Vice Presidential candidate Richard Nixon
and his cocker spaniel Checkers
"In Praise of Hypocrisy"
by Bill Bonner
"No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the truth."
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
"We write today in praise of hypocrisy. As Hawthorne suggests, it occasionally confuses us into a life of virtue. But today, public life seems to be becoming less hypocritical...and more coarse. When we were young, we rarely heard the ‘F-word,’ for example. On television and in print, it was verboten. Now, it is one of Americans’ most popular verbs. Even so, until this year, our leaders never said the F-word in public. They were held to a ‘higher standard.’ No more. Donald Trump: ‘Iran, Israel don’t know what the f— they’re doing.’
It is not our business at BPR to rake muck. But we’ve never before seen so much muck to rake. Things that used to be sources of embarrassment or social stigma are now right out in the open. So watch out. The US dollar derives its value not just from our laws and our economy, but from the trust that people have in our leaders’ good faith, prudence, and rectitude. But with no hypocrisy to point the way...does that mean that bankruptcy, default...inflation...seizures...devaluations...and rip-offs are more and more likely?
Maybe. Let’s look first at how much public integrity has already given way. Politicians used to be reluctant to ‘cash in’ on their powerful positions, for example. It was ‘unseemly’ if not completely illegal. Not that they didn’t take a bribe from time to time...or peddle a little influence...but they did it on the sly. And on a small scale.
Richard Nixon’s famous ‘Checkers’ speech, in 1952, set the standard. He was not accused of breaking the law...but of getting (improperly?) reimbursed for some of his expenses and accepting ‘gifts’ from big donors. Nixon was on the Republican ticket to become Vice President; there was some doubt that he would continue as long as this cloud hung over him. So, he went on TV...and the skies cleared. He told the audience that, yes, he had accepted a gift — a cocker spaniel named ‘Checkers’...and that he wasn’t giving it back. The public was reassured and Nixon remained on the ticket.
But that was then. This is now...Reuters: "The U.S. president’s family raked in more than $800 million from sales of crypto assets in the first half of 2025 alone, a Reuters examination found, on top of potentially billions more in unrealized “on paper” gains. Much of that cash has come from foreign sources as Donald Trump’s sons have touted their business on an international investor roadshow."
The pitch: "Buy at least $20 million of “governance tokens” in the Trump family’s crypto business, World Liberty Financial, and become part of a venture that Eric Trump predicted would soon embody the future of finance in America, according to a person familiar with the meeting.
...In the first half of this year, the Trump Organization’s income soared 17-fold to $864 million from $51 million a year earlier, according to Reuters calculations based on the president’s official disclosures, property records, financial records released in court cases, crypto trade information and other sources. Of the first-half total, $802 million – more than 90% – came from Trump crypto ventures, including sales of World Liberty tokens."
A really good salesman might sell sand in the Sahara. But the Trump boys do even better. They sell ‘tokens’ of nothing at all...for billions. They must be really good at business! But wait. What business is it? What does all this money buy? Well, it bought Chinese billionaire Justin Sun relief from an SEC investigation. The SEC backed off after Sun bought $30 million of WFL tokens. And it bought the government of the UAE security-sensitive computer chips; the sale was approved following a $2 billion investment.
Protection from tariffs? A pardon? Advance warning of POTUS’s next moves? Law professor, Kathleen Clark, explains the obvious: “These people are not pouring money into coffers of the Trump family business because of the brothers’ acumen. They are doing it because they want freedom from legal constraints and impunity that only the president can deliver.” But it is not just financial chicanery and hucksterism that are there for all to see. The perps do not slink around in the shadows. They go on X and boast. More to come..."
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