The ‘F-ck You, Pay Me' Presidency
There's a famous scene in Goodfellas that explains this mob boss mentality. In voiceover from Ray Liotta's wiseguy Henry Hill, we learn that the New York Mafia don Paulie tells anyone who owes him fealty, or really anything, 'Fuck you, pay me' — or else. Unfortunately, Trump appears to be running the federal government with this same goon-like approach. Even worse, it's working — way too well.
When the president essentially said to Disney and Meta, Nice companies you got there, ABC and Facebook, it would be a shame if something happened to them, millions of dollars in settlements were soon dished out to Trump's presidential library fund. (What books would be on the shelves of a Trump library, besides The Art of the Deal, are anyone's guess.)
Allegedly fierce law firms like Paul Weiss, Kirkland & Ellis, and Skadden Arps also bent the knee and capitulated, to the tune of hundreds of millions of billable legal hours. Columbia University soon followed suit to avoid the president's wrath (and preserve $400 million in funding). 'I've gotta be doing something right, because I've had a lot of law firms give me a lot of money,' Trump gloated to Time.
Both houses of the GOP-controlled Congress have backed down, too, refusing to stand up to Trump's ruinous tariff policies that threaten to plunge us into a worldwide recession. A glum and shaken Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski recently admitted to her constituents that she and her colleagues 'are all afraid,' and warned that 'retaliation is real.' House Speaker Mike Johnson, a noted profile in courage, told Time: 'President Trump is the most powerful force in politics in the modern era. Everybody wants to be on this train — and not in front of it.'
Well, not everyone. Harvard has fought back against Trump's relentless bullying, filing a federal lawsuit accusing the administration of violating its First Amendment rights. A group of law firms have banded together to sue, protests have broken out in every state led by coalitions like 50501, and an anti-Elon Musk campaign and boycott have helped tank Tesla's stock amid the so-called Department of Government Efficiency's devastating budget cuts. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been barnstorming the country on an anti-oligarchy tour, speaking to massive crowds in places like Salt Lake City, no less.
Trump's current poll numbers are historically dismal, with a majority of respondents disapproving of his actions just four months into this term. Yet, the president in the Time interview expresses only triumph and ego. He even pushes back on the bedrock idea that the United States is a nation ruled by laws, not men. 'We are a government where men are involved in the process of law, and ideally, you're going to have honest men like me,' Trump told Time. This is the road to autocracy masked as Trumpian exceptionalism.
Trump likes to compare himself to Al Capone, Scarface himself. Like Capone did to Chicago during Prohibition, Trump threatens multiple pillars of our society — corporate America, universities, Congress — and through his ongoing campaign of fear, he's reaped millions. Turns out, the most powerful man in the world can be an effective shakedown artist.
Despite his fantasies though, the mob boss Trump more closely resembles is John Gotti. The 'Dapper Don' and Trump rose up in the Seventies and Eighties in New York City. They were both from the outer boroughs — impressively coiffed, garish, brash invaders who dominated the tabloids with their exploits. Gotti, the most notorious mobster of his day, ruled by fear, intimidation, and murder. He was from the Goodfellas school of gangster, too. So naturally, one of his crime family underlings is now a MAGA politician in New Jersey. The 'fuck you, pay me' ethos is an ugly and abiding side of the American way. Gotti and the Goodfellas crew got theirs in the end. Trump is another matter. His uncanny luck, political cunning, influence, and power have managed to keep him above the law — with no end in sight.
