individuals to the media. The Department of Justice and Trump were eager to settle before the judge in the case could rule on whether the case was valid, a decision that could easily go against Trump since he was both the plaintiff and, as the person overseeing the IRS, the defendant in the lawsuit. This evening, Catherine Fowler's Peter Harrelambus, and Alexander Malin of ABC News reported that Trump is in talks to drop the lawsuit in exchange for the

government's establishing a $1.7 billion fund to compensate those of Trump's allies who claim they were harmed by the Biden administration's alleged weaponization of the Department of Justice. Those eligible for payments from this taxpayer-funded account would include nearly 1,600 people convicted of committing crimes related to the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. People Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of shortly after he took office in January 2025. While Trump himself will probably be barred from direct payments, entities associated with him will not be. A spokesperson for Trump's legal team told the ABC News reporters,

President Trump continues to hold those who wrong America and Americans accountable. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, dead of Massachusetts, recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.