Trump has built a pyramid scheme of public fraud. It's a taxpayer-backed cash grab. Donald Trump is pulling off a taxpayer-backed cash grab. It's an orchestrated, unprecedented scheme to enrich a president, his family and his friends.

Mindy Finn | Opinion contributor

Even after warnings that tariffs would wreak havoc on the economy, Donald Trump has staked his presidency on a series of trade wars that are now coming home to roost. With economic ruin looming over American farmers — a key constituency — he refuses to change course. Instead, he’s mulling a policy of clientelism, a $12 billion cash handout to the victims of his own bad ideas.

It’s a surprising development for many, especially the conservatives who have long lamented bailouts and subsidies, but it’s hardly out of character. On the contrary, it’s a natural fit for a White House that encourages corruption, exploitation and fraud in exchange for loyalty. As with his Cabinet officials, he expects that the allure of taxpayer-funded kickbacks will be enough to keep farmers from holding him accountable for his own corruption and failures. It’s not an accident; it’s a strategy: Grease the wheels of government so heavily that they spin in place.

Far from draining the swamp, Trump and his coterie of grifters, fraudsters and co-conspirators have filled it in entirely, dividing the land into personal fiefdoms to exploit.

Team Trump has been playing dirty

The result has been an open season for public funds, private payoffs and abuses of office. It’s almost quaint to remember that Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was fired for using private jets for official travel. The now-resigned Environmental Protection Agency Director Scott Pruitt exclusively travels in first class, while Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is fond of chartered flights. To say nothing of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s use of military aircraft to see a solar eclipse with his wife.

It isn’t just about luxury. Zinke’s involved in a land deal with Halliburton that is likely to benefit him directly. Pruitt reveled in petty grift, taking discounted rent from lobbyists and using his government security and employees as personal servants. Pruitt even used his position to try to find his wife a job.

Following the president’s lead, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has been less than honest about divesting his assets. The man helming Trump’s global trade war is profiting from it, even short-selling his stocks in a Kremlin-backed shipping company when he learned reporters were writing a story about it.

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The taxpayer-backed cash grab radiates even outside government officials. Former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski opened a business selling his access to the president, even potentially to foreign governments. Trump lawyer Michael Cohen did similarly, trading a direct connection to Trump for six-figure checks.

All of this is not only permissible to the president, it’s encouraged. That’s what makes our situation unprecedented. This is an orchestrated effort to enrich the president, his family and his friends. That’s why the Trump hotel in Washington is now a favorite location for foreign emissaries, reaping tens of millions of dollars from those seeking audience with the president. Membership at Mar-a-Lago doubled in price, because lobbyists and influence peddlers will pay anything to catch the president’s ear. And Trump condos are flying off the market as foreign governments pay exorbitant prices to gain the president’s favor. Even his own party pays the piper. The GOP and affiliated political groups have spent over $3 million at Trump properties since he took office.

In short, Trump has built a clearly organized machine for largesse and corruption. It’s a pyramid scheme of public fraud, and the president gleefully sits at its top, reaping the rewards and doling out the shares.

A new level of corruption in Washington

The president and his defenders deny anything is wrong. Many throw up their hands and say, “Washington has always been this way.” That’s certainly what Trump would have us believe. In truth, this level of corruption is rampant in dictatorships across the globe, but unprecedented here.

It’s disturbing to see the president ripping this page from the authoritarian textbook, though entirely in character. All around him, he has traded his blessing of corrupt dealings for a weakening of the agencies that might hold some check on him. Now, as key voters threaten to rebel over his policies, it’s only natural that he’d seek the same bargain with them.

But the American people aren’t so easily bought. We’ve already waged and won numerous battles against the president’s corruption, but our fight is far from over. We must reinvigorate the institutions of transparency and accountability in our government. We must hold our leaders to an even higher ethical standard. And, especially when it starts to feel fruitless, we must do so with Donald Trump.

Mindy Finn, co-founder of Stand Up Republic and founder of Empowered Women, ran for vice president with independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin in 2016 and was an aide in the 2004 George W. Bush and 2012 Mitt Romney presidential campaigns. Follow her on Twitter: @mindyfinn