Corruption Watch: Prosecuting Enemies, Separating Families, Renovating a Ball Room While ‘Peasants’ Lose Healthcare, and More

Donors to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott received roughly $950 million in state contracts during emergencies from 2020 to 2024

The government is shut down. Republicans want to cut subsidies for Affordable Care Act health insurance premiums and Democrats aren’t letting them, so the government is shut down. Remember, no one is born wanting to deprive people of lifesaving healthcare. According to Open Secrets, the healthcare industry spent $752 million lobbying in 2024.

Trump took key steps into authoritarianism this week, according to Democracy Docket. He’s deploying the federal government to target his enemies. Trump’s Department of Justice indicted former FBI Director James Comey, who could serve as many as five years in prison if found guilty of lying during Senate hearings.

Trying to intimidate us into self-censorship. Trump also signed an executive order declaring investigations into “domestic terrorism” at liberal nonprofits. He also specifically announced investigations into George Soros’ Open Society Foundation (OSF), among other supporters of liberal democracy. OSF’s president, Binaifer Nowrojee, told NPR, “This is about the United States slowly losing its democracy bit by bit in ways that we’ve seen elsewhere in the world.” At The Dissident, Alejandra Caraballo, writes, “They are betting that the threat of investigation will be enough to dismantle the networks of opposition. They are betting that funders will flee, activists will stay home, and organizations will collapse under legal bills… Our job is to prove them wrong.”

More retribution, through budget cuts. The Trump administration canceled almost $8 billion in green energy projects for 16 states, which also happen to be blue states, reports PBS. The Trump administration also announced that it will withhold $18 billion in federal funding for transportation infrastructure from New York, in an attempt to pressure Democrats to help reopen the government.

The Trump administration is separating children from parents as a tactic to coerce self-deportation, according to new devastating reporting from The Guardian. “The DHS has said it always gives parents a choice,” reads the report. “But in each of the cases reviewed by the Guardian, lawyers said their clients weren’t offered a real choice. In some instances, parents were not fully informed of their options prior to being separated from their children. In others, none of the available options were safe, or possible.” There are no adequate words.

Deals for donors in Texas. Donors to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s political action committee, Texans for Greg Abbott PAC, received roughly $950 million in at least 89 state contracts during declared emergencies from 2020 to 2024, according to a new report, Awarding Influence, from Public Citizen. The report focuses on no-bid contracts. “People lose faith in their government when they see a system that appears to benefit those who can buy access to elected officials,” Adrian Shelley, the Texas director of Public Citizen, told Common Dreams. “Even when no laws are broken, insider dealing undermines confidence in state government. People conclude that the government works for wealthy people first and everyday Texans second.”

With friends like these. The U.S. is putting up $20 billion in public funds to help Trump’s ally President Milei of Argentina ahead of approaching elections. U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent said that US support for Argentina would be “unconditional” before promising the loan – to a country that has infamously defaulted on its debt many times. In the Financial Times, former U.S. Treasury officials Brad Setser and Stephen Paduano walk through how, “Javier Milei has taken a chainsaw to his own government’s spending but he has shown no objections to tapping the public funds of others.” This massive bailout comes as the U.S. government is $37 trillion in debt, stripping at least a trillion dollars in funds for its own citizens’ food and healthcare programs, and has cut $8 billion in funding to USAID programs that helped with problems like malaria. What did the U.S. get in return? Argentina made a trade deal with China that has already decreased the market price of American soybeans.

State violence is becoming (more) routine. Last week at Federal Plaza in New York City, an ICE agent threw a woman accompanying her husband to the ground, in front of her young children. This week, that ICE agent was back at work patrolling the courthouse. In addition, ICE agents assaulted and injured a photojournalist for amNewYork, the paper reports. You can read Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman and New York City Comptroller Brad Lander’s letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in response here. Meanwhile, after a massive raid in Chicago, Trump is saying that the city could become “a military training ground.”

Let them eat cake. California Governor Gavin Newson’s press office has drawn attention to President Trump carrying on with construction on a White House ballroom during the government shutdown by likening him to Marie Antionette: “NO HEALTHCARE FOR YOU PEASANTS, BUT A BALLROOM FOR THE QUEEN!” There’s an AI-generated image of Trump, if you need a laugh.