Accountable.US Statement on Senate Republicans’ Violation Of Committee Rules In Trying to Silence Emil Bove Whistleblower And Advance Bove’s Nomination
Watchdog: Trump 9th Circuit Judicial Pick Eric Tung’s Deep Ties to Crypto Industry Could Benefit President’s Vast Crypto Empire
Watchdog: Here’s How House Republicans’ Crypto Bills Bolster Trump’s Business Empire While Putting American Interests At Risk
Hawley Introduces a Bill to Block Medicaid Cuts He Approved
Trump Judge Blocks CFPB Medical Debt Rule
Accountable.US Statement on Senate Republicans’ Violation Of Committee Rules In Trying to Silence Emil Bove Whistleblower And Advance Bove’s Nomination
Watchdog: Trump 9th Circuit Judicial Pick Eric Tung’s Deep Ties to Crypto Industry Could Benefit President’s Vast Crypto Empire
Watchdog: Here’s How House Republicans’ Crypto Bills Bolster Trump’s Business Empire While Putting American Interests At Risk
Hawley Introduces a Bill to Block Medicaid Cuts He Approved
Trump Judge Blocks CFPB Medical Debt Rule
Site Menu

Trump Accountability Watch: Republicans’ Target Americans’ Health Care to Make Themselves and their Billionaire Backers Richer

 

This week, President Donald Trump and his allies in Congress are on the brink of passing a tax giveaway for the wealthiest Americans, corporations, and themselves, while selling out working families with the “largest cut” to Medicaid in American history – kicking 17 million Americans off of their health insurance and shuttering rural hospitals – hollow out food assistance for struggling families, and add at least $3.3 trillion to the national debt. To add insult to injury, their plan would eliminate millions of American clean energy jobs and drive up electricity bills.  

Republicans’ tax scam is the latest blow for everyday Americans who are continuing to get squeezed by Trump’s failed economic agenda. And it comes as Trump’s tariff rollercoaster is already driving up costs on everything from cars to housing to appliances, while hamstringing small businesses, deflating consumer confidence, and threatening American manufacturing. 

And while regular families grapple with the chaos, uncertainty, and higher costs of Trump’s Billionaire First agenda, the President and his inner circle continue to make openly corrupt business deals to pad their own bottom line. Last week, a new Accountable.US analysis revealed that President Donald Trump and his billionaire Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, appear to have violated the Emoluments Clause through the $75 million in tokens that their joint crypto venture has taken from Justin Sun — the Chinese crypto billionaire, accused fraudster, and Prime Minister of fledgling micronation Liberland that is currently lobbying for recognition. Making matters worse, Sun has blatantly declared that his crypto money would boost Liberland’s cause with the Trump administration. It’s the latest example of how Trump is using the presidency for personal profit and grift schemes, while not lifting a finger to help working families get ahead.   

As Trump and his allies in Congress push forward a massive tax scam for the wealthy, the out-of-touch records of the President’s judicial nominees have come to light:
  • Trump nominee Ed Artau sided with Trump while seeking lifetime federal appointment: A recent Accountable.US investigation put Trump judicial nominee Ed Artau in the hot seat after he appeared to have weaponized his current judicial post to help Trump while at the same time seeking a lifetime federal judicial appointment. Earlier this year, Florida judge Ed Artau wrote a concurring opinion allowing President Trump’s “preposterous” defamation lawsuit against the members of the Pulitzer Prize board to proceed. Accountable.US research reveals that at the same time he ruled in favor of Trump in his defamation case, he was also jockeying for a promotion to be nominated by the President for a lifetime appointment. Artau’s self-reported disclosure to the Senate Judiciary Committee shows he was actively lobbying for a seat on the federal bench since November 2024, and by the time he wrote his opinion helping Trump, he had already spoken to both Florida Senators about a potential nomination.
  • Trump judicial nominees have dangerous records of undermining reproductive freedom: Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard Trump’s latest slate of judicial nominees – all of whom hold dangerous records of undermining Americans’ fundamental freedoms. Ahead of their hearings, Accountable.US released a research report spotlighting the alarming records of nominees for judgeships in Florida who have targeted reproductive freedom. The report follows a similar Accountable.US investigation into extreme anti-choice records of Trump’s Missouri judicial nominees. 