More from Rolling Stone
Trump Store Now Selling 'Trump 2028' Merch: 'Rewrite the Rules'
China Denies Trump's Claim That They Are Holding 'Daily' Tariff Talks
Brain Drain: Scientists Are Fleeing the U.S. as Trump Cuts Funding
Best of Rolling Stone
The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign
Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal
The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Boeing in Talks to Sell as Many as 500 Planes to China
(Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. is heading closer toward finalizing a deal with China to sell as many as 500 aircraft, according to people familiar with the matter, a transaction that would end a sales drought that stretches back to US President Donald Trump's last visit in 2017. The two sides are still hammering out terms of the complex aircraft sale, including the types and volume of jet models and delivery timetables, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential matters. Why New York City Has a Fleet of New EVs From a Dead Carmaker Trump Takes Second Swing at Cutting Housing Assistance for Immigrants Chicago Schools Seeks $1 Billion of Short-Term Debt as Cash Gone Neom's Desert Ski Resort Strains Saudi Prince's $1.5 Trillion Plan The mega sale to China, years in the making, is contingent on the two nations defusing the trade hostilities that hark back to Trump's first term in office — and could still fall apart, they said. Chinese officials have already started consulting domestic airlines about how many Boeing aircraft they'll need, the people said. The transaction taking shape is similar in scope to the order for as many as 500 jets that China's central planners have struck with Airbus SE, but haven't yet announced, they added. The Boeing order is expected to be the centerpiece of a trade agreement that would benefit both Trump and China's President Xi Jinping, the culmination of long-running and sometimes contentious negotiations. The nation's leaders were close to a similar announcement in 2023, but then-President Joe Biden and Xi left a San Francisco summit without consummating an aircraft sale. Complicating matters for Boeing is a leadership void in China. Alvin Liu, its top executive in China and a fluent Mandarin-speaker with extensive government contacts, left the company in recent weeks. Carol Shen has been named interim president of Boeing China, said people familiar with the matter. Boeing declined to comment on any potential deal or management changes. Shares of the US planemaker advanced less than 1% in New York on Thursday following Bloomberg's report, as most members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined. The stock had risen 27% this year amid a turnaround under Chief Executive Officer Kelly Ortberg. Aircraft orders for Boeing have figured large in US diplomacy since Trump returned to the White House in January, with nations touting new, tentative and existing deals for airplanes, which are as expensive as skyscrapers, to narrow trade imbalances with the US. The US and China have engaged in several rounds of talks since de-escalating tit-for-tat tariffs that soared to as high as 145%, but have yet to reach a final trade deal. Earlier in the summer, Xi, in a phone call, invited Trump to China at an unspecified date. One opportunity for the pair to meet is in late October, ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea. For China, the deal would secure aircraft delivery slots that are hard to come by at both Boeing and Airbus, which are largely sold out into the 2030s. The world's second largest aviation market is expected to more than double its commercial fleet to 9,755 airplanes over the next 20 years, by Boeing's estimation, far more than China's homegrown planemaker Comac could manufacture. While Boeing slots are scarce, the company likely has some flexibility in its delivery schedule to accommodate strategic customers, Jefferies analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu said in a research note. The country's top economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, recently sought input from Chinese carriers about how many jets they want, one of the people said. Talks centered on the 737 Max series of aircraft, Boeing's popular single-aisle jet, in a sign Beijing is laying the groundwork for a major order. Boeing's last Chinese deal was unveiled in November 2017 during Trump's first state visit to China. The deal amounted to orders and commitments for 300 single-aisle and twin-aisle planes valued at $37 billion at the time. The next year, Boeing's China deliveries peaked, when a quarter of its jets ended up in the mainland. Airbus has dominated sales and deliveries to China since 2019, when the nation's regulators were the first to ground the 737 Max after two fatal accidents. Boeing has notched only 30 orders with Chinese carriers and leasing companies since the start of 2019, according to the company's website. In an interview with Bloomberg in January, CEO Ortberg was optimistic that years of talks with Beijing would finally pay off. 'We certainly hope that there's an opportunity for some additional orders in the next year with China,' he said. --With assistance from Jenni Marsh. (Updates with Jefferies comment in 12th paragraph) Foreigners Are Buying US Homes Again While Americans Get Sidelined Volkswagen EVs Outsell Tesla in Europe a Decade After Dieselgate What Declining Cardboard Box Sales Tell Us About the US Economy Survived Bankruptcy. Next Up: Cultural Relevance? Women's Earnings Never Really Recover After They Have Children ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
