On Capitulation, Corruption, and Oligarchy
Putin brought the oligarchs to Stalin's dacha to send a message. Trump is relying on lawsuits, for now.
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ALEX’S WEEKLY RANT
News came this week about yet more businesses capitulating to our new president out of fear for their bottom line.
Even before Trump had been sworn in, ABC News settled a defamation lawsuit brought by Trump that probably was easily winnable. The network agreed to fork over $15 million to a “Presidential Library,” which won’t actually be a presidential library—which would be administered by the National Archives—thus making it, in reality, a direct payment to Trump himself.
This week, the New York Times reported that Paramount, parent company of CBS, plans to settle a lawsuit with Trump, as well. Trump had sued CBS’s 60 Minutes, claiming the news show had unfairly edited an interview with Kamala Harris. Most legal experts agreed it was a stupid lawsuit with zero merit. But Paramount was worried that pissing off Trump would blow up a super lucrative business deal. As the Times wrote:
Now Mr. Trump is back in the White House, and many executives at CBS’s parent company, Paramount, believe that settling the lawsuit would increase the odds that the Trump administration does not block or delay their planned multibillion-dollar merger with another company, according to several people with knowledge of the matter.
The Times added:
Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, strongly supports the effort to settle, according to two people with knowledge of her thinking. Ms. Redstone stands to clear billions of dollars on the sale of Paramount, the media empire founded by her father Sumner Redstone, in a deal with Skydance, an entertainment company backed by the billionaire Larry Ellison and run by his son David.
I particularly like this detail that the multibillion-dollar deal involves two nepo babies, in case things didn’t feel corrupt enough already.
Then it was reported that Meta had settled a lawsuit with Trump and agreed to pay $25 million to his library foundation. Trump sued the company in 2021 for kicking him off their platforms in the wake of the January 6th insurrection.
Also this week, Mark Zuckerberg held an all-hands meeting. The audio of the meeting, in which Zuck complained that everything he says gets leaked, was promptly leaked, including the part where Zuck explained how working with government is good for business. “We now have an opportunity to have a productive partnership with the United States government and we’re going to take that. I think it’s the right thing to do,” he said.
I have to wonder if Trump will just start suing everybody in order to force settlements that will then be paid directly to him. Indeed, he and his minions have threatened more lawsuits.
These lawsuits (and threats of lawsuits) are clearly designed to intimidate people and to stop negative coverage. But these settlements are even more cynical than that. They are an admission that Trump is corrupt and that agencies of the US government are corrupt now, too. Paramount is banking on their settlement appeasing Trump so that he leans on the FCC to allow the merger. That’s corruption. And it doesn’t bode well for our future.
See, if the government serves only those willing to pay up and fawn over the leader, the rest of us get left behind.
This is a dominant theme in my Foreign Influence Operations course, because that corruption is necessary for those in power to stay in power. And the influence operations are meant to help support that corrupt system.
I am reminded of something I wrote in Class 2: Putin, Oligarchs, and Russian Intelligence:
In 2000, shortly after taking office, Putin summoned a number of Russia’s top businessmen to a meeting. The location? The dacha of Joseph Stalin. The house, on the outskirts of Moscow, was where Stalin had drawn up his enemies list and planned his purges. Putin explained to the businessmen that they would be free to loot Russia, as long as they gave him half of whatever they made. The men took one look at their symbolic surroundings and readily agreed. It was a better option than an ice axe to the head, which is how Stalin managed his disagreements with Leon Trotsky.
The result was a total merging of criminality and the state. At its core, Russia had become a mafia state run by gangs and thugs, with the state the biggest gang around. As Garry Kasparov (chess champion and Russian dissident) has said, "Russia is a mafia state today, and Putin is its top godfather."
We’re well on our way to suffering from a similar corrupt system.
THE WEEK’S LINKS
A roundup of things you should be reading
WHY RUSSIA MUST LOSE IN UKRAINE
The real reason Russia invaded Ukraine (The Hill)
RUSSIA’S WAR AGAINST THE WEST
At least 11 Baltic cables have been damaged in 15 months, prompting NATO to up its guard (Stars and Stripes)
TRUMP REWRITING HISTORY
Alex Finley is a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, where she served in West Africa and Europe. She writes and teaches about terrorism, disinformation / covert influence, and oligarch yachts. Her writing has appeared in Slate, Reductress, Funny or Die, POLITICO, The Center for Public Integrity, and other publications. She has spoken to the BBC, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, France24, and numerous other media outlets. She was also invited once to speak at Harvard, which she now tells everyone within the first ten seconds of meeting them. She is the author of the Victor Caro series, satirical novels about the CIA. Before joining the CIA, Alex was a journalist, covering Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the Department of Energy. She reported on issues related to national security, intelligence, and homeland security. Did she mention she was invited to speak at Harvard?
I really enjoy your perspective. Thanks for putting it out there.
The implosion of the Great US of A has been mind boggling. Your perspective adds clarity Alex. Much appreciated.