It’s a Shit-Show: The Revolving Door of Stupid

By Rob C.

Art by Adam Zyglis

TL;DR: Grab your popcorn—if you can still afford it before the fertilizer shortage turns your local grocery store into a museum of things you used to eat.

The curtain went up, and the show is in its 7th act. The actors are a mix of criminal incompetence and criminal stupidity, and the hits keep coming.

Let me catch you up on this week’s episodes of America: The Grift.

Episode 1: The Trump Crime Family’s Government Contract Bonanza

I’m more than two years old, so I remember when Republicans lost their shit over Hunter Biden trading off his father’s name to secure a cushy position with a company. But you know what? That company wasn’t an American company. It had no business with our government. And Hunter didn’t collude with his father.

Fast forward to 2026, and Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are sitting on boards of companies that are entirely dependent on government approval. Let’s count the ways they’re violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause in Trump’s encore

performance:

Donald Trump Jr. joined the advisory board of Unusual Machines—a drone company that shortly after secured a record $12.8 million contract from Strategic Logix in October 2025 to supply 160,000 components for the U.S. Army. The company also won a Pentagon contract for 3,500 drone motors and other NDAA-compliant parts, with an additional 20,000 components slated for 2026. Don Jr. received 200,000 shares for his role on the board.

Translation: We’re paying for the Trump name with government contracts.

Don Jr. also became a partner at 1789 Capital—a venture firm whose portfolio company Vulcan Elements received a $620 million Pentagon loan. Just a coincidence, I’m sure.

Meanwhile, Eric Trump invested in Foundation Future Industries, a robotics company that won a $24 million Pentagon contract to deploy robots in Ukraine. Eric went on Fox Business to brag about it. No shame. Just straight-up corruption on live TV.

Eric also invested in Xtend, an Israeli drone maker that recently won a Pentagon contract and is among 25 companies selected for the Defense Department’s Drone Dominance Program. Xtend touts its drones as “low cost per kill”—because nothing says “family values” like profiting from death machines.

Oh, and Don Jr. joined the board of BlinkRx, a digital pharmacy that conveniently launched a program one week after Trump sent letters to drug manufacturers directing them to offer direct-to-consumer sales. BlinkRx reportedly told drug companies it “could be involved with running” Trump’s new TrumpRx government website.

This is just another day of violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause. But Hunter Biden’s laptop, right?

Episode 2: The Iran War—Breaking the World for Fun and Profit

The Iran war is going nowhere and Trump couldn’t care less.

The old Pottery Barn rule applies: “You break it, you bought it.” Trump and Netanyahu broke the world economy so Israel could annex Palestine and Southern Lebanon without pushback from Iran. And how’s that working out? 318 million people facing crisis-level hunger. Fertilizer prices up 77%. The Strait of Hormuz closed. Global food production collapsing. But at least Bibi got his land grab, right?

Meanwhile, the Israeli “Defence” Force continues to target journalists because apparently, the truth will make you dead. Can’t have those pesky reporters documenting war crimes when you’re trying to ethnically cleanse Gaza.

Palantir—the company helping Israel’s military with AI targeting systems—is making bank off this nightmare. Which brings us to...

Episode 3: The Nazis Are Out of the Closet

Palantir—you know, the company that’s helping the U.S. spy on its own people and helping the Israelis target journalists for execution—just published a 22-point manifesto drawn from The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West, coauthored by CEO Alex Karp and head of corporate affairs Nicholas Zamiska.

This is a plan for the techno-fascist utopia where you and I are reduced to footnotes to a dead democracy.

Here are some highlights from Palantir’s vision for America:

“Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive.” Translation: We’re ranking cultures, and guess whose culture is at the top? (Hint: not yours.)

“Silicon Valley owes a ‘moral debt’ to the country” by building AI weapons for the military. Translation: Tech companies should profit from war, and if you object, you’re unpatriotic.