US consumer watchdog kicks off redo of 'open banking' rules on customer data
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday kicked off a do-over of its "open banking" regulations governing consumer control over the sharing of personal data between banks and the burgeoning financial technology sector as the two industries feud over proper controls and access. The decision marked an about-face amid public pressure from fintech firms and crypto entrepreneurs whose fortunes have soared since President Donald Trump returned to the White House this year. The watchdog asked numerous questions on how best to implement the consumer data rules -- now 15 years in the making and prescribed as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation -- requiring that banks give consumers access to their own financial data, including account information, transactions, usage and fees "upon request." The regulations were previously completed by the Biden administration, earning a legal challenge from the banking industry who opposed that version, citing risks to consumer data security. Former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in October that the regulations would let consumers switch banks with the same ease as switching telephone companies, allowing comparison shopping for mortgages and accounts - with data shared free of charge. The Trump administration initially told a court it supported banking industry calls to strike down the Biden regulations but in late July reversed course, saying that due to unnamed "recent events in the marketplace," it would replace the regulations with a version more to the administration's liking. The backpedaling came after politically connected crypto entrepreneurs, including Tyler Winkelvoss and Donald Trump Jr., took to social media to denounce JPMorgan Chase over a Bloomberg report that the bank had informed fintech firms they would in fact have to pay potentially hefty fees for access to depositors' data, even though the pending Biden-era regulations still prevented this. In an earnings call in mid-July, JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon said securely sharing customer data was costly.
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Sony Hikes PlayStation 5 Price To Cover Tariffs And Gamers Are Furious: 'Trump Is 100% To Blame'
Sony has announced a $50 price hike for all three versions of its flagship video game console, the PlayStation 5, in the United States — and social media is furious. The company previously confirmed President Donald Trump's ongoing trade war could lead to rising prices. Sony's vice president of global marketing, Isabelle Tomatis, broke the news Wednesday. 'Similar to many global businesses, we continue to navigate a challenging economic environment,' she wrote. 'As a result, we've made the difficult decision to increase the recommended retail price for PlayStation 5 consoles in the U.S. starting August 21.' Related: Buyers will now have to shell out $549.99 for a base model, which originally cost $500 when it hit stores in 2020, and spend almost $500 for a 'Digital Edition,' which doesn't contain a disc drive and initially cost $450 — or spend about $750 for the coveted 'Pro' version. Related: The Japanese company didn't mention Trump's tariffs on U.S. imports Wednesday, but it did acknowledge them in May — when Chief Financial Officer Lin Tao confirmed in an earnings call with investors that Sony might 'pass on' the cost of the tariffs to consumers. Gamers on social media were shocked by the ramifications of Trump's trade war. 'The first console generation that I can ever remember in my lifetime where prices of consoles have been raised over time instead of lowered,' one user wrote Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter, with another person commenting: 'Thank a Trump voter for this.' Trump announced a sweeping 10% baseline tariff in April on all imports, with levies on dozens of countries set even higher. While he has defended his tariff policies as a just crusade to revive American manufacturing, they have sparked fears of a global recession — or worse. Trump's executive order imposes a 15% tax on products from Japan and went into effect two weeks ago. 'I want to point out that while trump is 100% to blame, Sony could 1000000% just eat those tariff charges if thats all they're bumping it up to,' one person argued Thursday on X, while another wrote plainly: 'Gamers who voted for Trump did this to you all. Dummies.' Related: The debate seems entrenched in these camps, with one side blaming Sony for passing the buck and another lambasting Trump for his trade war. Another faction, meanwhile, is just plain baffled that a five-year-old console can be so darn expensive in the first place. Related... U.S. Producer Prices Surge In July As Trump Tariffs Push Costs Higher Sony Hikes PlayStation Console Prices, Citing Global Economic Turmoil 'This Is Socialism': Right-Wing Host Short-Circuits Over Trump's 'Terrible' New Move
