As legal immunity expands and institutional safeguards erode, America edges ever closer to a presidency untethered from accountability, writes George Grundy.
THE DAILY AND UNPRECEDENTED corruption of U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration seems to have moved into overdrive this last week, with news that his investment accounts made over 3,700 stock trades in the first quarter of 2026, an astonishing rate of over 40 trades a day.
Time and again, Trump bought stocks just before his government announced beneficial legislation, or juiced share prices by publicly praising the companies he had just invested in. The conflicts of interest and personal corruption are there, in plain sight, just a daily part of the new American political landscape. Trump appears shameless, emboldened, perhaps knowing there is very little left to stop him.
Yet another barrier to Trump doing whatever he pleases was removed earlier this week, as part of Trump’s settlement with the Department of Justice (DOJ), following the bogus claim the President had made for US$10 billion (AU$14.5 billion) in damages (which he said he had suffered following the leak of his tax return data in 2019).
The absurd case, in which Trump was effectively both plaintiff and defendant, never stood a chance in open court, but its abandonment was quickly followed by the DOJ agreeing to a “settlement”, wherein Trump will receive a near US$1.8 billion (AU$2.5 billion) slush fund, with little to no oversight on how it is spent. Trump has said he intends to distribute some of the money to the roughly 1,500 6 January insurrectionists who he pardoned on entering office a second time.
What has received less attention is the late addendum to the DOJ’s settlement, providing an extraordinary blanket immunity to Trump in relation to his tax affairs.
The 19 May announcement, signed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche (who is Trump’s former personal lawyer), stated that:
‘The United States, RELEASES, WAIVES, ACQUITS and FOREVER DISCHARGES each of the Plaintiffs from, and is hereby FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from prosecuting or pursuing, any and all claims...’
To put this in plain language, Trump and his family members have been permanently released from any form of oversight by America’s tax office (the IRS). Any current investigations into the Trump family by the IRS will be dropped immediately and from now on, the entire Trump family will be excused any and all oversight into their tax affairs. Thus, the most corrupt President in American history is no longer subject to the nation’s tax laws.
Back in 2024, the Supreme Court (on which Trump appointed one-third of the judges) ruled that presidents were largely immune from prosecution for “official actions”, a decision widely viewed as defending and encouraging Trump’s lawlessness. Now Trump is immune from prosecution and from taxation. All of this feels very dictator-esque. The next natural step would seem to be immunity from democracy itself and from democratic political removal, something Trump is already working hard to achieve.
A key question in the age of Trump has always been “what wouldn’t he do?” — what red line would even Trump not cross, what moral depravity would he not plumb? Attack his own people? Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) has murdered Americans in the streets. Trump needed to be dissuaded from ordering troops to shoot protesters in the legs.
End democracy? Trump has repeatedly mused on cancelling elections, reasoning that his administration is so successful that elections are barely necessary.
Start a world war? Trump promised to destroy the entire Iranian civilisation only last month.
Drop a nuclear bomb? Trump has spoken with almost erotic fervour about the power of nuclear weapons. In 2019, he actually suggested dropping a nuke to disperse a hurricane off the American coast. Trump made the suggestion in the Oval Office.
One thing we know for sure is that whatever power Trump manages to grab will never be enough. All the fictitious peace prizes, endless billions in corrupt profits and gaudy statues will never sate Trump’s apparently endless need for self-aggrandisement and limitless quest to treat a wound in his soul that will never heal. Giving a man with such a transparently broken psyche near-dictatorial power over the world’s largest economy, not to mention over 5,000 nuclear weapons, puts us all in one of the most dangerous moments humanity has ever encountered.
The physical manifestations of American ruin are already in plain view. Trump concreted over the White House’s once beautiful Rose Garden. The East Wing is now a hole in the ground, and Washington’s Reflecting Pool (built as a contemplative municipal space) is being transformed into a gaudy resort swimming pool. Trump is tearing America down, physically and institutionally. He is very close to ending the American experiment and effectively becoming America’s first dictator. He must be stopped.
One more thing. For many years, Trump insisted that he would release his taxes once an IRS audit, which he claimed was ongoing, was resolved. Trump is now no longer subject to any form of audit and any investigation of his tax affairs was stopped this week by the Justice Department. Presumably, we will see his tax returns shortly.
George Grundy is an English-Australian author, media professional and businessman. You can follow him on Twitter @georgewgrundy.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
Support independent journalism Subscribe to IA.
Related Articles
- Trump now placed to end U.S. democracy
- Donald Trump is trashing the Australian economy
- CARTOONS: Mark David's timing is off
- Disruption without a plan: Trump’s chaos could trigger global change
- CARTOONS: Donald Trump is 'firing' off, mid-war
