Warren Buffett made billions spotting undervalued assets. Today, many billionaires have decided the cheapest buy on the market is influence over the Trump administration.

Take the recent purchase of CBS owner Paramount Global by Skydance Media. The companies needed approval for the transaction from the Federal Communications Commission. President Donald Trump had personally sued Paramount for $16 million for the way its show "60 Minutes" had edited an interview with his opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris. In July, Shari Redstone, the billionaire who controlled CBS/Paramount, decided to pay up.

On his late-night CBS show, Stephen Colbert called the payment a "big fat bribe." Three weeks after CBS/Paramount settled, the FCC approved the sale to Skydance. So, a payment of $16 million opened the door to an $8 billion purchase. That's 500 times return on investment, money well-spent.

Unsurprisingly, the person who spent the most ensuring Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential contest has received the biggest payoff of all. Elon Musk contributed almost $300 million to the Trump campaign. In June, Trump sat behind the steering wheel of a red Tesla parked on the White House lawn. "I love the product, it's beautiful," he said. Hours later it was revealed that Musk had decided to invest another $100 million in pro-Trump political groups.

Earlier this year, SpaceX announced it held over $22 billion in contracts with the federal government. Musk's shares in the company are valued at about $136 billion. Since Trump's election, Forbes Magazine estimates Musk's net worth has increased by as much as $200 billion. That's 500 times more than his contributions of just south of $400 million.

In 2023, during the Biden administration, Justin Sun was sued by the SEC for fraudulently manipulating markets and selling unregistered securities. He then invested $75 million in World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture backed by Trump and his family. Reports indicate the family received $56 million of that sum. The SEC dropped its lawsuit against Sun the month after Trump's inauguration. According to the Wall Street Journal, the decision "surprised" a number of SEC officials, who were "highly confident in winning the case." Sun is estimated to have a net worth of $12.5 billion. It only cost him 0.6% of that sum to get off the hook.

Foreign governments have cottoned on. In April, the Qatari government gifted Trump a $400 million luxury jetliner. When the Israeli Air Force tried to kill Hamas leaders in Qatar, Trump forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call the Qatari prime minister to express "deep regret" for the attack and to promise not to infringe upon Qatari airspace again even if the Gulf State provided sanctuary for terrorists. Investing 0.18% of its annual GDP for Trump's protection was a savvy move for Qatar, indeed.

In 1952, vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon went on national TV to defend himself against charges of corruption. He did admit the family had received one gift from a supporter, a puppy his daughter named Checkers. Nixon defiantly promised, "I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we're gonna keep it."

So, the Nixon family acquired a puppy during his election campaign over six decades ago. The Trump family acquired about $5 billion in net worth since last November's election. According to an August poll, about 45% of all Americans believe Trump is "very corrupt" and another 20% as "somewhat corrupt."

The Republican majorities in the two houses of Congress refuse to take action even in the face of Trump's corruption. Moreover, thanks to the Supreme Court's rulings that have opened the floodgates in election spending, made bribery convictions difficult to win and granted presidents broad immunity, there's little the American justice system can do to restrict Trump's ways. Overturning the court's rulings is a pipe dream. As Harvard professor Jill Lepore recently noted, "We're not going to amend any part of the Constitution anytime soon."

In a March visit to the Department of Justice, Trump promised, "We will expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government." Apparently, this was not meant as a promise he would be resigning any time soon.

So, it's up to "we the people" to vote for honesty in government in the 2026 and 2028 elections. If Trumpian corruption prevails, Abraham Lincoln's "government of the people" will be replaced by Trump's "government of those who pay up."

A renaissance man, Keith Raffel has served as the senior counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, started a successful internet software company and written five novels, which you can check out at keithraffel.com. He currently spends the academic year as a resident scholar at Harvard. To find out more about Keith and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at creators.com.

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