 

ACCOUNTABLE.US IN THE NEWS:

Rolling Stone: Trump is Doing Crypto Corruption with a Billionaire Leader of Fake Country: “​​In the opening months of his second term, Trump has been more aggressive than ever about cashing in on his powerful position, particularly in the cryptocurrency space. And new research from the anti-corruption watchdog group Accountable.US, shared exclusively with Rolling Stone, suggests that he is flouting the federal law against receiving emoluments in a new way. Trump isn’t only cozying up to foreign governments, including the United Arab Emirates, through deals with his family’s burgeoning crypto empire. He is also increasingly entangled with a major investor who claims the title of prime minister for a tiny European nation that doesn’t technically exist — yet. […] Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk disagrees about Trump’s priorities. “In total disregard for the Emoluments Clause and every presidential ethical standard, Trump and Steve Witkoff are using a barely regulated crypto scheme to grab up tens of millions from an accused Chinese crypto fraudster whose riches seemingly helped elevate him to be leader of his own micronation — and now wants recognition from the U.S. government,” Carrk said in a statement shared with Rolling Stone.”

POLITICO: A judge sided with Trump. Behind the scenes, he was lobbying for a nomination.: A Florida state judge was lobbying for a seat on the federal bench. After he sided with the president in a defamation case, Donald Trump gave him one. Ed Artau, now a nominee to be a district court judge in Florida, met with staff in the office of Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott to angle for the nomination less than two weeks after Trump’s election last fall, according to a new Senate disclosure obtained by POLITICO. In the midst of his interviews, Artau was part of a panel of judges that ruled in Trump’s favor in the president’s case against members of the Pulitzer Prize Board. About two weeks after the court published his opinion — which called for the overturning of a landmark Supreme Court case that made it harder for public officials to sue journalists — he interviewed with the White House Counsel’s Office. In May, Trump announced his nomination to the federal judiciary. […] The president has wide latitude to nominate whomever he wishes to the federal bench. But Artau’s vehement defense of Trump — while seeking a nomination from his administration — “raises serious questions about his impartiality,” Caroline Ciccone, president of watchdog group Accountable.US, said in a statement.”

The Daily Beast: Judge Who Gave Trump Win in ‘Nuisance’ Case Gets Federal Job: “A Florida state judge sided with President Donald Trump in a high profile free speech case while simultaneously lobbying for a federal judicial nomination from the president, newly disclosed Senate records show. Trump nominated Ed Artau in May to serve as a district court judge in Florida, three months after Artau ruled in the president’s favor in his case against the Pulitzer Prize Board.  It has now emerged that Artau was meeting with staff for Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott about securing the nomination from Trump before he issued the ruling as part of a three-judge appeals court panel in February, Politico reported. Artau’s decision in the case allowed Trump’s defamation suit against the Pulitzer board to proceed and called for the overturning of a major Supreme Court case that makes it harder for public officials to sue the media. Just two weeks later, Artau interviewed with the White House Counsel’s Office. In May, he met with Trump, who promptly announced Artau’s nomination to the federal bench in a Truth Social post.”

Florida Politics: Watchdog group: Wealthy Republicans like Rick Scott, Vern Buchanan will reap bulk of benefits from tax bill: If Congress passes a major tax package, one oversight group says Florida’s wealthiest lawmakers will reap personal financial rewards. But thousands of their constituents will lose health care benefits. Research released by Accountable.US, a corporate and government watchdog, says the richest Republicans in Congress have a huge personal stake in passing the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which makes tax cuts enacted in President Donald Trump’s first term permanent. That includes U.S. Sen. Rick Scott and U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, the wealthiest Republicans, respectively, in the Senate and House.

‘The richest Republicans in Congress are happy to raise costs for millions of their own constituents and jeopardize healthcare for millions more, while they get a tax cut for themselves,’ said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk.”

 

RECENT RELEASES FROM ACCOUNTABLE.US: 

 

###

back to top