The Halfway House
Summary
Halfway House is a blunt look at the gap between punishment and freedom in the United States. It’s not a story of rehabilitation so much as a holding pen—where people who have already served their time are kept in limbo, monitored, and reminded that the system doesn’t really want them back. The essay traces how these places, meant to ease re-entry, often function as extensions of prison itself: low-wage labor pools, profit centers for private contractors, and constant surveillance zones. It asks the obvious question the system never answers—if the sentence is done, why isn’t the debt paid?
The Halfway House Presidency
Does he hold job fairs in prison? It looks that way when you line up the résumés: guilty pleas, indictments, ethics probes, resignations under scandal. Most presidents picked cabinet officials to make policy. Trump picked his to make bail.
Manafort, the campaign boss, went down for tax fraud and came back with a pardon. Flynn, the general, lied to the FBI and walked free. Stone, the trickster, was convicted of obstruction before Trump commuted and pardoned him. Bannon scammed his own donors, defied Congress, and still slipped the bars. Giuliani, once “America’s Mayor,” is now bankrupt, indicted, and halfway to disbarred. Cohen, the fixer, flipped after prison—proof even Trump’s lawyer turned state’s evidence.
This was the core team. The opening lineup looked less like a Cabinet than the roll call of a federal prison block.
The Crooks and the Wrecking Crew
What made it worse was the precision. Every crook came with a toolkit for demolition.
Pruitt, the EPA’s arsonist, spent his tenure torching environmental protections until scandal forced him out. DeVos ran Education like a wrecking crew, turning schools into vouchers and debt traps. Barr, a lifetime company man, bent the Department of Justice into Trump’s personal defense team.
Sessions lied under oath about Russia. Ross padded his fortune with insider trading whispers. Zinke turned Interior into a cash register until ethics caught up. Price took private jets on the public dime. Acosta cut Epstein a sweetheart deal, then resigned. Chao used Transportation to grease her family’s shipping business. Carson bought golden furniture while tenants went hungry.
These weren’t bureaucrats who blundered. They were saboteurs installed on purpose.
Nixon vs. Trump
Nixon’s rogues were amateurs: a burglary, a cover-up, some tapes. Trump industrialized corruption.
Kellyanne Conway racked up Hatch Act violations like frequent flyer miles. Stephen Miller was the cold hand behind family separations. Hope Hicks lied to Congress and walked away uncharged. Navarro, the crank economist, defied a subpoena, was convicted, and sentenced. Eastman, the law professor, drafted memos to kill the republic and now faces indictment. Jeffrey Clark tried to hijack the DOJ for Trump’s coup and is headed for disbarment.
Nixon wanted to win an election. Trump wanted to own the country.
January 6th: The Crooked in Command
January 6 wasn’t chaos. It was the climax of a presidency built on lawlessness. Giuliani, Navarro, Eastman, Bannon—generals in suits directing foot soldiers with sledgehammers. Behind them stood the Proud Boys’ Enrique Tarrio, the Oath Keepers’ Stewart Rhodes, and hundreds of rioters now in prison orange. It wasn’t improvised. It was executed.
Pardons as Payroll
When prosecutors closed in, Trump didn’t betray his crew—he paid them off with pardons. Manafort. Stone. Flynn. Arpaio, the racist sheriff. D’Souza, the propagandist. Broidy, the bagman. Blagojevich, the Illinois governor. Each signature on the pardon roster was a payoff. No president ever wielded clemency with more shameless precision.
The Family Business
The corruption wasn’t just in the Cabinet—it was in the bloodline.
Don Jr. lied to Congress about Russia. Eric signed fraudulent financials at Trump Org. Ivanka collected Chinese trademarks while “serving.” Jared Kushner lied on security clearance forms, then pocketed Saudi billions. Charles Kushner—Jared’s father—did prison time for tax evasion and blackmail, then walked free with a Trump pardon.
Even the CFO, Allen Weisselberg, took two fraud convictions on Trump’s behalf. Parnas and Fruman, Giuliani’s bagmen, were nailed for campaign finance crimes. Felix Sater lived between mob fraud and FBI informant work.
It wasn’t a family business. It was a syndicate.
Closing
So, is he running out of criminals to hire? Not yet. The pipeline’s endless—washed-up generals, third-rate lawyers, white-collar crooks eager for relevance. The United States has no shortage of men willing to trade honor for Trump’s approval.
The only open question: will the supply of felons run dry before the republic does?