The U.S. should consider “moving away from an all-volunteer force” and reinstate the draft. Translation: Your kids should die in wars that billionaires start to protect corporate profits.

“The atomic age is ending. A new era of deterrence built on AI is set to begin.” Translation: AI-powered killing machines are the future, and Palantir wants the contract.

“The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan” was bad, and the “defanging of Germany was an overcorrection.” Translation: We need more militarism, because what could go wrong?

“We must resist the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism.” Translation: Diversity is weakness. Inclusion is for suckers.

This manifesto reads like Mussolini’s fever dream rewritten by a tech bro who thinks he’s a philosopher. One critic called it “not a book at all, but a piece of corporate sales material.” Another said it’s “technofascism.”

And remember: Palantir sells this ideology to defense, intelligence, immigration, and police agencies. These aren’t abstract ideas—they’re the operational principles of the surveillance state crushing you right now. Palantir has a $30 million no-bid contract with ICE to build ImmigrationOS, an AI platform that identifies noncitizens and tracks deportations. It powers ICE’s aggressive deportation machine. It enables mass tracking and raids. And now it’s openly advocating for a techno-fascist vision of America where AI monitors, predicts, and neutralizes threats in everyday life.

This is the plan. They’re telling you what they’re building. And they’re getting paid by your government to do it.

Episode 4: The Price Tag for Corruption

Not only is the Trump crime family cashing in on his presidency, but so are the convicted criminals from his first term.

The In-Justice Department is settling lawsuits that they won.

In March 2026, the DOJ settled a lawsuit with former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn for approximately $1.25 million. He pled guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador. Then Trump pardoned him. Then Flynn sued the government for $50 million claiming wrongful prosecution. And now Trump’s DOJ is paying him $1.25 million of your money.

The DOJ called it “an important step in redressing a historic injustice.” Senator Mark Warner called it “as outrageous as it is indefensible” and said it “sends exactly the wrong message to our adversaries, to our intelligence professionals, and to the American people.”

And don’t blink or you’ll miss the next settlement. This week, the DOJ settled with Carter Page—Trump campaign adviser targeted in surveillance warrants during the Russia probe—for another $1.25 million.

Page sued for $75 million. He got $1.25 million. The DOJ said “No American should ever face covert and unlawful surveillance based on their political views” and called the investigation into Page “a political sham from the get-go.”

Never mind that the investigation was opened during Trump’s first term. Never mind that two of the four FISA warrants were valid. Never mind that neither Flynn nor Page were wrongfully prosecuted—they were investigated for actual crimes and Page was never even charged.

This is beyond normal political corruption. This is Fascism 101: Punish your enemies, reward your allies, loot the treasury, and call it justice.

Trump’s DOJ has already paid $5 million to the family of Ashli Babbitt—the January 6 rioter shot while trying to break into the House Speaker’s Lobby. The Proud Boys are filing lawsuits demanding payouts. And Trump himself filed a claim demanding $230 million from the Justice Department over the Mar-a-Lago search.

“I’m sort of suing myself,” Trump said, acknowledging the absurdity.

The grift goes on and on.

So Enjoy Your Weekend If You Can Afford It

The Trump crime family is cashing in on government contracts. The Iran war broke the world economy so Netanyahu could grab land. Palantir published a fascist manifesto outlining the AI-surveillance dystopia they’re building with your tax dollars. And the DOJ is settling lawsuits by paying convicted criminals millions of dollars for the crime of being investigated.

This is the show. Act 7. And it’s not getting better.

Stay informed. Stay angry.

Because if you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.

F*CK ICE. RELEASE ALL THE FILES!

Please like, share, and subscribe—because the Trump crime family is looting the government, while we struggle to afford groceries.

Follow my work: democracy4sale.substack.com / democracy4sale.com

- Robert Cain, author of “Democracy for Sale: How Corporate Greed Is Corrupting Democracy and Endangering the Planet.” Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and booksellers everywhere.