The Populist Grift That Keeps on Giving

Two decades ago, Carlin gave voice to Americans’ rising political outrage: democracy had been bought and sold, he said, rigged to serve the powerful at the expense of everyone else. “The table is tilted, folks,” he warned. “The game is rigged.”

You don’t have to look far to find that same sentiment in Britain.

But what was once righteous anger has, for many, curdled into a dark disillusionment. Opportunists took notice. In the U.S., Donald Trump rode that anti-establishment rage to power, vowing to “drain the swamp.” In the UK, Nigel Farage adopted the same anti-elite posture, pint in hand, redirecting public anger towards immigrants and EU ‘elites’.

Yet neither have set out to actually fix the system. They’re not interested in redistributing democratic power, in tackling corruption, or even in making things more “efficient.” Their populism is an empty shell, and there’s only one real goal: to game the system like it’s never been gamed before.

This week, Trump’s Republicans in the United States provided a perfect case study.

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Buying the Dip

Until recently, you wouldn’t expect stock tips from the President of the United States. In theory, political leaders don’t play the markets – they regulate them. So when the Commander-in-Chief tells his followers to "BUY!!!" in the wake of a market crash he triggered, something’s badly off. It’s not just inappropriate. It smells like insider trading.

Of course, this is no ordinary president. Despite his infamous 2016 promise to “drain the swamp,” Donald Trump spent his first term blurring every ethical line imaginable. From profiting off foreign diplomats staying at his hotels to trying to host the G7 at his own resort, he turned the presidency into a private business venture. Now, in 2025, he’s doubling down.

One of Trump’s first moves after returning to office was to scrap Biden-era ethics rules, reopening the revolving door to lobbyists and corporate donors. He handed Elon Musk an unelected “efficiency czar” role with massive financial implications and endorsed a meme coin that conveniently doubles as a vehicle for anonymous political donations.

But the latest allegations cut even deeper. After Trump’s tariff announcement tanked markets last week, reports emerged that several of his allies had made aggressive bets, in some cases on stocks they’d never bought before. When Trump announced a ninety day rollback on tariffs just days later, they found themselves significantly wealthier. It’s hard to prove they were told anything – but it certainly looks suspicious.

Immediately after the rollback, a leaked video showed Trump speaking to wealthy benefactors in the Oval Office. “He made $2.5 billion today” the President says, pointing to investor and ally Charles Schwab. His other compatriot apparently made $900 million. “That’s not bad” Trump jokes.

The irony is that Trump launched his 2024 campaign railing against insider trading in Congress, demanding an end to lawmakers “getting rich by trading on inside information.” Like so much of his populist bluster, it was never about fixing the system - it was about seizing it for himself.

The next round of Congressional disclosures will be on May 15th, when we’ll hopefully find out more details about what actually happened this week. It could well be one of the greatest insider trading events in American history.

But of course, this trend goes well beyond Trump’s star-spangled brand of right-wing populism.

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A Very British Swamp: Farage, Johnson, and the Art of Hypocrisy

If Trump’s political career is a masterclass in grift, Britain’s right-wing populists have also been perfecting the same con for years. Nigel Farage – the Brexit architect who posed as an anti-elite insurgent – once claimed he was taking on the City of London, despite the fact that he worked in the UK’s financial centre for several decades.

As the pound cratered in response to Farage’s successful Leave campaign, reports emerged of a “Brexit Big Short.” Hedge funds, some of which were associated with Farage and the broader Leave campaign, made a killing shorting the pound. Like Trump’s ‘BUY!!’ moment, this wasn’t populism – it was what appeared to be insider trading disguised as a rebellion. Bloomberg revealed that they had access to private polling data and market-sensitive information – effectively placing financial bets on the outcome before the public knew what was happening.

Even today, Farage’s ‘anti-establishment’ party Reform UK is being funded by some of the most ‘establishment’ figures and companies imaginable. Key donors include property magnates, fossil fuel interests, old Etonians, and financiers who have made millions in the City. Just recently, we found out that Farage personally received £40,000 from Nomad Capitalist, a firm that helps the super-rich avoid tax bills. Man of the people, indeed.

And who could forget the Johnson years? Another self-styled rebel who railed against elites while wining, dining, and governing like one. His premiership was marked by a steady stream of scandals that reeked of entitlement and impunity. During the pandemic, his government funnelled billions in public money to politically connected firms through a secretive “VIP lane,” bypassing normal procurement rules. Contracts were handed to donors, cronies, and companies with no relevant experience – one firm received over £250 million despite having just £600 in assets.

Meanwhile, the government defended unusable PPE deliveries and eye-watering waste as the price of wartime urgency. Add in the revolving door of lucrative appointments for allies, his taxpayer-funded legal defences, and the infamous refurbishment of his Downing Street flat (complete with dodgy donor cover-up) and a pattern emerges. Johnson didn’t just bend the rules. He wore their erosion as a badge of honour, wrapping elite impunity in the language of patriotism and crisis.

The playbook is identical: rage against the system, then exploit it even more brazenly than the elites they claimed to oppose.

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No More Con Artists: Building a System That Can’t Be Gamed

Populists like Trump and Farage didn’t invent corruption. They rebranded it. They took elite self-dealing, slapped a “man of the people” sticker on it, and sold it as a revolution. Their movements thrive on performative outrage, directing public anger at immigrants, bureaucrats, or vaguely defined “globalists,” all while quietly rigging the system in their favour.

George Carlin was right to call out the con. “It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.” His words cut through the pageantry and exposed the rot. But for all his clarity, Carlin’s message was steeped in despair. He had a sense that the game was rigged and nothing would ever change.

But people do have the power to change the system.

The answer isn’t waiting for another strongman to “drain the swamp.” It’s building systems that render the swamp non-existent. It’s refusing to be distracted by scapegoats while the real thieves sneak out the back door.

In the case of insider trading in politics, the answer is simple. Ban lawmakers from trading stocks.

It’s the same premise across the board. It should be illegal to receive unlimited gifts (bribes) from lobbyists, to take in money from dodgy companies or individuals that the public can’t see, to channel federal funds into your own companies. Anyone who understands the basic premise of democracy can see that none of this works without strict rules, transparency, and real accountability.

Carlin was right about the problem. It’s on us to fix it. The grift will go on until disgruntled voters stop rewarding it, and start demanding leadership that doesn’t just rage at the system, but actually rebuilds it.

That’s what real reform looks like. Not slogans, but systems that leave no room for foul play.