Trump defrauded banks. Now he's defrauding us

A New York court of appeals ruled in August that Donald Trump's penalty for multiple counts of fraud violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against "excessive fines." Trump responded by tweeting, "TOTAL VICTORY."

While the decision was certainly a financial victory — of roughly half a billion dollars — the court also affirmed that Trump and his business colleagues had committed five crimes: "falsifying business records, issuing false financial statements, conspiracy to falsify business records, conspiracy to issue false financial statements, and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud."

As president, Trump is currently applying the same criminal business practices to the federal government.

In early August, Trump's Department of Labor reported the economy had added 73,000 jobs in July, fewer than the 115,000 predicted, and that additions during the two previous months had been overestimated, lowering June from 147,000 to 14,000 and May from 144,000 to 19,000.

Trump responded by firing the director of Bureau of Labor Statistics. He has since replaced her with an economist from The Heritage Foundation, the rightwing think tank best known for authoring Project 2025 and for its president declaring: "We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be."

In a social media post in early August, Trump claimed: "The Economy is Booming under TRUMP." That financial statement is false.

The GDP growth rate in the first quarter of 2025 was -5%, the worst quarter in nearly three years. Because it rose in the second quarter to 3.3%, the economy under Trump is averaging 1.4% growth. Under Biden, the highest quarter in 2024 reached 3.1%, and the year averaged at 2.9%. Historically, the U.S. growth rate averages just under 3.2%. Therefore the economy is performing below average under Trump. That is the financial fact that Trump is falsifying and conspiring with his appointees to falsify in future labor reports.

Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has falsified a much wider range of government business records. The pseudo-department's initial "Wall of Receipts" falsified dozens of financial statements, for example counting the same $655 million cut three times and then later reducing the total to just $18 million after multiple news agencies reported that DOGE was using inflated estimates rather than actual costs.

DOGE reported an $8 million cut from the Department of Homeland Security budget as $8 billion. In August, Politico reported that DOGE saved less than 5% of what it had overall reported: only $1.4 billion, not $52.8 billion.

If the Trump administration were a private business, it would be taken to court and Trump would face multiple counts of fraud. It is the constitutional duty of Congress to conduct that kind of financial oversight of the executive branch, a duty that both GOP-controlled branches are abdicating.

Instead of investigating the Trump administration's falsified financial statements, the House Committee on Oversight conducted "Locking in the DOGE Cuts" hearings designed to codify them.

In the Senate, Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham certified that Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act would not increase the federal deficit, allowing it to pass by a simple majority as a budgetary reconciliation bill. Graham's claim — one repeated by the House speaker and the White House press secretary — is knowingly and egregiously false.

The Congressional Budget Office determined the bill would increase the deficit by $3.4 trillion, and the final version Trump signed into law raised the debt ceiling by $5 trillion.

The economy is not booming. DOGE is not saving tax dollars by weeding out "waste, fraud, and abuse." And Trump's signature legislation is ballooning the deficit. Trump continues to conspire with his appointees and congressional party leaders to falsify these financial facts to the U.S. public.

He was convicted of multiple counts of fraud in the private sector, and he is now committing the same criminal acts in the White House.

Chris Gavaler is a professor of English at Washington and Lee University in Lexington. Contact Gavaler at chris@gavaler.com.