Weekly Update: May 12

Your weekly rundown of the latest kleptocratic actions by the Trump administration

May 16, 2025

“They’re giving us a free jet. I could say, ‘No, no no, don’t give us. I want to pay you a billion, or 400 million, or whatever it is.’ Or I could say thank you very much,” said President Trump in response to a reporter's question regarding the donation of a luxury jet from Qatar.

Klepto-Outrage of the Week

Readers might think that the Trump administration's plans to accept a $400 million luxury jet—described as a flying palace—from Qatar would claim top spot as the klepto-outrage of the week. And while it is indeed outrageous, we'd like to direct your attention away from the skies to the stacks and staff of the US Library of Congress, specifically the Library's Copyright Office.

The Washington Post reported that on Saturday, May 10, the White House fired the head of the US Copyright Office, Shira Perlmutter. Under Perlmutter's leadership, the Office had been working on a multi-phase report examining copyright and artificial intelligence (AI). One day before her dismissal, the Office—in an unusual move—released a "pre-publication" version of Part 3 of the report entitled, "Generative AI Training."

Part 3 raises concerns about using copyrighted materials to train AI systems, advising that technology companies' use of vast amounts of copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence systems, which "produce expressive content that competes with them in existing markets," may not be protected by US copyright law.

Notably, Perlmutter was not the only US Library of Congress staff recently fired. Two days before Perlmutter's dismissal, President Trump fired the Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden. In explaining her dismissal, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Hayden's firing resulted from “quite concerning things that she had done at the Library of Congress in the pursuit of D.E.I.” Despite the fact that the Library of Congress does not lend books to adults or children, Leavitt accused Hayden of allowing “inappropriate books in the library for children.”

In late April, the President of the American Accountability Foundation—described by the New Yorker as a "conservative dark-money group" and committed to exposing so-called "subversive, leftist bureaucrats"—had called out both Perlmutter and Hayden stating, "It is time they show [them] the door and return an America First agenda to the nation’s intellectual property regulation.”

Update: While Democratic legislators have openly challenged Trump's takeover of the library as "obviously a violation of separation of powers," some Republicans are showing signs of "quiet but firm resistance." Given this opposition, as of May 14, Trump’s intended leader for the library, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, had yet to assume the position.

The Big Scheme

It should be noted that the findings included in the Part 3 Generative AI Training report run counter to the interests of big tech companies, many of whom face lawsuits from copyright owners. They also run counter to the interests of a number of big donors to Trump's inaugural fund, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Moreover, Elon Musk—who donated $288 million to help elect Donald Trump and other Republican candidates, owns the AI company xAI, and is directing DOGE staff's use of AI to eviscerate federal agencies—has also signaled his interest in getting rid of all intellectual property law. Altman, Musk and other CEOs joined Trump's Middle East trip.

Tucked into the House Reconciliation Bill are also a number of provisions that consumer advocacy and tech watchdog groups characterize as advantageous to US tech firms. Analysis by the Brookings Institution and others suggests that these provisions would enable harmful and discriminatory uses of the emerging technology. For example, the legislation would prohibit states from passing new AI regulations for a decade and make the federal government the sole regulator for US tech firms.

The Grand Scheme of Things

The practice of "pay-to-play"—where individuals or entities provide campaign donations or financial contributions to gain access or influence over government officials and decision-making processes—has always been present in American politics. However, the scope of the practice under the Trump administration is unprecedented.

As the Brennan Center for Justice predicted in February, "The concentration of private wealth and political power in so few hands with so few guardrails could pave the way for Trump’s campaign backers and allies to reap massive financial benefits on a scale not seen since the Gilded Age. Many of the big-ticket policies the administration is set to tackle—including government contracts, tariffs, and regulatory decisions—can be precisely tailored to reward (or punish) specific recipients." The tech sector just happens to be the focus of the klepto-outrage of the week but the links below highlight other examples across sectors.

The Trump administration's wide-ranging actions to dismantle the professional civil service through massive lay-offs, loyalty tests, and union busting further weaken existing guardrails against corruption, strengthen patronage politics, and erode the provision of evidence-based public services. As examples around the globe demonstrate, authoritarians often prioritize breaking the civil service as an important step on the path to consolidate power.

Weekly Wins

In response to a lawsuit, the Agriculture Department agreed to restore information about climate change that was scrubbed from its website when President Trump took office. The deleted information included data on federal funding and loans, forest conservation and rural clean energy projects as maps detailing how climate change might affect national forests and grasslands.

Thanks to the legal action brought by Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Working Group, farmers should again have the data needed to make informed decisions that take into account risks linked to climate change.

Do not obey in advance. Defend democracy and fight corruption. Here's what happens when people join together and stick to their beliefs:

In Other Klepto News

Listen

The For-Profit Presidency (The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart)
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism (Interesting Times with Ross Douthat)
Trump is Losing a Lot in Court (On the Media)
Trump, Cryptocurrency, and the Real Winners and Losers (Uncanny Valley from Wired)

Conflicts of interest round up (H3)

Trump family

Trump, Raking In Cash, Expands His Power in the G.O.P. Money World (NYT)
"A Kleptocracy that would make Putin Blush" (The New Republic)
Donald Trump Jr. launching invite-only "Executive Branch" club (Politico)
New Trump Golf Course, $5.5 Billion Beachside Project Announced for Qatar (Newsweek)
$TRUMP meme coin buyers spent more than $140 million to get dinner invite with Trump (CBS News)

DOGE

Elon Musk

Blurring the line between government and private sector

Trump revives effort to bail out coal-fired power plants (Energy and Policy Institute)
Trump administration scraps plan to limit Salmonella in Poultry (Rolling Stone)

Pardon Abuse

Binance founder seeks pardon after 4-month stint in Prison (Fortune)
Trump pardons three BitMEX crypto exchange co-founders, and ex-employee (CNBC)
Santos asks Trump for pardon (The Hill)
Trump taps Martin for DOJ pardon attorney (The Hill)

Weakening Checks on Power

Whew. That was a lot. What did we miss? Tell us in the comments!

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