{"id":4176,"date":"2026-07-10T10:37:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T10:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4176"},"modified":"2026-07-10T10:37:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T10:37:18","slug":"friedman-trump-is-fleecing-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4176","title":{"rendered":"Friedman: Trump is fleecing us"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When the sun came shining, and I was strolling<\/p>\n

And the wheat fields waving, and the dust clouds rolling<\/p>\n

As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:<\/p>\n

This land was made for you and me.<\/p>\n

Our country is built on written documents \u2014 the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, to name the most important. So to celebrate America\u2019s 250th birthday, my wife, Ann, hosted a special event at Planet Word, the immersive language museum she founded in Washington to promote literacy. Singer-composer Nolan Williams Jr. led a sing-along featuring classic American songs, including, of course, Woody Guthrie\u2019s \u201cThis Land Is Your Land.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Walters: California voters will decide 14 ballot measures, billionaire tax included. There could\u2019ve been more.<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite 100-degree heat, a remarkably diverse crowd of 300 people packed the museum\u2019s main hall, and young and old sang together with gusto. There was so much joy and camaraderie in the room \u2014 and so many leaving attendees saying to one another how much they wished the entire country could reflect that same harmony every day. So many people asked afterward, \u201cWhy aren\u2019t we singing these songs together on the National Mall?\u201d<\/p>\n

Costly division<\/h4>\n

Which leads \u2014 I am sorry to say \u2014 to a quite different variation on \u201cThis Land Is Your Land\u201d heard on the National Mall later that evening. In my mind, it was the Trump variation, with lyrics that went, \u201cThis land is my land, this land is my land \/ From California to the New York island \/ From my cryptocurrency to the Qatari 747 \/ This land belongs to me and mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing about President Donald Trump: He is consistent. He never surprises you on the upside. He has never been remotely interested in being the president of all the people, only his base. He never tries to win by addition, only by division \u2014 only by us versus them.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

As my newsroom colleague Shawn McCreesh reported from the mall: \u201cTrump used the nation\u2019s birthday to scaremonger about Democrats four months before the midterms (he talked a lot again about \u2018communism\u2019) and demand that Congress pass an act that would make it harder to vote.\u201d Shawn continued, \u201cWhat was meant to be the centerpiece of the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary celebration was in some ways just another Trump rally.\u201d<\/p>\n

This very same Fourth of July, two other newsroom colleagues of mine, Eric Lipton and David Yaffe-Bellany, reported that nearly \u201c1 million people who bought President Trump\u2019s memecoin have lost money through the end of June, according to a report by the cryptocurrency analytics firm Nansen. Their losses total $3.81 billion.\u201d My colleagues pointed out that the calculation came after Trump signed a financial disclosure revealing that the same crypto bet dealt him a $636 million payout. In all, his business ventures brought him at least $2.2 billion in 2025.<\/p>\n

This is a big story, and my gut tells me that Trump also smells that this could be a big story: of how badly he fleeced his own supporters!<\/p>\n

Since the start of Trump\u2019s second term, it\u2019s been widely reported that he has been exploiting the presidency for financial gain, but the story needed a real number and real victims. Now it has both \u2014 $2.2 billion in total gains for Trump and at least $3.81 billion in losses for his investors. That\u2019s a bumper sticker. Trump famously boasted that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and his supporters would still be with him. Will they also stick with him when he fleeces them?<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

And, have no doubt, he was targeting them, as The New York Times also reported: \u201cThree days before his inauguration, Trump unveiled a second Trump-branded investment \u2014 the $Trump memecoin, a type of novelty currency with little practical value. \u2018It\u2019s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!\u2019 Trump wrote on social media. \u2018Join my very special Trump community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW!\u2019 But that turned out to be bad advice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Asking Eric: Should I hear my brother\u2019s explanation of his horrible behavior?<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump is surely terrified that the Democrats will win the House or the Senate or both and launch investigations into how much he has used his office, and exploited his own supporters, for grotesque personal gain.<\/p>\n

Therefore, to my mind, the right themes for Democrats going into the midterms are two: If they win, they will expose how much Trump has been ripping off his own supporters; and if they win they will make bringing the country together a priority.<\/p>\n

Restoring harmony<\/h4>\n

I believe the quest for national unity is the most underestimated political force in the country today. It is not an accident that CNN reported last month that \u201cnearly half of Americans say they don\u2019t consider themselves a part of either major political party, the highest level of partisan independence measured by CNN polling in more than a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

I am sure that is true because I heard the best political analyst I know make the same point. His name is Barack Obama. Which brings me to a third variation of \u201cThis Land Is Your Land.\u201d It was Obama\u2019s speech at the opening ceremony of his Presidential Center in Chicago, which I attended. My favorite passage from Obama was this:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs algorithms keep feeding us a steady stream of distraction and outrage, as only the loudest, most extreme voices get attention, fanning our prejudices, appealing to our basest, most tribal instincts, it\u2019s tempting to give in to cynicism and even despair, to stop trying. We start thinking that appeals to democracy and civic participation are corny and old-fashioned and boring and naive, that the very idea of working on behalf of the common good is a sucker\u2019s bet, and that in order for us to win, somebody else has got to lose. I get it. I am not immune to anger or doubt, but I do know this: When we lose faith in each other, when we stop believing that voting matters, that citizenship matters, that our collective voices matter, that how we treat each other no longer matters, and we give away our power to decide our own futures, we open the door to the most ruthless, or the most careless, or the most fearful among us, who see some groups and some people as more equal than others, and see government as nothing more than a way to divvy up the spoils and punish enemies and keep those who are different in their place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact is, though, Obama continued, \u201cI do not believe that is the story of America that prevails in the end. \u2026 I remain convinced that the overwhelming majority of Americans \u2026 aren\u2019t looking for perpetual anger and division. They are looking for fairness and common sense and mutual respect, that deep in our gut we want to find a way to turn toward each other again, not further away.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, Democrats, you have your assignment. It\u2019s to not let Trump bait you into blind rage and extreme ideas. He feeds off that. Just focus on how much he has been fleecing all of us while tearing us apart. And how much Democrats intend to pull the whole country together.<\/p>\n

Read more Harriette Cole: My perfectionism causes spiraling and breakdowns<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2019Cause this land was made for you and me.<\/p>\n

Thomas Friedman is a New York Times columnist.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The president is exploiting supporters for billions through memecoins. 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