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The original was posted on /r/keep_track by /u/rusticgorilla on 2025-03-12 11:09:48+00:00.
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Patronage
America is in crisis. An unelected billionaire is unilaterally hollowing out our government while the president takes revenge on his perceived political enemies. Our closest allies are alienated and left in the dust in favor of dictatorships and strongmen, while at home, the power of the state is wielded against the most powerless. Commentators looking for historical parallels have pointed to Nazi Germany with its fascist oppression and cult-like rise to power. Although there are many apt comparisons to the tenets of Hitler’s party, and other fascist movements in general, there is no need to go back in time for a suitable analogy. Trump and his allies are using a much more recent game plan—one developed by his long-time supporter, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Orban, who first came to power in 2010, was once described by former Trump advisor Steve Bannon as “Trump before Trump.” Orban has complete control of his political party, using their fealty to dismantle institutions with impunity, create a state-controlled media, undermine judicial independence, and rewrite the legal code to ensure he never loses an election again. Sound familiar? Trump is even emulating the method Orban uses to maintain his grip on power: a patronage system wherein appointments, contracts, and favors are traded for personal loyalty and political support.
The Hungarian prime minister loves to talk big, presenting himself on the international stage as a leading voice in conservative Christian politics. But at home, his power rests on a far more basic concept: patronage.
Want a contract to build a road? A project for your village? A license for a radio station? A job for your struggling grandkid? For many Hungarians, the answer to these questions leads, directly or indirectly, to the ruling Fidesz party. Orbán has won loyalty from a host of businesspeople, small-town politicians, television personalities and even musicians on the simple reasoning that supporting him is a good career move.
Kiss the ring
In Trump’s America, the patronage system is primarily characterized by granting supporters valuable exemptions from the president’s harmful and unpopular policies. The administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is making sweeping unilateral cuts to federal programs, offices, and jobs that will devastate local economies. Republican lawmakers seeking to spare their districts from DOGE’s plunder, and save themselves from their constituents’ wrath, can simply call Elon Musk directly and beg for programs in their districts to be restored—programs that Musk had no authority to cut in the first place. Pleas from Democratic lawmakers, on the other hand, are ignored:
Even in cases where they are advocating for the same thing, Republicans are able to leverage entry points into Trump administration in ways that Democrats simply can’t, leaving them in the dark on many of the recent reversals the administration has agreed to. House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole said Friday that “after working closely” with the Trump administration and DOGE, he was able to keep open offices in his district that provide key Social Security, health care and weather services that had been at risk of shutting down.
Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford of Nevada told CNN that when DOGE moved to end a Social Security services location in his district, he wasn’t notified and didn’t have the information needed to help his constituents. “My constituents deserve the same treatment that Rep. Cole’s are receiving, but that’s not happening,” Horsford said.
The message is clear: Support Trump and keep your district’s federally-funded programs functioning, federal offices open, and federal jobs for constituents. Oppose Trump and lose it all.
We can see a similar strategy in Trump’s tariffs. As far back as January, “high-powered business leaders” were meeting with Trump to try to secure tariff exemptions for their companies. Just pay a small $5 million bribe for the privilege of a one-on-one meeting with the president at Mar-a-Lago and, miraculously, your company may find itself free to continue trade as usual while your competitors lose business.
During this presidential transition, Trump has already spoken privately — including with some high-powered business leaders — about major companies securing exclusions from Trump’s potentially sweeping tariffs regime, two people with knowledge of the matter say. In one recent instance, the president-elect joked to an industry leader that what corporate giants need to do as they scramble for tariff exemptions is get a meeting with Trump and “ask me nicely,” one of the sources says…According to one Republican source with direct knowledge of the matter, a major industry lobbying group they work with has already actively explored booking a number of upcoming events at Trump-brand properties, in a blatant attempt to put money in Trump and his family business empire’s pocket.
This tariff exemption quid pro quo was perfected during Trump’s first term, according to a recent study: Donors who gave $35,000 to Republicans correlated to a 3.9 percentage point increase in a company’s chances of receiving a tariff exemption, while donating just $4,000 to Democrats was associated with a 3.4 percentage point decrease. A 7 percent swing might not seem like much, but combined, those who received exemptions added an extra $57 billion in market capitalization compared with those who were denied.
Massive wealth transfer
As David Pressman, former U.S. ambassador to Hungary, explained to NPR, the corruption of Orban’s system is “designed to enrich a clique of elites to take public assets and put them in private pockets while talking about standing up for conservative values.” This is the crux of Trump’s plan to privatize the USPS, one of the oldest public institutions in America, or Musk’s proposal to privatize Amtrak, which transported nearly 33 million people across America last year. Executives of a privatized version of these public services, who would certainly be friends and allies of Trump, would stand to make millions every year. For example, the CEO of FedEx raked in $12.38 million in compensation last year, the CEO of UPS made $23.4 million, and the CEO of Amazon (Andy Jassy, not Bezos, who is the executive chairman) made $29.2 million. In one year.
However, we don’t have to be so literal. Trump’s “crypto strategic reserve,” a murky scheme for the government to stockpile cryptocurrencies, could easily turn into a massive wealth transfer using taxpayer money. The administration has [promised](https://dailyhodl.com/2025/03/10/crypto-czar-david-sacks-says-us-government-may-accumulate-more-bitcoin-to-add-to-strategic-btc-…
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