Администрация Трампа планирует создать спецсчет для продажи недвижимости Минобороны без контроля Конгресса

Last month a story quietly broke about the DoD (Department of Defense) seeking a broad authorization to sell DoD property and put the funds into a special account. Not only have they issued a press release, but this intention features prominently in the DoD annual plan, authored by Russ Vought. If this happens, it will be a huge disaster. (I would say “unprecedented” but disasters under Trump are quite precedented.) Currently, if the DoD wants to sell off unused land, it must pass this task to the GSA (General Services Adminitration). The GSA follows a process to sell the land at the best price and the funds go to the treasury for general use. This process has several drawbacks for Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth: It takes a long time They can’t pick a crony who gets to buy the land They can’t give the crony a sweet no-bid deal They don’t get direct control of the proceeds The proposed change would have congress allow Hegseth to sell DoD real estate assets and put the money in a special account where it can be used at Hegseth’s discretion. I believe that the technical term for such an account is “slush fund” or “Pete’s party fund.” The Trump administration does list some laudible uses for extra money, such as building maintenance, equipment upgrades, buying food for sailors, and some cool secrets stuff we can’t tell you about. But that’s just the sensible-sounding start of the list. At the end are the things they really want to do like, building the stupid border wall, and creating the logistically impossible “Golden Dome.” Whatever you think of any of the potential spending priorities, the list doesn’t really matter because the money will actually be spent however Pete Hegseth wants it spent. This isn’t just me being cynical; the proposal literally says that the spending is at the discretion of the Secretary of Defense Blowing Up Stuff Awesome Dude. There is no oversight or accountability. Here is the worst part: the current GSA process allows the DoD to sell property that it is no longer using. The proposed rule would allow the DoD to sell property it’s currently using and lease it back from the new owners for up to 50 years. If this scheme sounds familiar, that is because it is a common tactic used by private equity firms to plunder a company for all of its value and leave it financially gutted while they walk off with the profits. More importantly, it makes the insane scenario in the title completely feasible. The DoD could sell Westpoint to the Trump Organization (for as little as it wants). Trump could then build a hotel on it, and lease it back to the US Government so they can continue to use it as a military academy — and then kick the US off the site after 50 years. The are two rays of hope: Congress needs to pass a bill to allow this to happen. This isn’t a very strong possibility and we should expect it to be DOA after the mid-terms. In a future time, with a balanced SCOTUS, the land can be reclaimed using eminent domain. This is a priority for Hegseth, Trump, and all of their cronies. It’s not something tucked away in a memo. They really, really, want this to happen. A bill about the DoD managing its own property is just boring-sounding enough to pass under the media radar. I mean, it already has. I think their only hope is for it to proceed with no media scrutiny. I’m hoping that maybe we can get some light to shine on it and generate some negative public sentiment.