The heart of kleptocracy is a protection racket. This means that leaders build up “patronage networks.” To be a member of these networks means you must demonstrate loyalty to leader. Those who do not are threatened or harassed until they conform. Once you are part of a protection racket, you pay your dues and are rewarded overtime for loyalty. These networks thrive on the exchange of gifts and bribes, while often using the gray areas of the law to move resources to loyal parties. This is different from democratic systems where winning parties pass laws to benefit their voters, rather than the individual highest bidders.
This section highlights how the Trump administration is building and maintaining a protection racket. Click on each header to review areas where the media and civil society have gathered emerging evidence of the following.
Bribes and influence peddling
Bribes are the lifeblood of kleptocracy. They enrich the powerful and keep them in power. At the same time, they impoverish those who cannot afford them and keep the average person out of decision-making.
Bribes are rarely as explicit as a direct payment. Rather, they often pass through a third party—an organization, a person, or an account.
Whether Donald Trump has actually received bribes is a question for the courts. What is clear, however, is that the amount of money (and other valuable things) that passed hands before and after the election was unprecedented. Those who donate to his 2024 campaign have received significant awards.
Cronyism and favoritism
A core part of how kleptocracies work is handing out favors to supporters in exchange for loyalty. Sometimes, officials simply steal from public funds, referred to as "embezzlement." It is not clear that the Trump administration has stolen directly from the public. Instead, they have handed out gifts, contracts, and subsidies to loyal supporters.
Extorting the private sector
Kleptocrats subvert and manipulate the tools of power—including regulations, taxes, and/or prosecution—in order to pressure the private sector to take action for their personal benefit. Trump’s extortion of the private sector has reached the top echelon of America’s moneyed class.
Sending a signal from the top
A final element of establishing a protection racket is about sending a “signal from the top” about what types of behavior will be tolerated and what remains off limits. Kleptocrats, like any leaders, cannot possibly monitor and enforce how each person under their supervision acts. They cannot spell out things that bend the rules explicitly either. Instead, they often send subtle signals about what the new rules of the game are.
Decentralized violence and surveillance
Kleptocrats avoid calling police and military into the streets as a first response to political opposition, at least in the early stages of power consolidation. Rather, they intimate that "something needs to be done," and dehumanize their enemies to the point where individuals or organizations, acting seemingly on their own, take independent, often violent action.